After a wonderful two days in Valencia, it was time to grab a train to our next stop, Tarragona. Our Talgo train pulled out of the old world Estacio del Nord, heading north along the coastline. My hubby grumbled that each successive train we were taking were getting more and more dilapidated but I told him he was just spoiled riding the new AVE trains first. The Talgo wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t as plush. No matter. They did play one of the weirder movies I could think of, an American movie about a soldier coming home and being part of the Super Bowl with flashbacks to a war. It was all dubbed in Spanish (and the audio quality was horrible) so I still have no idea what the heck was happening. Any movie that has Vin Diesel, Kristin Stewart, and Steve Martin in it would be bound to confuse the hell out of me as it is.
It took a few hours until we pulled into the station for Tarragona. The station is under a lot of construction and we had to wind our way to the exit between a ton of barriers and the noise of jackhammers. Exiting the station, I tried to explain to my husband the directions to our next lodging; but the construction outside of the station somehow got us turned around and he decided that we needed to take a switchback road and a flight of never-ending stairs. As a result, we ended up missing the road that we were looking for. Let me just say that we definitely walked at least 3-4 miles out of our way, dragging our suitcases behind us. I finally broke down and asked a random guy on the street for directions. He looked appropriately sad when he explained (in English) that we basically needed to go back where we started from. I decided then and there not to have my husband “help” with directions anymore.
At long, sweaty, last we walked into the hotel where we were staying for the next two nights. Tarragona in the off-season didn’t really have a lot of options in terms of lodging, which is why I selected the hotel I did. Also, during the course of my planning, the hubby mentioned that he really, really wanted to stay in a place with a view of the sea. I did my best and got us a room with a terrace that had a view of the sea that was partially blocked by the surrounding apartment buildings. Unfortunately, someone in those buildings had the yappiest dog that barked for a good 30 minutes every morning at 7am. I’m telling you all of this because I’m not sure if my crabbiness about Tarragona was a result of being woken up every morning well before I was ready to be coherent. Plus, I had the usual issues with AC not being cold enough. I shouldn’t be old enough to have hot flashes but I was waking up sweaty and sticking to the sheets the nights we were there.
Anyway, we grabbed showers as soon as we checked in and then headed immediately back out to explore. The old town section was up a pretty substantial hill so I’m not exactly sure why I took that shower since I was sweaty all over again. The old town was fairly quiet, but we did find a tiny wine bar that was just reopening after siesta. The bartender recommended a rosado that was crisp and delicious. After a round or two, we headed back out to wander some more before we did the “what do you want to eat” game where my husband asks me that question every 30 seconds because he really can’t believe that my answer is “I don’t care, you decide”. I told him at the beginning of the trip that since I had to decide on the itinerary and book the lodging without any input from him, he was 100% responsible for making decisions that regarded meals. I guess he didn’t believe me at first.
We did end up having a delightful dinner at an outdoor cafe that had the best bravas sauce we had on the entire trip. The server looked at us like we were slightly crazy when we asked for a side of it to dip our chicken and calamari in. The calamari was divine and I don’t even like calamari… After dinner, we wandered some more and ended up leaving old town to walk down a main street filled with bars where the locals were hanging out.
The next morning, we were woken by our yappy alarm clock and decided to get moving. The main reason why I wanted to even go to Tarragona was the Roman amphitheater. Built in the second century, it is right next to the sea. The hubby made fun of me for getting so excited about “ruined stuff” but he spent just as much time as I did wandering the site. It was hard to get a photo that really conveyed the size and the location right against the sea that day because the cloud cover made the sea the same grey as the sky. But it was amazing to stand in the center of the arena where gladiators once stood.
Sufficiently full of history, we walked down the beach towards the marina where massive yachts were docked. Hubby actually thought they were small cruise ships until I pointed out that one was flying the Saudi flag and as far as I knew, Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a cruise line. I cannot even fathom having enough money to own a boat like that, let alone maintain it and pay the marina fees. We found ourselves at a location that had a bunch of restaurants in a row that looked like they catered to the people coming off of the cruise ships or the yachts. We grabbed lunch and despite my concerns that it was going to be tourist trap grossness, it was actually really tasty. The patatas bravas were crisp on the outside and fluffy inside. The sauce was decent too. The hubs got some seafood dish that is now one of his favorite things he’s ever eaten.
The rain that was threatening finally decided to fall but we walked in the rain around the residential section of town on the way back to the hotel. Because we were so full from lunch, we ended up just getting drinks in the bar that evening.
The next day, we stored our bags with the hotel while we ventured out to find lunch. Our train wasn’t until 4pm. We wandered to the older Rambla (not to be confused with the nueva Rambla) and found a little restaurant where we could sit outside under an umbrella. I have to say that all of the food we ate while in Tarragona was really good. After lunch, we walked back to grab our bags and made the trek back to the train station. Going to the station was a much shorter walk, as per usual on this trip. At the station, there was free wifi and my hubby played on his phone while I just sat there staring into space.
While I didn’t love Tarragona the way that I did the other places we visited, I am really glad to have gone. And the food there was some of the best we had outside of Barcelona. So along with the ruin and the old town, it definitely had some bright spots. I think had we had a cute little apartment by the sea, it would have made a world of difference…