Tarragona
Once we found a dog-sitter to stay with Lusi, we took our first weekend trip out of Barcelona. We chose Tarragona, an hour south on the Mediterranean. It is a city of about 200,000, with walls, amphitheater and forum dating from its time as a Roman capital in Iberia. It's delightful, and though at least one person told us we could see the city in a day trip, we didn't regret spending the weekend. We stayed in a beautiful historic apartment across the street from the cathedral, with high ceilings with hand-painted decoration, old-fashioned furniture, and a harp.
The cathedral is an eclectic mix of Gothic and Romanesque elements with a very idiosyncratic facade.
On Sunday there was a flea market outside the cathedral. One vendor had some amazing copper pots - if they worked with our induction cooktop, I am sure Ed would have bought some and lugged them back to Barcelona!
I especially loved the dome of the barrel-vaulted Capilla del SantÃsimo Sacramento.
Mad was very taken with the many cats we encountered. We have seen very few in Barcelona, maybe because there are so many dogs, and we debated whether there was a relationship between cats and Roman ruins.
The amphitheater is right on the sea.
The Roman walls are well-preserved and impressively scaled, with massive stone megaliths forming their base.
The forum was very small but interesting in how it is closely surrounded by the apartment buildings of today; in Rome the forum is at some remove from the modern fabric of the city.
We ate an excellent meal at the Raco' de l'Abat, where highlights included smoked codfish with tomato jam, and turbot.
