Day 4: Tarragona

The breakfast in our Tarragona hotel had cost nearly €6, so we were interested to see when we got up this morning whether it would be more substantial than the croissant we had been treated to in Valencia. The good news is that it turned out to be a proper hotel buffet breakfast with cheese, ham and pastries, so much more filling!

I'd slept in slightly later than intended so it was nearly 10am before we left the hotel to start exploring the old town of Tarragona. Our first stop was the old city walls.

These were first built during Roman times, when Tarragona was a fortified city known as Tarraco. They were then expanded during medieval times and in the eighteenth century during the war of Spanish Succession.

There's a nice path which goes around the remaining parts of the walls and is dotted with Roman remains and rather scary-looking cannon.

There were also some statutes, including this frightening one of Romulus and Remus.

In some places we just about had a view out to sea...

...and in other places there were beautiful flowers.

It cost us €7.40 each for a ticket that would allow us to walk around the walls, as well as visiting three additional Roman attractions in Tarragona.

Once we had finished walking on the walls, we made our way into the centre of the old town where we found Tarragona's cathedral.

It was not quite as big a building as Valencia, but still very beautiful.

Not far from the cathedral was the Pretorium, a large Roman tower which in more recent times has been used as a prison.

This was the second attraction which our Tarragona ticket allowed us to visit, so we decided to give it a go. There were quite a few steps to climb...

...but once we got to the top we were rewarded with some amazing views.

We could see back towards the old town and the cathedral...

...and also down towards the Roman amphitheatre.

That was our third destination. We climbed back down the tower and walked through some rather dark vaults...

...before getting back out into the fresh air.

We didn't have far to walk to reach the amphitheatre.

It wasn't quite as grand as the one we visited in Pula last year, but it couldn't have had a more beautiful setting, right next to the sea.

The sun was baking by this point so we decided to find some shade for lunch. I had a lasagne and Tim had a beef stew for around €7 each, which seemed like great value. Then we went back to the hotel for a while to cool down and enjoy the air-conditioning!

Later in the afternoon we ventured outside once again to visit destination number four, the Roman forum. We had caught a glimpse of this from outside yesterday.

It was unusual seeing the remains in the middle of a street, with blocks of normal housing on either side.

Overall we've had a fascinating day in Tarragona and it was definitely worth buying the ticket to see all the different attractions. Although there are other tourists here, nowhere has been particularly busy; there were only two other people walking around the forum this afternoon, for example. It definitely is possible to visit Spain and avoid the hordes