Tarragona
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| View of the Mediterranean Sea from the old City Center |
I learned that Catalunya region is composed of 4 areas and one of them is Barcelona.
The other ones are Tarragona, Lleida and Girona.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarraco
Cristina and I decided to take a weekend trip to Tarragon, which is 1 hour by train, without realizing it's a festival weekend in Tarragon.
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| Another fun trip with Cristina |
As a result of the festival, the rowing competition and the football competition this weekend, the city is crowded and lively. And all the museums are open and admissions are free! Shops and restaurants are lively and there's free Roman reenactment shows that's surprisingly amusing =)
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| The Roman Festival |
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| Simulating how Roman ladies cook =) |
The Ruta de Cava
On our way to Tarragona, we decide to take a side trip to a winery that's part of the Ruta de Cava.
http://www.catalunya.com/ruta-del-cava-24-1-116
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| The amazing views from the Wineries in the Ruta de Cava |
It's a region along the way to Tarragona specializing in Cava (Spanish champagne) and wine.
The views are amazing and reminds me of the valley. What's also interesting is one of the winery has someone whose sister is making wine in Guadalupe valley. We are definitely hunting that winery down.
I also want to go back to this area for a weekend and explore the wine and food in this region
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| Carquinyolis, a local snack made of almond and sugar, together with the tasting |
Tarragona City
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| Map of tarraco in the Roman times |
We continued our way to Tarragona and I'm surprised by the amount of Roman ruins in this area.
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| Roman ruins |
The Roman Emperor Augustus was sick and moved the capital to this area for a few years and an entire Roman city was developed.
The Amphitheater with unbeatable Mediterranean Seaview
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| The Amphitheater |
The Tower and circuit basement
The circuit and Tower basement are full of labyrinths of corridors for the horses and humans.
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| The Tower Ruins |
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| The Labyrinth of corridors |
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| The famous statue of wolf feeding children |
The Fortress in old Town area
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| The Fortress of the old town |
The Archeological Museum
This is a small but impressive museum that contains a lot of old relics and mosaics from the Roman times.
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| The room of Mosaics |
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| The 3 mosaics are 3 gods of music, theater and something else.. |
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| Cool mosaic floors |
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| More mosaic floors |
The modern museum exhibits
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| Not quite sure what this is |
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| Miro art, a girl touching the moon and birds with one hand each |
The Forum
I believe this is where the people lived and the city hall used to be
(but i'm reading Spanish.. aka i have no idea)
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| The Forum, with impressive columns |
Roaming the old town streets
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| City hall square |
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| The old town streets |
The Cathedral
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| The Cathedral front view |
Of course, then there's the food!
Vermouth is big in Tarragona and they do a Vermouth pack of white or red vermouth, with chips and olives for $3.50 a person.
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| The Vermouth pack |
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| The shopkeeper with his barrels of vermouth and kindness to let me do a tasting. Unfortunately we can't buy as it's too heavy to carry during sightseeing |
Great dinner at the port, with deep fried Andalucia shrimps, Sangria with Cava, great octopus and a local salad with pickled cod fish
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| Yummy seafood dinner |
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| Italian pizza lunch with Tinto Verano |
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| Breakfast at CostarRica |
