Tarragona, Spain
Bright brilliant blue sky this morning, warm sunshine, Jan and I up and out early to explore.
The city is built on a hill, a high bluff above the coastline. Our hotel is on the edge of the bluff, but the city goes higher up as it moves back from the water. That's where the old city is, the interesting stuff, so that's where we went to start the day, up and back.
This city is very old, the Romans were here in the days BC and stayed here for a long time. In a sense, since they left their church here in the form of the Roman Catholic religion, they never left. One of the two 'must see' landmarks here is in fact a very old cathedral which was started in the 10th century (900's some time) and has as part of its base a part of an old Roman forum that dates back to the 0'th century. In other words, building started sometime between the year 20 and the year 60. That's old, seriously old, almost as old as dirt.
We went and toured, of course. This cathedral is a working church but it is also a museum of religious artifacts. A lot of the pieces are very old, 12th through 16th century, some later, and many are worked with gold and silver and ivory, with paintings and sculptures by recognized masters. The church, leaving little to chance, has walled these treasures off behind iron bars and gates that do absolutely nothing to enhance the beauty of the treasures. But it does keep them safe.
Stained-glass windows abound, and the sun was shining, so some very interesting arrays of color were present in the cathedral on the floor and the pilars and on the woodwork, and I tried to catch some on the film. There was also a spectacular garden in the inner courtyard of the church, with a fountain and orange trees, roses and other greenery. Very lovely and meditative, and typical of Spanish architecture and what we saw of Moorish architecture at Alhambra. A forbidding outer facade with high walls and no windows, then inside a very open plan and almost always an inner courtyard with greenery and flowers and fruit trees. Lovely. Several times in the cities we have seen doors open to the very narrow winding streets, ratty looking doors in ratty looking buildings, row-houses in a string, joined together, and through the open door the interior is vastly different. The inner courtyards tiled in lovely colors, terracotta or slate tiles on the floor, nice furniture, and this lovely green sun-splashed courtyard inside. A nice way to live.
Later, a couple of different wine bars, one Euro per glass, then a late afternoon snack at McDonalds, a burger, fries, and a coffee (Americano, with milk, delightful), then home to our Casino-Hotel, very grand. Writing this now, later maybe out for an evening walk.
Tomorrow, up the road some more. Nothing set in mind for tomorrow night, but we hope to reach Avignon the following night. Then we may go to ground for a while.
