Tarragona & El Catllar

Mon 16^th

As the sun rose the wind subsided a little, it had been gently rocking the van all night according to Tina. I had slept through most of it!  We had one last walk to look at the flamingos bobbing about on the water.

Ebre delta wetland

We decided to drive up the Ebre river valley and back over the Serra to the coast. What a gem of a place. Lovely mountains both sides with pretty little farming villages dotted along the river. The road back down towards Cambrils on the coast was worthy of any Alpine road. As all the campsites were closed we drove down to Playa Pixorota and found a little carpark right on the beach. A German van was already parked up so we joined them for a very peaceful night with no howling wind (only the waves pounding in) to keep Tina awake.

free parking spot

Tues 17^th

Do we, don’t we?  Stay in Spain was the question as we were both developing a yearning to go skiing! We have planned to arrive back in the French Alps just as the school holidays finish to avoid the crowds. We decided to have one last day in Spain and visit Tarragona to see the Roman Amphitheatre. I found an aire inland at El Catllar 10km from Tarragona. What a find, a lovely castle, ancient streets and a newly built service point at the autocaravannas area by the river opposite a huge recreation area. Later when we had returned on scoot the municipal Policeman stopped to give us some leaflets on the town and surrounding area. He was most welcoming and really pleased we had decided to stopover. How friendly was that!

El Catllar parking

We scooted into Tarragona down some lovely roads then along the coast road and parked up literally right outside the amphitheatre.  It was drizzling but soon stopped.

The Amphitheatre is huge and has modern buildings and a road right alongside it. The main coastal railway also runs right between it and the sea – makes you wonder when they finally decided to really preserve it.  The sheer size is very impressive, much of the seating has been reconstructed along with one of the main entrance arches.  The maze of tunnels and chambers that existed beneath the main arena are testament to Roman ingenuity. I couldn’t but help thinking of some of the scenes in the Movie Gladiator!

surrounded by modern development

When we walked around the arena the scale of the place was evident. The Romanesque Church that was built inside it in 950 BC still has many details visible, but much of the stone is very eroded.

reconstructed seating

church in  middle

museum

Back at the van we loaded scoot into the van then went for pre tea walk around El Catllar. The castle is very imposing above the town and has a moat hewn out of the bedrock all around it. The entrance bridge would have originally been a drawbridge in 1060ish. We saw several houses that had been built in 1605, the streets were very narrow with lots of old features remaining.

castle entrance

We then walked up to what turned out to be an old textile factory, the chimney had ben rebuilt but the rest is definitely crumbling. Behind it is the old railway bridge no longer used as the new high speed line bridge has been built parallel to it.  What a nice little town to explore.

old rail bridge

derelict textile mill