April 17.
When arranging our accommodations for this trip we asked Byway to have breakfasts included. While there have been variations of course (the Paris hotel was by far and away the best spread), most venues have generally offered the same rather generous layout of sweet and savory food.
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| pastries |
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| fresh fruit |
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| meats and cheeses |
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| hot dishes |
So, after a leisurely morning (and some 12 hours in bed for me), we headed out for the Yellow Train stop. Located almost outside our hotel entrance, the Yellow Train provides visitors an opportunity to get a fuller sense of the city than one might otherwise see by walking.
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| the train is actually blue and white |
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| our driver waiting to check tickets |
It also provides a hop-on-hop-off option, which we opted for. The train itself is a bit of an archaic piece of equipment that has seen better days (maybe) and it was unclear where one could actually hop-off or hop-on. We were also warned that later in the day if the train didn't have a minimum number it might not run until the end of the day's run, which meant one would be stranded for a couple of hours or longer at one of the stops.
Anyway, it did give us a fairly good sense of the city, notwithstanding the audio guide was in Spanish only. We did not hop off but instead rode it until it returned to the starting point. However, since we paid for the whole day we planned to take the train again later for another riding adventure.
After grabbing a light lunch of leftover club sandwiches we took a short siesta (it is Spain after all).
From the hotel we walked along the Palm Tree Promenade facing the sea a short ways to the Rambla Nova, the major central street of the city. The idea was to make our way to the central market, one destination that had been on our list.
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| main entrance to the mercato |
A veritable feast for foodies' eyes!
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| sculpture Tarragona als Castellers in honor of the human towers tradition in the city |
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| memorial to the heroes of 1811 |
From the market we returned to the hotel and then back out to grab our second train ride of the day.
The tail end of the ride took us through the old town which happened to be right across the street from our hotel. We headed there on foot once off the train. Passing the Roman ruins we wended our way through the narrow streets, reminding us of so many Italian hill towns we had visited in years past.
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| steps to the city cathedral |
Returning to the Rambla Nova we stopped at an outdoor cafe offering two red vermouths for €6! We couldn't pass that up. . . On our way to the cafe we passed Saona, a restaurant that looked promising for dinner. I went online later and made our reservation.
We arrived at 8:00 pm and enjoyed a lovely meal. Since it was a three-course plan, Susie started with a tomato and toasted bread and I ordered four-cheese croquettes (croquettes seem incredibly popular in this part of Spain). My main was chicken with basmati rice and Susie's a Ligurian pasta with avocado, chicken, burrata. We enjoyed slices of delicious chocolate (me) and lime (Susie) tarts, both with a graham-cracker like crust.
After dinner we headed into the dark and the cool night air coming in off the sea as we haded in the direction of the Mediterranean. A quick 5-minute walk and we were back in our hotel for the night.
Next: A final day in Tarragona.
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