Tarragona - 20 September 2011 (1)

Tarragona Amphitheatre

Tarragona station was very modern and clean but the ladies was shut.  We walked outside and headed to the right.  The grey haired man reappeared and asked where we were going.  He gave us instructions and showed us a map to explain them.  Tarragona is up a hill and so our walk began with climbing several fights of steps and then going up a steep slope and then yet another flight of steps.  There was a lot of rubbish everywhere and I had to watch where I was treading.  Not nice!  At the top of the steps was the main street – La Rambla Nova – and soon after we found the Hotel Husa Imperial, where we had arranged to meet my mum’s friends Ann and James.

My mum met Ann back in the 1970s at Italian evening classes and they have remained good friends ever since.  Unfortunately, they were reduced to the occasional phone call and email after Ann emigrated to Spain and this was why I had picked Barcelona as a destination for my mum’s birthday present.  Tarragona was agreed as a good place to meet because it was roughly halfway between Barcelona and where Ann and James lived and because of the Roman ruins there.

Tarragona Amphitheatre

We arrived early so went for a coffee.  We were not at all impressed with the service.  The young waiter just kept folding napkins and generally pottered about while his boss served some other people.  After we had waited for ages, his boss finally told him to serve us.  Even then, it was a while before we got our drinks.

Ann said she would be there at 10.30 but it was 10.50 before they arrived.  We thought that they would have come by car, but they had come by train too and then got a taxi up the hill because James couldn't climb.  This meant that we were unable to visit the Roman aqueduct, which is 4 miles out of town, but we were very near to the amphitheatre.

Tarragona Amphitheatre

So, after another coffee, we all walked down to the amphitheatre, which was just below the path we had walked along.  We didn’t go into the site, but could see most of it from the gardens above.  It gave a nice view of the sea, but wasn’t nearly as impressive as El Djem in Tunisia.  Ann said that there used to be lots of columns but they had all disappeared.  So, after looking at as much as possible, we made our way back to the old town.  We walked through the gardens and found a lift in the corner.  A sign said that it was only for disabled and elderly people, but two young girls got in with us, so this was obviously ignored.  At the top, we found ourselves right back at the hotel and proceeded into the Old Town, which was even higher up.