Tarragona (Tarraco) Daytrip

Well I got the pictures from Tarragona up quickly, but my week has been crazy! Anyway Michael and I were both supposed to go on a field study with IES the Friday that we were both going to London. Our calendar showed that we had that Friday off (which we did), so our teacher decided to schedule our field study on that day. Urgh. He was very understanding though and set us up with maps and what to see while there (he lives in Tarragona and he is from Belguium).

Referred to as "la ciudad en tus manos" which means "the city in your hands," Tarraco is a city that was originally built centuries ago by the ancient Romans. It therefore features some interesting Roman architecture including the Anfiteatre (amphitheatre), the Forum Roma (a local market), and of course the Catedral and a Roman wall.

The trip out was interesting since we were on the noon train from Sans Estació which is the main RENFE (Spanish Rail) station. Apparently they just sell tickets in a manner similar to riding the metro, so you simply purchase a ticket and hop on any train to that destination any time that day. We ended up being packed into our train just like the metro, so we stood for an hour and 15 minutes. Then we arrived and rushed around to all the main attractions starting in the old town.

We had a pit stop for lunch and visited a local bar that featured a frankfurt and a beer for 2 euros. This, of course, was an offer that we couldn't pass up. The frankfurts are pretty good actually and are generally served on a baguette style bread. Since it was a pretty nice day and the city is located on the Mediterranean coast we made sure to go to the beach before we left. It was on the way to the train station anyway which was nice. We found out the hard way that there are not many places to cross the train tracks which are conveniently located between the main road and the beach. It does make for a beautiful train ride along the coast though.

Around 6 we headed back to the Tarragona train station, only to wait 40 minutes for the next train which of course was late. Though it was well worth the wait, and we rode back on a much nicer and longer train. I may have rested my eyes on the way back.