After a very pleasant weekend in Barcelona, it was time to hit the road again. The first day took us south, the first stop being Sitges. Sitges is a prestigious coastal resort, also known as the St. Tropez of Spain (looking at the house prices in the estate agents, I can see why…). Sitges is also known for being a very liberal town – hence it’s popular with foreigners (apparently ca. 35% of the population are foreigners) and also the gay population. We spent a pleasant hour or so walking around Sitges (the last time I went, a few years back, the weather lent itself better to staying at the beach so didn’t see much of the town) amongst its pretty, white-coloured houses and cobblestone streets.
After this brief visit, we headed off for the main destination for today – Tarragona. Tarragona, then called Tarraco, was once upon a time actually the capital of the Roman province that roughly corresponds to modern Spain. So the main reason to visit are the roman remains. Unfortunately, turns out all the Roman sites were closed on Monday… So a bit of re-planning was required. No worries, we kept ourselves busy by visiting the impressive cathedral in the old town, and then by visiting Reus. Reus was a pleasant enough town, blessed with its fair share of Modernista architecture. And not by coincidence either – Reus is where that Spanish master, Gaudi, was born. We spent a bit more time than planned in Reus, since we had some problems finding the tourist centre. Rather than doing the obvious – ask somebody – we punched in information centre into our TomTom and blindly followed it. Having spent more than half an hour walking through the rough streets of the Reus 'burbs (we were even assailed by a few drops of rain...) we finally found the "information centre", which actually turned out to be the chamber of commerce… Oh well, a bit of walking (like, half an hour one way) never did any harm to anybody, right? ;-) Naturally the tourist centre turned out to be about 100 meters from where we had parked our car! Undeterred by this setback, we bravely took on the Modernista architecture trail, and we headed back to Tarragona, where we had a nice dinner in the old town (yes, that’s right, tapas again).
We got up bright ‘n early in the morning, and due to our tight schedule decided to only visit one of the Roman sites, the amphitheatre. It was one of the more well preserved ones I’ve seen, a pity it was only partly open to the public.
After this we set off once more, towards Zaragoza. We stopped on the way to visit Monestir de Poblet, an impressive Cistercian monastery, in a very nice landscape of woods and hills. The monastery houses the largest Cistercian (after all the monasteries I've been to I still haven't got a clue what the difference between Cistercian, Fransiscan, Dominican, Benedictian etc. is...) churches in Spain, and it was impressive indeed. After the interesting guided tour (in French ;-), we headed out to the surrounding countryside for a short walk.
We then drove on towards Zaragoza, through the wild and empty landscapes of Aragon. We arrived late afternoon, greeted by the impressive sight of a Basilica by the Ebro River. Having found accommodation for the night (24 euros for a double room in the old town – not bad), we headed off to try to find a local self-service laundry service. Which was pretty much a repeat of our Reus experience (the lady at the hotel gave us some simple enough instructions - but it took us about half an hour to find the place, only to realise that: a) it was 50 meters from the hotel and b) it wasn't actually a self-service laundry). After this slight misadventure, we explored the old town a bit. It was pleasant enough, if perhaps slightly less picturesque than the one in Tarragona. The basilica we had seen on our way in was as impressive on the inside as on the outside (which houses a famous fresco by Goya – who spent a lot of his life here). After another pleasant dinner, we went to bed (exhausting, these road trips…).
Before heading off the next day, we visited the two main sites. The first one was the Aljaferia, apparently the most impressive Muslim structure outside Andalucia. It was originally a pleasure dome for the local Muslim rulers, but was later changed during Christian times to its current appearance. I really enjoyed the visit, especially the central courtyard of the palace, which really reminds me of the some of the architecture found in Alhambra, in Grenada. Truly sublime. We then visited the main cathedral of Zaragoza, known as La Seo. The interior was very impressive indeed – one could nearly say over-the-top. A bit baroque for my taste, but rarely have I seen a church quite as magnificent as this (well, maybe St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Marc’s in Venice are even more impressive).
From Zaragoza, we headed on towards our next destination – Toledo. The road took us through the desolate yet beautiful landscapes of Aragon, through to La Mancha (the lands of Don Quijote), which is very flat indeed. Eventually we arrived in Toledo late afternoon. We again stupidly and blindly followed TomTom – this time into the town centre. Anybody who’s walked the narrow, twisted streets of Toledo can appreciate why it’s stupid… Having navigated the ridiculously narrow lanes without even scratching the car (or running over any fellow tourists), we eventually found a car park.
Having found a nice, small family-run hotel right in the centre, we set off to explore Toledo. Toledo is one of the most historic towns in Spain – in fact it was set to become the capital of a united Spain after the reconquista – until the king decided to set the capital in Madrid instead (which was at the time an insignificant provincial town). Toledo’s glorious past can certainly still be seen and experienced; Toledo must be one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe. And one of the most touristy - considering the amount of people we faced during our visit (which was off-season, in the middle of the week, and with rainy weather) I can only imagine what it is like in the summer. Fortunately Toledo is one of those places where the historic centre is so big, that you can always find quiet backstreets to explore in relative peace and quiet. We started our visit by checking out the cathedral – and magnificent it was indeed. Perhaps slightly less impressive than the one in Zaragoza, or maybe just not as recently restored. After yet more walking (interrupted by a Chocolate con Churros - a very Spanish snack) about the twisted cobble-stone streets, we finished off the day with a very nice dinner in a dungeon-like restaurant… (where I had partridge - a Toledo speciality)
The next day we continued exploring Toledo. Our first stop was one of the (many!) local monasteries, where some works of El Greco were on display (he mainly worked in Toledo). Our appreciation of the fine works (which actually turned out to be mostly copies!) was somewhat disrupted by the fearsome nun/guardian (with her around they won’t need any CCTV or alarms in this place!). We finished off by visiting yet another monastery – San Juan de los Reyes. By now audio guide fatigue was starting to set in… (what’s worse, I reckon the same guy does all the English-language audio guides in Spain!).
We figured we’d seen enough churches for one day, and since the other main sight in Toledo was shut (the Alcazar), so we decided to head on towards Madrid. We did make a stop at Aranjuez, to visit the Palacio Real – a royal palace where the kings & queens of Spain used to spend a month or two during the spring. Argh, yet one more audio guide, although admittedly this one was slightly more interesting than some of the other ones we’d suffered through…
More photos here.
After this brief visit, we headed off for the main destination for today – Tarragona. Tarragona, then called Tarraco, was once upon a time actually the capital of the Roman province that roughly corresponds to modern Spain. So the main reason to visit are the roman remains. Unfortunately, turns out all the Roman sites were closed on Monday… So a bit of re-planning was required. No worries, we kept ourselves busy by visiting the impressive cathedral in the old town, and then by visiting Reus. Reus was a pleasant enough town, blessed with its fair share of Modernista architecture. And not by coincidence either – Reus is where that Spanish master, Gaudi, was born. We spent a bit more time than planned in Reus, since we had some problems finding the tourist centre. Rather than doing the obvious – ask somebody – we punched in information centre into our TomTom and blindly followed it. Having spent more than half an hour walking through the rough streets of the Reus 'burbs (we were even assailed by a few drops of rain...) we finally found the "information centre", which actually turned out to be the chamber of commerce… Oh well, a bit of walking (like, half an hour one way) never did any harm to anybody, right? ;-) Naturally the tourist centre turned out to be about 100 meters from where we had parked our car! Undeterred by this setback, we bravely took on the Modernista architecture trail, and we headed back to Tarragona, where we had a nice dinner in the old town (yes, that’s right, tapas again).We got up bright ‘n early in the morning, and due to our tight schedule decided to only visit one of the Roman sites, the amphitheatre. It was one of the more well preserved ones I’ve seen, a pity it was only partly open to the public.
After this we set off once more, towards Zaragoza. We stopped on the way to visit Monestir de Poblet, an impressive Cistercian monastery, in a very nice landscape of woods and hills. The monastery houses the largest Cistercian (after all the monasteries I've been to I still haven't got a clue what the difference between Cistercian, Fransiscan, Dominican, Benedictian etc. is...) churches in Spain, and it was impressive indeed. After the interesting guided tour (in French ;-), we headed out to the surrounding countryside for a short walk.We then drove on towards Zaragoza, through the wild and empty landscapes of Aragon. We arrived late afternoon, greeted by the impressive sight of a Basilica by the Ebro River. Having found accommodation for the night (24 euros for a double room in the old town – not bad), we headed off to try to find a local self-service laundry service. Which was pretty much a repeat of our Reus experience (the lady at the hotel gave us some simple enough instructions - but it took us about half an hour to find the place, only to realise that: a) it was 50 meters from the hotel and b) it wasn't actually a self-service laundry). After this slight misadventure, we explored the old town a bit. It was pleasant enough, if perhaps slightly less picturesque than the one in Tarragona. The basilica we had seen on our way in was as impressive on the inside as on the outside (which houses a famous fresco by Goya – who spent a lot of his life here). After another pleasant dinner, we went to bed (exhausting, these road trips…).
Before heading off the next day, we visited the two main sites. The first one was the Aljaferia, apparently the most impressive Muslim structure outside Andalucia. It was originally a pleasure dome for the local Muslim rulers, but was later changed during Christian times to its current appearance. I really enjoyed the visit, especially the central courtyard of the palace, which really reminds me of the some of the architecture found in Alhambra, in Grenada. Truly sublime. We then visited the main cathedral of Zaragoza, known as La Seo. The interior was very impressive indeed – one could nearly say over-the-top. A bit baroque for my taste, but rarely have I seen a church quite as magnificent as this (well, maybe St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Marc’s in Venice are even more impressive).From Zaragoza, we headed on towards our next destination – Toledo. The road took us through the desolate yet beautiful landscapes of Aragon, through to La Mancha (the lands of Don Quijote), which is very flat indeed. Eventually we arrived in Toledo late afternoon. We again stupidly and blindly followed TomTom – this time into the town centre. Anybody who’s walked the narrow, twisted streets of Toledo can appreciate why it’s stupid… Having navigated the ridiculously narrow lanes without even scratching the car (or running over any fellow tourists), we eventually found a car park.
Having found a nice, small family-run hotel right in the centre, we set off to explore Toledo. Toledo is one of the most historic towns in Spain – in fact it was set to become the capital of a united Spain after the reconquista – until the king decided to set the capital in Madrid instead (which was at the time an insignificant provincial town). Toledo’s glorious past can certainly still be seen and experienced; Toledo must be one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe. And one of the most touristy - considering the amount of people we faced during our visit (which was off-season, in the middle of the week, and with rainy weather) I can only imagine what it is like in the summer. Fortunately Toledo is one of those places where the historic centre is so big, that you can always find quiet backstreets to explore in relative peace and quiet. We started our visit by checking out the cathedral – and magnificent it was indeed. Perhaps slightly less impressive than the one in Zaragoza, or maybe just not as recently restored. After yet more walking (interrupted by a Chocolate con Churros - a very Spanish snack) about the twisted cobble-stone streets, we finished off the day with a very nice dinner in a dungeon-like restaurant… (where I had partridge - a Toledo speciality)The next day we continued exploring Toledo. Our first stop was one of the (many!) local monasteries, where some works of El Greco were on display (he mainly worked in Toledo). Our appreciation of the fine works (which actually turned out to be mostly copies!) was somewhat disrupted by the fearsome nun/guardian (with her around they won’t need any CCTV or alarms in this place!). We finished off by visiting yet another monastery – San Juan de los Reyes. By now audio guide fatigue was starting to set in… (what’s worse, I reckon the same guy does all the English-language audio guides in Spain!).
We figured we’d seen enough churches for one day, and since the other main sight in Toledo was shut (the Alcazar), so we decided to head on towards Madrid. We did make a stop at Aranjuez, to visit the Palacio Real – a royal palace where the kings & queens of Spain used to spend a month or two during the spring. Argh, yet one more audio guide, although admittedly this one was slightly more interesting than some of the other ones we’d suffered through…More photos here.
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