Tag: Spain

Parador de Aiguablava, Spain to Lyon, France

Today was a travel day. This morning we left the Parador of Aiguablava at 7 A.M. for the one hour drive to Girona, where we returned our rental car and caught a 9:00 high speed train to Lyon, France.

Our room at the Parador included breakfast, but the breakfast buffet didn’t open until 8:00. So yesterday I ask if they would give us some breakfast to take with us. They said yes, they would give us a picnic.

These are the picnic bags they gave us – water, juice, ham sandwich, cheese sandwich, cake, muffin, tangerine, grapes. Wow!

There was very little traffic and we had no problem returning the car and catching the train.

On the train to Lyon

The high speed train ride was 4 hours and 20 minutes. In Lyon we walked the mile or so to our hotel.

Our hotel was just on the other side of the river

After a bit of a rest we went out exploring and later had a great pizza dinner.

Walking in Lyon
Our pizza dinner

Parador de Aiguablava day 2

Today was a lovely day of rest and relaxation. After a leisurely breakfast we went for a hike along the coast. There were a lot of people out exploring since today is Good Friday and a holiday.

This is the view we woke up to this morning
We hiked along the coast to the other side of the bay.
There was lots of up and down
A rest near our turn around point
The Parador

For dinner we ate in the Parador restaurant

Dukes’s seafood salad
My tuna roll
My ice cream desert

Tarragona to Parador de Aiguablava

The sunrise over the Mediterranean from our hotel room I’m Tarragona was lovely!

Sunrise in Τarragona

We went out for a walk and had coffee and pastries on Rambla Nova.

Breakfast
On Balcó de Mediterrani

We packed up and checked out but before we left Tarragona we went to the Roman Aqueduct in a park about a ten minutes drive from our hotel. The aqueduct is in a great hiking park, a short walk from the parking lot. I don’t think I have ever walked across a Roman Aqueduct before today.

The Ferreres Aqueduct. It was built by the Romans in the first century!

The path across the aqueduct

I’m the dot in the middle on top

There was a lot of stop and go traffic on our drive today. As a result I think today was our longest drive in Spain.

The town of Begur and the Parador of Aiguablava are on the coast north of Barcelona. This will probably be the last Parador we visit this year. We will be here two nights and then on Sunday we go to Lyon, France.

The Parador is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful hotels we have ever stayed at. Our room is on the top floor with glass walls overlooking the Mediterranean. I think I’d be happy here even if I never left the room.

The view from our deck.

We ate dinner in the parador restaurant.

Starter of sardines and prawn croquettes
My sea bream with pepper jam with seafood fideuá
Duke’s Catalan Crema desert

El Saler to Tarragona

Before we left El Saler this morning we went for a walk on the beach. It was beautiful and we found several pieces of what looked like pottery.

On the beach at El Saler
The first piece of pottery I found

Then we drove for about three hours north along the Mediterranean to Tarragona. The parents of some good friends of my daughter’s family live in Tarragona. We met up with them and they showed us around Tarragona.

On Las Ramblas in Tarragona

We saw so much with them and learned so much about Tarragona. It was wonderful. And then, to make it even better, today as a part of the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations there was a big procession through the street from the Church of Saint John the Baptist. We had a perfect place to watch near the beginning.

One of the Misterios (floats). This one was pushed but the rest were each carried by at least 20 people.
The beginning of the parade. There at least 3 groups of Roman soldiers with very authentic costumes.
There were hundreds and hundreds of participants

Then we had wonderful tapas for dinner at a restaurant right next to the Cathedral.

Dinner at Casa Balcells

One other really interesting thing we learned is that Tarragona is well known for its human towers (Castellas).

This is a picture from a poster on a building. The towers can be 8 or nine levels high!

We had such a good time in Tarragona. It makes me want to come back again.

The view from the window of the hotel where we are staying (the H10). There are a lot of Roman ruins in Tarragona (walls, an amphitheater, a circus and other stuff too)

Monasterio de Piedra to El Saler

This morning before we left the Monasterio de Piedra we took a Monastery tour. It was in Spanish so I didn’t learn a lot but it was still imteresting.

The former church has collapsed
They used alabaster for the windows when they built the church in the 13th century

I said yesterday that the building had recently become a hotel, but I learned that actually it was in 1835 that the monastic community ended. The buildings were converted to a hotel in the mid 1800s.

This is the former monastery kitchen. The roof is black because of the smoke from the cooking fires. According to the signs this is the first place in Europe that cacao was processed!

We finished the tour, checked out and around noon headed southeast about three hours to the Parador de El Saler, our 94th Parador!! We are now on the Mediterranean for the first time on this trip. The parador is also associated with a golf course.

The view of the Mediterranean from the hall outside our room.
The view of the golf course from our room.

We ate dinner in the Parador bar. We shared seafood paella.

Dinner