Day 73: Calafell to Tarragona

October 21, 2024

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Our little square at the top of Calafell village was just waking up as we left it to descend through the narrow streets.

A big feature in the photos below is the lack of any cars. That is something I love about little villages. It is so amazingly restful not to have to be dodging traffic all the time!

We arrived at the sea in time for a bit of a sunrise.

And here - almost no people, also very restful!

Now we set off along the waterfront promenade - did I mention how restful this all was?

We arrived at a concrete bunker, that had been painted in a replica of Picasso's Guernica mural (Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso , painted in Paris between May and June 1937, whose title alludes to the bombing of Guernica (a town east of Bilbao) , which occurred on April 26 of that year (1937), during the Spanish Civil War .)

We had trouble understanding who was bombing who.

This must be a Republican recruitment poster:

On the fronts On the coasts On the borders In the rear... The carabinieri is a heroic, disciplined and loyal soldier ANTIFASCISTS JOIN THE BRIGADES OF THE GLORIOUS CORPS

The seaside ride continues:

Often while cycling we come across the home or former home of someone who is obviously very important locally, but that we of course have never heard of. Here below is an example, the former home of painter Santiago Elias. The two panels below tell all about him, outside the house. He was into mosaics, and did a mosaic self-portrait. Also, on the house is a mosaic Neptune image.

Here is my photo of the Neptune. I am confused, because the info panels also had a photo. While the image may be the same, the house seems to differ. Puzzling.

Lantana is a colourful shrub that we of course do not see at home. Here is a (big) sample of it in the middle of a roundabout.

We continued along the coast, and came to the town of Torredembarra. We just sort of noticed it because of its ancient looking gate or arch. That had us stopping to read the nearby info panels, some of which you could look at below, if you like.

The main attractions of Torredembarra are further listed on a sign, and comprise the old centre, city hall, a church, and a tower. That's all quite standard, but we ended up finding the place very pleasant indeed.

The church, built between the 15th and 18th centuries.

and the tower. This is basically from the 13th century, but has been modified over time. It played a role in the War of Spanish Succession, in 1713.

One more info panel to possibly look at. This covers a subject of great local importance, that was news to us. It seems that in the late 1700's, many people left from the coastal towns here and went to the West Indies (the Caribbean). They seemed to make their fortunes there, and then came back, forming a wealthy local class, and known as Los Indianos.

In Torredembarra. The banner says no to male violence.

We came upon this small bakery, and got a sort of cinnamon bun that was both flaky and chewy, unique and good!

Nearby at a fountain, another unfortunate dragon gets speared.

Torredembarra became more and more fun as we got deeper into the town, proceeding along the main pedestrian street.

There were squares with the necessary restaurant seating.

Many of the houses were ones established or enlarged by those Indiano folks, and each featured an info panel with its detailed history.

I also noticed in more than one fruit store, those peaches that I had seen earlier.

Plus fun things like heritage style tomatoes.

The peaches were really nice, but I could not find any that were fully ripe. Need to come back in a few days!

Something that I noticed in the streets of this town, were many seniors being accompanied and helped along by their middle aged children. It seems a general indicator of a caring society.

We found a shady bench (quite rare - most were sunny) and ate lunch, before leaving town. We only looked over at the next town, Altafulla. It had an old castle, but was up a hill, so we swept on by.

In one sense the fun was over, because the route now followed N-340, a fairly high speed road, though it did have a shoulder. We got an early break from cycling this road, as we arrived at what is called the Tower of the Scipios.

The Tower of the Scipios is a funerary tower from the 1st century, containing urns of ashes. It stands on what is called the Via Augusta, which is the Roman road from Rome to Cadiz.

The much eroded figures on the front are the Scipios. Whoever they were, they are apparently not the people stored inside the tower/

We returned to the N-340, which reminded me of some kind of cycling school exercise. The white line marking the shoulder is impregnated with rumble bumps, while down the middle of the shoulder runs a line of cat eyes. This leaves only narrow strips for cycling, and on the extreme right is a ditch. It's a tiring thing to focus and stay on. Or, one could watch the rear view mirror carefully and take the lane. But watching for the oncoming speeding cars is pretty tiring too.

The sign confirms the Via Augusta, for any Romans still around who are wondering if they are on the right way to Cadiz.

The bay by Tarragona is good for swimming

This ramp is needed to get people over the railway tracks that dominate the water frontage.

These buildings on the cliff edge have a great water view.

Our hotel, the Lauria, is in a old mansion on the new Rambla.

It has old mansion features, like this staircase.

We dumped our stuff in the hotel and went for a stroll. Outside, at the head of the rambla is a statue of Roger de Lauria, a famous Spanish admiral, born in 1245.