Ultimate Day Trip from Barcelona - Tarragona (or at least one of them)

A great day trip Barcelona is Tarragona which is only an hour away via the local train.  When one reads books and websites they all tell you to go to Girona or Stiges for a day trip.  I'm sure these are great places but I totally fell in love with Tarragona. 

So, why do I think it was so cool?  Let me name a few!

Better weather than Barcelona

For those of you who know me I'm sure it comes as no surprise that the lack of rain in Tarragona immediately put a much better light on this city.  But really, its situated south of Barcelona away from the mountains so it tends to be about 10F warmer and gets much less rain.  It was nice and sunny (albeit way windy) while there.  It wasn't warm enough and we didn't have time to go onto the beach but it looked nice and was easily accessible.

It was so nice to see the sun and blue sky!

Here's a view of the city from the guard tower at the Circus.  What a view!

World Heritage Site

Tarragona is a world heritage site as of about 2000.  It was known as a major administrative and mercantile city in Roman Spain and the centre of the Imperial cult for all the Iberian provinces.  It is also known as one of the first cities that was actually planned and then developed and became a footprint for all other Roman provincial capitals.  Add this to the fact that things are well preserved and you get really cool things to see:  Roman walls, the Imperial cult enclosure, the Square with representation of the provincial forum, the Circus, the Colony forum, the Roman theatre, the Amphitheatre, the Visigoth basilica and Romanesque church, the Early Christian necropolis, and my favorite the Hydraulic conduits from Tárraco to Les Ferreres aqueduct (or commonly called Pont del Diable). 

The Forum area 

Definitely a highlight - the Aqueduct I got to walk across! 

What a cool engineering feat!

Here you can see many different "eras" of building up the Roman wall of the city.

Protect this house!  Part of the walls and surrounding fortress at Tarragona.

Relaxed Vibe of the City

Unlike Barcelona which has a lot of hustle and bustle with tons of tourists, Tarragona is somewhat of a hidden treasure.  As a result there aren't nearly as many people and you can get some quiet moments at the various tourist spots.  It makes for a much more relaxed atmosphere and slower pace.  The local are extremely nice and helpful - even taking the time to joke with you in their limited English.  You didn't have to wait in line at any of the shops or restaurants which was also nice.  Now, I'm sure as the real tourist season ramps up it will get busier but it will not be like the better known day trip locations.

A great "real" market to go to.

Real as in...here's where the locals come to contemplate their menu for the day.

The locals just sometimes like to check out what's happening on the street.

Heading to school past the Cathedral.

 

You can find these pictures and more from my trip posted in the NEW gallery until my next post. After that, you can find them under their respective "location" or "type" gallery. You can view additional pictures in my Public Gallery or by clicking on the Photo Gallery Tabs above. All pictures are available for purchase.

 

Cheat Sheet Tarragona

You can do Tarragona easily by leaving at around 830am and return for a late dinner (which is the norm for Barcelona). Food seemed to be a bit cheaper in Tarragona so you can stay and eat there as well as trains run up until about 9pm.  The city sights are all within walking distance from the local train station.  The tourism website has awesome information on all the sights with maps and English information here:  http://www.tarragonaturisme.cat/en. 

You can take the bus out to the aqueduct for 2.50.  You feel a little like you are out in the sticks as you are literally dropped off on the side of the highway but the aqueduct is just a 10 minute walk and well posted from the bus stop .  The busses run about every 20 minutes so the total time for the Aqueducts is about 90-120 minutes.  It is REALLY WORTH IT THOUGH.  Obviously I was totally fascinated by being able to walk across an ancient aqueduct.  The engineer in me was giddy!

Sitting on the roadside did make you a bit nervous about if the bus would come or stop!  It did.

Make sure to hit the Circus and explore all the areas.  At first you think its a 15 minute stop but if you go through all the tunnels and then up on top of the guard tower (its a lot of stairs but way worth it) it can take you between 1-2hours.  The view from the guard tower alone is worth it as you get a picturesque view of the Amphitheatre next to the Mediterranean Sea. 

Here's the view towards the sea from the guard tower.

 

You can find these pictures and more from my trip posted in the NEW gallery until my next post. After that, you can find them under their respective "location" or "type" gallery. You can view additional pictures in my Public Gallery or by clicking on the Photo Gallery Tabs above. All pictures are available for purchase.

 

 

Rain in Spain - plus a Barcelona Cheat Sheet

This post will contain not only a top listing from my trip to Barcelona but as I seem to have several friends heading there in the next few weeks I thought it would be good to add a new section to some of my posts - a cheat sheet.  This will be a short section telling some information including hotel locations, restaurants, must see, etc.  for the specific city.  That way I don't have to keep telling everyone the same information! :)

Barcelona

First off, can I just say that I really liked Barcelona more than I thought I would. In fact, I like it better than Paris and a few other cities in Europe.  It has a lot to offer.  The one thing it didn't have while I was there was decent weather.  It rained a ton!  The rain in Spain did not stay in the plain but was in Barcelona the majority of the time.  Actually, because of how the mountains are situated this tends to be the case.  It put a damper on several activities but I still managed to find a few adventures.

Rain in Spain was a Pain!

OLD TOWN
Barcelona has some nice medieval structures, a fun "old town" area to walk around and even some Roman ruins.  You can spend a few hours just wandering these tiny side streets popping out onto little squares with various churches.  These streets are also lined with lots of small shops to grab some fun food to eat.  

One of the many colorful windows

The Cathedral (yes, the sun shined for like 2 hours this day)

One of the fun markets to walk

Catalunya Square

This girl's got sass!

MONTJUIC
Montjuic offers some great views of the city (notice mine are really cloudy yucky), an old castle and lots of Olympic areas.  I took Bus 150 up to the very top and then walked down slowly seeing the sites.  I would not recommend walking up because its a hefty walk!  If you cut through the gardens you can end up at the Montjuic Fountain during the evening to watch the fountain display.

I'm sure this view is much better with no rain!

Speaking of views.  Don't sit right behind one of the large fountains that pop up like I did when waiting for the Magic Fountain to go off  (aka the fountain on the right)!

Everyone climbs up for views so don't be bashful - there are a ton of people at the fountain!

CASTELLS
This is by far one of the coolest things to see in Barcelona.  These large groups of multigenerational family and friends get together and build human towers.  This isn't your friendly neighborhood pyramid but rather a really high and difficult acrobatic show.  As an engineer I was fascinated by how they took a significant amount of time to get the base support structure right.  Then, like spiders crawling up a water spout they quickly move into place and it is only a couple of minutes before the youngest (typically a 5 or 6 year old) is climbing to the very top.  It was raining (obviously) that day so they only did towers about 6-7 people high.  On sunny days they go as high as 9 people high!

Ya, this is freaking high!

And the kids who climb to the top love it!

FLAMENCO
I splurged and bought 9th row tickets to see the flamenco show at the Palau de la Música.  It allowed me to kill two birds with one stone.  First, the music hall has some incredible architecture on the inside including a stunning stained glass ceiling.  Second, it allowed me to see an amazing flamenco show.  I swear, these ladies had bionic feet they were moving so fast!  Their feet were literally blurring!  I was in awe of the athleticism and grace but happy to see that these weren't 16 year old scantily clad skinny models but instead were 40 year old healthy and strong women fully clothed in beautiful dresses.  Yay for that!

Amazing stained glass ceiling!

The Music Hall

FOOD
Who can say no to tapas and paella?  There were several good restaurants and the idea of tapas is so much fun.  It allows you to really taste a variety of foods and still get your fill.  The Iberian ham was delicious.  It was also fun to go through the various markets and grab some fruit or breads.  One of my favorite places to pick up a snack was Chok.  This is a dessert place which made some delicious chocolates and donuts.  Sadly, I don't have a picture because I was always taking care of eating rather than picture taking while at this place!

What the Iberian ham looks like before you eat it!

Herbs are sold right on the street.

Sometimes you just have to ponder those vegetables!

ARCHITECTURE & ART
With Picasso, Gaudi and the likes coming from Spain this city certainly has some unique architecture and art in its midst.  There are so many streets lined with these displays.  The Sagrada Familia is quite something to see and takes some time to really absorb it all. The church itself takes at least an hour to see.  The audio guide is definitely worth it on this tour - and make sure to hit the special "for more information" numbers because that is where the really interesting things are.  Sadly, it was raining so much that we didn't get to go up into the towers.  I was really bummed about that.

Sagrada Familia "grove of trees"

"Um, you have something right on here on the corner of your mouth?!"

 

Sagrada Familia - I wonder if it will ever get finished?!

Sculpture of Christ on the cross.

Definitely a fancy drinking water fountain

CELEBRATIONS
While there I hit upon both some local districts having celebrations as well as the city soccer team winning the Spain league title.  These offer some really fun opportunities to see how Catalan's celebrate.  We were at the soccer celebration "early" so image what it was like a few hours later! 

Clothes literally started flying after this!

DAY TRIPS
This one is a teaser...know that Barcelona is a great hopping off point for Montserrat and Tarragona, which I visited, as well as the islands and many other places in Spain.  The train system and metro system make these items easy as paella. 

Montserrat

Tarragona

You can view more pictures in my Public Gallery - under NEW.

CHEAT SHEET

Here's the nitty gritty on Barcelona:
HOTEL LOCATION:  Stay somewhere south of the Diagonal and close to either Passeig de Gracia and/or Placa Catalunya.  These are major metro and train stops which allow you to get to anywhere really quick and easy.  Also, this location is within walking distance of all the major Barcelona sights.

MONEY:  Be prepared that your credit card might not always work in many locations and in a surprisingly large amount of businesses they don't even take a credit card.  Have some cash on hand.

FOOD:  Tapas are the way to go along the streets.  I ate for about 15-20 euro (no alcohol) for dinners and had plenty of food.  You can go along the waterfront for great seafood and paella.  There are also lots of little bakeries for sandwiches and goodies for lunch which cost less than 5 euro.  Some of my favorite places to eat were:  Pizza El Born, Cuidad Condal, Moaz, and L'Arros. 

TRANSPORTATION:  The metro rocks.  I was there for a whole week jumping on and off and only used about 25-30 trips so just buy a T10 for 9.95 (a single metro ride costs 2.50).  These passes are good for multiple people and any transportation mode within Barcelona. 

Also, you can easily take the Aerobus from the airport to Catalunya.  It only costs 5.90 and goes every 10 minutes.  It takes 30 minutes and has Wi-Fi.  Way easy and cheaper than the 40 euro taxi.

DONT MISS:  See above for more descriptions but Flamenco show, the Cathedral, Castells, the beach (but watch out for topless women as well as nude beaches), Las Ramblas walk, and a day trip somewhere outside of the city. There is unique architecture everywhere to see!

APPS:  Barcelona has some good maps which work offline.  Barcelona Metro by Mapway, Barcelona by Barcelona Turisme and Montserrat Apps are all worth downloading. 

You can view more pictures in my Public Gallery.

Tines Up in Arizona

No, that isn't a typo in the title.  It really is Tines - as in a prong or sharp point, such as that on a fork or antler.  Springtime is when elk and deer shed their antlers and there is an opportunity to go find such things out in the mountains before either someone else or some critter stake their claim first.  Obviously any avid hunter will use this as another excuse to do a type of hunting even if it is without a gun (aka, my brother <g>).  While many people might not have heard about shed hunting it is becoming more popular.   I think one reason is that you can take your whole family out to look for sheds and, except for transportation, costs nothing to do.  In fact, some people will buy the sheds (or antlers) that you find! 

I went shed hunting this spring with my brother and his family in the Payson, Arizona area to find antlers for his cabin.  It's important to remember that while animals do follow trails they sometimes aren't super well defined trails.  Here's where we were hiking and you can see the well defined trail - 'er grove?! Okay, there wasn't one.  But, there was sort of a trail to get to the area.  Sort of.  It's a good thing my brother has an internal GPS in his head!

The first day we went to a watering hole and saw some beautiful manzanita trees. 

Notice I don't say anything about sheds or antlers. Well, that isn't true...we found this chunk of an antler that was left mostly eaten by something. 

We decided that wouldn't look very good in a cabin as decoration so we left it for the critters to finish off eating it and didn't count it as a shed. 

The second day my brother and I went up to another mountain top.  Low and behold I found a good size shed.  I was able to yell, "Tines Up!"  Cuz that's what you do according to my brother.  Typically you find antlers with their tines up.  I thought it might mean that times up and we can go home now we found something but that's not always the case.  In fact, if you find one shed you just might find another close by because deer and elk do have 2 antlers typically.  We had no such luck that day but it was a beautiful hike.

Can you spot the "Tines Up"?

My find of the trip.  It looks great by the fireplace!

Maybe some day we will have collected enough to make an antler arch like the one found in Jackson Hole.  Or not.

You can view more pictures in my Public Gallery.

Rainy Day in Seattle at Pike Place Market

I’m sure the title comes as no surprise to anyone who has been to Seattle before.  It rains all the time.  Okay, not all the time.  But most of the time!  And this isn’t just from visiting once or twice and having bad weather luck – I lived there for almost a decade! 

That being said I do think Seattle has some really fun and cool things to do.  Recently I went back after having not gone for many years and spent a day downtown.  I’ll have to admit that while I lived in Seattle I only went downtown a handful of times.  Between parking issues and traffic congestion it wasn’t high on anyone’s list very often! 

Rainy day in Seattle (I know - its really just a mist but this is actually a good viewing day!)

So, on a rainy afternoon it’s always fun to walk Pike Place Market.  Its covered so you are out of the elements but it is has a liveliness about it– of course this liveliness doesn’t start until about 10am and ends by 5pm so be aware.

You can't miss taking a picture of this neon sign!

The top floor has the iconic flower stalls, produce stalls and fish markets.  You can literally eat your way through the market by tasting all the samples the market has to offer.  Some of my favorites are the chucker cherries or the fresh apples and grapes from Washington.  You can also taste flavored olive oils or jams and everything in between.  While some things are on the “wild” side like some super-hot pepper jellies there isn’t anything like a Chinese food market with their bugs and stinky tofu (see post Taiwan - Part 2:  Top 10 of Taipei).  These foods are all safe to eat and won’t make you grimace even!  While the seafood certainly has a distinct smell it’s nothing like stinky tofu.

Yes, this does smell a bit!

This however does NOT - yum!

The next levels contain the fun "stuff".  There are old book stores, curious shops from way back when and nothing more than I can describe them as junk stores.  All these stores have been there for as long as I can remember.  As a result, when you drop to the lower levels you get a very distinct smell I call Pike Place market smell.  It is a cross of humidity laden books with inches of dust and a bit of staleness thrown into it.  That really makes you want to go doesn’t it?  It actually isn’t horrible but you are certainly aware of it as you play inside the magic shop or comb through old newspapers and magazines from the early 1900’s for sale.  It certainly creates a sense of authenticity to some of the shops!

While snacking is always fun you can’t leave Pike Place market without a couple of items.

1.        A pastry of some sort.  There are several little shops with breads, donuts and other goodies that make you salivate.  In fact, if you are there right at 10am you can get day old goodies for a steal of deal.
2.       Fish-n-chips.  There are several restaurants which have fish-n-chips and they are all good.  Not only are they fresh but most of the restaurants have a great view out across the sound.  If you are blessed enough to have the clouds lift you can watch ferries go back and forth across the Puget Sound and even look into the distance and see the Olympic mountain range.

Fish-n-chips. Hmmmmm!

So, if by chance you are in Seattle and it is raining then still run down and enjoy your day at Pike Place Market.

You can look at other pictures in the Photo Gallery By Location.  You can also view all my pictures in my Public Gallery.

Raptors Up Close - Winterfest Falconry

I really enjoy nature and am always marveled by the intricacies and beauty that God created for us to enjoy.  I had the chance to get up close and personal with raptors.  I didn't know until just the other day that in Sandy, Utah there is a winter festival where individuals who own raptors come and display their birds for the public to see.  It's amazing what you can find on Facebook, and apparently this is the 14th year of this event.  I'm glad I heard about it!

While the day of the event there was a huge winter snow storm which came through the area it was still really neat to see the birds.  Many of the owners would let you come within feet of their raptors and answer questions that you may have.  It was informative and fun to have time to just study the birds.  They also flew the birds in some timed trials for fun but it didn't last long as the weather was so bad (okay, I have no idea how long it lasted...I didn't last very long though).

There were golden eagle, harriers, red tail hawks, falcons, and owls there.  Of particular interest to me were the owls.  I hadn't thought of owning an owl, not even when watching Harry Potter films, but there were people with owls.  Now, I'm not expecting that these owls deliver mail or even want to cuddle with you but people had them!  I figured it was like people who have pet tigers or something crazy. While you can't technically "own" an owl in the US you can "possess" an owl.  It seems like semantics to me as you still have to do the same things: license them, take care of them, feed them, clean them and even clean up after them.  Of course, I'm a concept person and not so much a details person.  But, I'll tell you that the "possessors" of owls really harp on you when you talk to them about their pets.  I'm just saying...don't call them pets!  (again, let's face it - they are!)

Below are a few pictures of some of the "possessed" Great Horned Owls.

Check out the size of those eyes!  They are twice the size of a humans!

The Great Horned Owl

Okay, if this doesn't say Crazy Eyes I don't know what does!

You can look at other pictures from around Utah in the Photo Gallery By Location.  You can also view all my pictures in my Public Gallery.