It's All Part of the Adventure - Altafulla and Tarragona

Today I went on a day trip with two friends on the program. We took an early train from Barcelona that went about an hour south to Altafulla, Catalunia, where the adventures began, and let me tell you, we had quite an adventure-filled day.

First, we walked up the hill to see this castle and the church next to it.

Then we walked down to the beach, where we enjoyed the sun, watched some surfers, and saw two hang-gliders fly overhead. Then we walked down the beach to this castle, which also had a church attached. I guess that was the cool thing to do in the 11th century.

Here's another view of the castle overlooking the Meditteranean from the little rocky island where we ate our picnic lunches. We were lucky to have a perfect blue-sky day, at least for the morning.

Then the real adventures began. We walked through a campground and a very rural area before finding the bus stop where we could catch a bus to Tarragona. We saw a bus leave just as the bus stop came into view, but we missed it. Unfortunately in the suburbs of Tarragona on a Sunday, the buses only run every hour and a half. Shoot!

So rather than sit and wait for the next bus, we decided to walk in the direction of Tarragona, which the supermarket clerk said was about 9 kilometers away. Check out this view of Altafulla and the beach from our walk (more like a hike) towards Tarragona.

After getting a little bit lost and very tired, we decided to try to get a ride. This was the first time any of us had attempted to hitchhike, and we didn't have any success for a very long time.

But then, this friendly guy pulled over! We asked him directions to the center of Tarragona and then he offered us a ride! So Lucille and I sat three-across in the front seat with this guy, his name is Lorenzo and he's lived his whole life in Tarragona so far. And my friend Eric, the champion trip-planner, direction-asker, and map-reader, sat on a lunchbox in the back of this van with Lorenzo's little fluffy dog.

Lorenzo undeniably saved the day. Not only did he drive right to the Roman ruins that we wanted to see in Tarragona, he told us stories about the history of the city, saved us from a flash rain storm, and gave us walking directions to other sites in Tarragona. You can read about the history of Tarragona and see where it is on the map here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarragona

Here's a photo of the remains of a Roman amphitheater right near the beach in Tarragona. This thing is enormous and made me think about what this area was like in the 11th century. It's absolutely wild to think about! You can also see the impending storm clouds. Yikes. Luckily we only had two short spurts of intense rain, the rest of the afternoon was remarkably clear and pleasant.

This is the main pedestrian street, La Rambla, in Tarragona. It was pretty empty today, we figured it was a result of the intermittent nasty weather.

This is me with my fabulous travel partners, Eric and Lucille, in front of a massive statue of a Catalunian Human Castle. These towers of people are native to Tarragona. Here's an explanation I found online: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_14725.shtml

This is a photo the thick and tall stone wall that surrounds the old part of the city.

This is the famous cathedral in Tarragona.

I thought this painted building was especially cool.

This is a photo of the second flash rain storm we experienced today. This statue is at the end of La Rambla and beyond it is a breathtaking view over the Meditteranean sea.

Just when we thought we'd seen it all, it started to HAIL while we waited for the train back to Barcelona. I tried to capture the hail in a photo, you might be able to see it if you click on the photo and make it bigger. Today was a great adventure for sure.

Our motto for the day (and arguably for my entire stay in Barcelona) - "it's all part of the adventure." I'm so lucky to have such flexible and fun-loving friends on my trips to experience these adventures.