Sand and surf

Tarragona

Tarragona, a large industrial town with major ports and active industry. It’s so good to see all the manufacturing and industry throughout all of Spain, each small town appearing to have its own factory/plant. Everything from raw materials to finished articles, ceramics, cars and all sorts of things are produced. Employment and financial security appear quite widespread.

Aqueduct

Tarragona also has its fair share of Roman ruins. An Amphitheatre, original walled circus and other major buildings. My favourite Roman ruin to-date would be just out of town; an Aqueduct, built in the first century. This Aqueduct is complete, with only minor repairs being completed, and is over 2000 years old. The arches are all perfect, some stonework is showing signs of wear, the duct itself is perfect and complete. Literally it could still be used. It’s phenomenal. The way all the stonework fits together, the enormity and weight of each element is staggering.

Tunnels – Roman Ants

Gotta love tunnels, something about them is fun. Old train tunnels or simply access tunnels under the railway itself to get to the other side. It doesn’t matter, whatever road you take, give me a tunnel.

I’d like to point out with inconclusive proof, that the Romans smoked heavily during the Aqueduct construction. Please note, the image with the ‘Roman ant’ clearly shows a Roman cigarette butt. All evidence is based upon these artefacts being found within the Roman Ruins.

Spanish Paths

The slow-traveller is appreciated. Whether on cycle, foot or simply meandering in a car or campervan. Shop signs welcome the slow-traveller. Spaces and racks are offered for bikes. Walking/riding trails can often be found within busy cities. My favourite is the coastal paths and coastal esplanades that extend so far that they sometimes link small towns. These off the road, slow and safe trails are used well. Both young and old alike, fit and/or relaxed. The ideas towards developing these paths encourage tourism, as much as offering physical and mental health benefits to everyone. Small businesses are even offering luggage transfers so you don’t have to carry a backpack/panniers.

Cairns should do this all the way to Port Douglas. Not just a dirt track, but a fully developed coastal Path.

What you see

You never actually know what you are going to see whilst on the road. Along a side diversion, out the back of a small subdivision we are met by a number of red squirrels. The cheeky little fellows were playing hide and seek with us. They didn’t appear to be scared and were jumping around the tree, running up and down and onto the road in front. Massive cute factor.

Coming around another bend, we thought we had been transported to a Grecian Island. The entire village was painted white with terracotta roofing, arches as far as you could see, stone staircases, stone garden edging everywhere and meticulously sculptured trees.

Harbours are plentiful, one in every bay. With the expense of the craft only being eclipsed by the sheer varieties gathered. Old timber craft, multi-million dollar personal vessels, motor and sail, new and very old work boats, family fun boats, jet skis, they are all here. Harbour sites are fun and often include Senior sailors maintaining the timber decks, pumping out the bilges by hand, companies running charters, some fishing duties, families squeezing into whatever they have. Boats are cool.

I love boats.

Coffee

Upon leaving Calafel toward Sitges, the esplanade ride went for so many kilometres. Beach riding along this stretch is so easy and the coffee shops along the way allow for quick escapes from the rain if necessary.

It has taken us a while, however, we have indeed worked out the correct way to order coffee in Spain.

Step 1: ensure the shop does not have an automatic coffee machine. Even the most technical of these machines produces rubbish coffee. Move on…find another shop, there is probably one right next door.

Step 2: look at the person behind the counter making a coffee. It doesn’t actually matter if they are old or young, male or female, manbun or no manbun; you need to see how much love they put into making a cup…no love, move on.

Step3: order the coffee using hand gestures to try and ensure you receive one larger than a shot glass, a small shot glass at that. Cup not big enough…move on.

Step 4: when you find the correct shop/barista/coffee cup, sit back and enjoy the nectar from the ‘bean juice’ gods. It will be good.

Water Spout-lunch-touring trailers-Surf

I hadn’t seen a water spout form before. Mandy spotted the strange looking cloud whilst we were riding along the esplanade, first thing in the morning. The rain cloud appeared to be pointed at the end and bending down to the horizon. A few moments later the cloud appeared to bend right over and a pencil line could be seen coming from the cloud to the ocean. The pencil line became quite a thick shaft of water and the ocean itself became visibly stirred up. I always wondered how they refuelled clouds. In my image you can see a boat/ship to the left of the water spout. Not the place I would like to be. It was a long way out to sea and the spout looked to be quite sizeable.

Vegetable Paella for Mandy, Grilled Sea Bass for me. Lunch has become our main meal of the day with dinner usually consisting of Hummus and something to dip into it. Coffee whenever we feel like it and on every occasion for every reason. PS the AeroPress still makes a better coffee than any barista anywhere.

This trailer interested me. The wheels are casters like shopping trolleys designed with a trailing nature. You can see the trailer also has a carrier arrangement designed for the foldable tandem bicycle. However, the most interesting aspect of this trailer, is a winchable platform that lowered over the rear of the tyres to ground level. This platform took a Harley Davidson, so it was very strong. Awesome engineering.

Calafel, thankyou for the weather, the expansive beach and the amazing surf. Using my added buoyancy offered to me from all the Spanish food on this trip, the body surfing was easy. Long wave runs are so much fun.