While planning John's Christmas present of a couple of nights in Spain, I noticed that from December 18th, we would be able to get on a train at Beziers and get to Barcelona in 2 hours 7 minutes compared with the usual 3 hours plus. It had to be tried!
On the day of the trip, we were in good time at the station so that we could have breakfast. The train was late, and kept getting later, until we were concerned about our connection - we had left 33 minutes between trains. Eventually it arrived 25 minutes late and we set off. The journey was speedy and pleasant. The train passes through salt water étangs (shallow lakes) and we spotted flamingos on both sides.
When we arrived in Barcelona, anxious to make our connection, we were met by a fleet do RENFE staff who were there to gather us together into groups and escort us to our connecting train which had been held back for 15 minutes! When the train rolled into the station, we were delighted to see that it was just like the 8 am train that we used to see from Beziers to Barcelona on its way between two large ports, Marseille in France and Cartegena in Spain. Moreover, its passengers were just like before, ready for a long journey with their picnic baskets and pets.
We arrived at our destination in search of a taxi. We could see one in the car park, but no sign of any driver. Eventually, we called the advertised phone number and the driver appeared, hopped into the taxi and drove it round to where we were standing. There were signs that we had interrupted her lunch!
We had chosen to stay in a Parador hotel. We had come across Paradors before and they had always been in superb locations and looked luxurious. In fact the Paradors are almost all historic monuments and are owned by the Spanish government. The income from the hotel helps to pay for the upkeep of the building.
The Tortosa Parador is a 10th century Muslim castle overlooking the Elbo river not far from the coast. It is also known as the Castillo de la Zuda - castle of the well.
Tortosa was a Roman city and conquered first by Muslims in the 8th century and then captured in 1148 by Ramon Berenguer, then Count of Barcelona, together with allies, Genoan, French and Anglo-Norman crusaders. It had been a prison and a royal residence before it was abandoned. Eventually, it was destroyed in the Spanish civil war and then rebuilt in the 1980s to become a hotel.
The hotel is large (72 rooms) although in early January, we didn't see more than 10 guests. We has a balcony and this was the view.
The views from the hotel car park would have been very good if there hadn't been so much cloud, but we did catch the odd glimpse of the surrounding mountains.
Old walls from the siege of the 14th century
Tortosa from the citadel
Towards the hills on our side of the river
In the town, the bishop's palace
The Cathedral of Santa Maria was built on the site of a Roman forum. The first cathedral was built in 1178, a later gothic cathedral was constructed between 1347 and the middle of the 18th century, it looks as though it is missing its top - spires etc and indeed, the cathedral has never been finished.
Front of the cathedral
Side chapel
The main altar
The nave
The entrance to the Cathedral cloisters
The cloisters
The church of Sainto Domingo
On our full day in Tortosa, we started by looking around the fortifications and were amazed at just how extensive they were. All around the town there were hilltop castles some even larger than that of the hotel. This is the view of the citadel from a fortress on the other side of the valley.
Inside the citadel Saint Joan
Later, we went down to the town for lunch and more sight seeing.
This house, Casa Grego, was originally built in 1909 and has just recently been restored.
Escorxador which is now the museum
The foot bridge across the Ebro river was once a rail bridge
The mountains on the other side of the river finally made an appearance at sunset.
Les Halles (the market)
After a lot of walking, we retired to our room for a rest before eating in the hotel restaurant.
Our journey back the next day was much smoother than the way there. We had a couple of hours to spare in Barcelona, and so had lunch there and returned home in time to eat out with friends.
- Pat and John on tour
