Travellin´ Light: Tarragona

I After Albarracín we took a bus and two trains to get to Tarragona. It was a little stressful but the train system is very efficient so we felt it as safe to book the trains with not a lot of time between arrival and departure. Worked out just fine.

This sculpture is just to whet your whistle for a series of pictures coming up. Further down the page.

Turns out the railing is significant. Apparently on weekends folks go for a walk on Las Ramblas and walk to this spot so they can "toca ferro - touch iron".

Tarragona was an important city in Roman Spain called Toracco. This wall is part of the Circus - where spectacles occurred.

We were in the museum nearby with this view.

And some Roman sculptures. Seems sad that the people who follow a civilization need to knock off heads and penises from so many of them.

Inside the Circus.

And inside the museum.

Always more wall art. Just note the interesting kite - which looks like an add-on.

More art in the same street. In fact, this is the street on which we had the wonderful dinner.

This is more permanent than yarn-bombing. (Yarn-bombing: decorating inanimate objects with knitted and crocheted items, often whimsical).

And this artist was "sorta mad" I guess.

Fountain with crest and lion.

Virgin and child - and is that St. Vincent Ferrer?

Altar screen.

Detail on the altar screen.

And a beautiful doorway.

Love this column support.

This altar screen is remarkable for the black Madonna. Probably Renaissance.

We found Santiago again.

The legend of Santiago tells how he was laid in a stone boat after he was martyred and then set sail, arriving on the coast of Spain, then carried inland to be laid to rest at Santiago de Compostela - hence the Camino.

Another museum - and beautiful examples of Roman mosaic flooring.

Tarragona has a very large Roman theatre, very near the beach. The hill side of the theatre had seats carved into the rock.

A church was later built on the site. The builders used materials at hand, such as this column support.

Waiting for the next performance.

One interesting aspect of the site was a series of small gardens with examples of flora of Roman times. Here you see the first fruiting of grapevines to make wine.

This is a Castillo in sculpture. Remember way back at the beginning of this post. Those musicians were part of this sculpture.

We were sitting in the square outside one of the museums and there were hordes of people. We asked if it was a political demonstration and learned that it was in fact a session of Castillos - human pyramids.

There are large organizations which train for these events. There were at least four groups in the square to demonstrate. Here one is getting started.

Climbing higher.

These little kids are actually the people who make up the top most layer of the pyramid. Can you imagine Canadian or American laws allowing children this young to climb up a human pyramid six people high?