tarragona (take two)

You will remember we went to Tarragona twice, to see the some of the sites we missed when we got caught in a storm. Tarragona has some very important Roman ruins, including an amphitheatre, a theatre in the round. You can see the ocean in the background and some ships, waiting to bring things into the port of Tarragona.

You can see down underneath the theatre where they would have kept the lions, gladiators and naughty children.

Mum and Dad bought us two wooden swords so we could pretend to be gladiators. Mum says this may have been a poor parenting decision.

We made some films in the shadow of the Roman circus (where you can see the tracks of the chariots that used to race around the circus). Here is one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VGETsJ_nL8

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from Phoebe

a tower in Tarragona

On our second visit to the town of Tarragona, we stopped to have coffee at a cafe in the old city near the cathedral. There were many local people gathering outside wearing traditional Catalan costume. We could tell something was about to happen.  Soon we heard a drummer and then a trumpeter begin to play.

People dressed in red and white stripes with black sashes tied around their waist began to form a huddle. There were men, women and children of all ages.

They were making a human castell (castle). This is common all over Catalunya during festes (festivals) but in Tarragona they really love doing this. They are called castellers.

It was very exciting to watch the castle grow,

and grow...

The top of the castell is always finished by children.

Two little girls with red crash helmets climbed to the top very fast, shimmying up the adults, then crossed over the castell and climbed down the other side, to a big round of applause. 

Here are two future castellers.

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hollywood comes to barcelona

My godmother Kimberley came to visit for 5 days after she had been in Kazakhstan where she is directing a documentary. My Mum has known her for over 30 years and they are best friends. They hadn't seen each other for two years so it was a special time. We went with her to Tarragona overnight and stayed in a hotel.

All this time I didn't know she had been in many television shows, but when we were having lunch in a very small restaurant in Tarragona two girls recognized her from Lost! They had their photograph taken with her. It was very funny because I didn't even know she was a star. She is to me anyway.

We visited some of the amazing Roman ruins and visited the cloisters of the cathedral.

There is more to blog about our visit to Tarragona (we have been there twice now) but this is what we had for dessert when we went with Kimberley: fresh orange cut up and dusted with cinnamon and sugar. So delicious!

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water, water, everywhere...

All over Barcelona there are public water fountains where you can fill up your drink bottle or let your dog (or Dad) have a drink.

This one is in the cloister of the cathedral in Barcelona, where 13 geese live. Santa Eulalia was 13 when she became a saint, so there is a goose for each year of her life. My Grandma Chris brought me here when I was only Leo's age.

This fountain is in Tarragona, in the old town near the cathedral. When we came by the next day somebody had written graffiti on it!

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from Phoebe