Adventures of David and Paul: Tarragona and Port Aventura

After sleeping in on Sunday morning, we took the subway to the Barcelona-Sants station and caught a south-bound train. The train was slightly delayed and the queuing/boarding process was quite confusing, but eventually we were on our way. It was a smooth and fast ride, and we arrived in Tarragona in about an hour. It was a short (but uphill) walk from the station to our hotel, H10 Imperial Tarraco. This was a fantastic hotel, probably one of the nicest we've ever stayed in. Our room had a huge balcony with sweeping views of the old city, the coast, and Roman ruins.

Tarragona is a relatively small city (about 130,000 people), but is worth visiting for its impressive Roman ruins, which are a UNESCO world heritage site. We had to plan our time here carefully, as our three days involved both a Sunday and Monday, when many things are closed, and a national holiday (Constitution Day). After settling in to our hotel, we caught a bus to the Roman aqueduct just north of town, the Pont del Diable. The bus only took cash if you didn't already have a card, and we were a bit worried since we only had a 20 Euro bill (and all of the stores were closed since it was Sunday so there was no place to make change), but the bus driver was nice and made change for us. It was only about a 10 minute ride up to the aqueduct. The entrance is right on the highway, but the aqueduct is set back in a wooded area. This is a well preserved and impressive aqueduct that towers over a forested ravine. It's also unique because you can walk across the top of it.

After spending some time walking around and viewing the aqueduct, we went to catch the bus back. However, since the northbound bus stop was on the side of the divided highway, there wasn't a corresponding southbound bus stop. We walked about 15 minutes north to the next bus stop, technically in the small town of Sant Salvador. Turns out we didn't need to do this since the bus makes a loop, but it was a nice little adventure.

Back in town, we walked down the main street, rambla nova. There was a small Christmas market and crafts market, but it was relatively quiet since it was a Sunday. Even though it was chilly we got some ice cream at Hi Cream before heading back to the hotel.

Staying safe on the train.

Spectacular views from our hotel balcony.

Our room was amazing.

A sign for "authentic" looking "tacos."

The impressive aqueduct.

Paul on top of the aqueduct.

A little pond in a big traffic circle in Tarragona.

A statue of the "castell" human towers Tarragona is famous for.

The statues had creepy proportions with disturbing looking hands.

The Christmas market.

Hi Cream - there wasn't tons of ice cream this trip, but we found a little spot in Tarragona that was very popular!

After dark we ventured back out and had dinner at Baires Bar. According to reviews it is known for its artichokes and milanesa (thin fried chicken), so we got one of each. David defied the winter temperatures and got an aperol spritz. Oddly the end of the meal came with cough drops on the bill instead of mints. Well I guess technically they were mint cough drops! We walked around a bit and got some churros with chocolate, and ended the day back in the hotel watching the England vs Senegal world cup game.

Throughout the day we definitely noticed there is much less English in Tarragona. On top of that, just like Barcelona the residents of Tarragona speak Catalan, not Castilian Spanish. It's still easy to get around, and we had no problem using a combination of English and simple Spanish when ordering food and taking the bus.

Plaça de la Font. We spent a lot of time in this square that is lined with restaurants.

Artichokes, and classic milanesa with fries.

Churros with dipping chocolate!

The next day was our roller coaster day. Since almost every tourist site in Tarragona is closed on Mondays (including all of the museums and the roman ruins), the timing was right to head to Port Aventura. This park is known as one of the better parks in Europe. It opened back in 1995, and has been on Paul's bucket list. After breakfast at the hotel we took a taxi to the park. There is a train, but it only runs a few times a day so a taxi was quicker and more convenient for the 9 mile trip from the hotel. The park was relatively crowded, with some rides having lines of over an hour throughout the day, but we had express passes that allowed one ride on each of the major coasters without waiting. Definitely worth the cost for your first visit since the park is quite large, and we also needed time to visit the neighboring Ferrari Land. Overall the park is very nice, similar to the Busch Gardens parks in the US. Shambhala stood out as the best ride, and we also enjoyed the indoor Sesame Street ride where you shoot cookies. Unfortunately park operations left much to be desired - several of the rides broke down throughout the day, loading was very slow, and one major ride (Stampida) never opened.

For lunch, we were adventurous and tried the "Marco Polo" Chinese buffet. It was... interesting. There was almost nothing Americans would recognize as Chinese food, 2/3 of the buffet was Spanish foods and 1/3 was Chinese-Spanish adaptations of dishes.

Ferrari Land area was essentially a giant commercial for the car company. Not unexpected, but a little off-putting. Still, the Port Aventura / Ferrari Land combo should be on every coaster enthusiast's itinerary. It's also interesting enough for non-enthusiasts, thanks to the well-done theming and big variety of rides. David barely grumbled about spending the day here. 😏

Morning views from our hotel balcony.

The hotel had a killer breakfast buffet! We usually don't eat hotel food, but made an exception this time!

Paul celebrating Navidad '22 at Port Aventura.

Woody Woodpecker and Red Force. One is a fictional bird and one is the tallest roller coaster outside of the USA.

The coaster skyline of Port Aventura towering over the great wall of China.

David enjoying the USA section!

Snowmen in the park disturbingly had feet. It's almost like they'd never actually seen one!

Lots of photogenic coasters in the park.

Ferrari Land is right next door, and is almost like another section of the park...that they charge you to enter.

That's "pad thai" on the left, and paella at the end. At the Chinese buffet. Uh...

David still looks happy with our "Chinese food..." Spoiler alert, he was not.

We left the park in the late afternoon. The train schedule didn't line up with when we were leaving, so rather than waiting a couple of hours we took a taxi back to our hotel. We caught some of the Japan vs Croatia World Cup game, then set out to walk around the old city at night. Tarragona has a small but lovely historic center. We had a drink at Twins Brewery before going to Sentits restaurant for dinner. Both were great.