Walking the Montroig campo - El Mas dels Tregells

What I love most about spontaneous make-it-up-as-we-go-

Marigold flower 

along walks around unknown places are the surprises we encounter en route. Dave plotted yesterday's circular route through the countryside (campo) around Montroig to be mostly along agricultural tracks (camis) with a couple of sections using dry river beds (barrancs). We were expecting to see the vegetable crops, olive trees, other harvestable trees, lots of squashed processional caterpillars, abandoned scrubland and the occasional barking dog. We did not expect to see brightly coloured orange and yellow verges of cultivated marigolds so were delighted to find ourselves walking past several of these areas. And we certainly did not expect to suddenly find ourselves passing a pseudo-Medieval castle! Fortunately said 'castle', El Mas dels Tregells, had an informative plaque outside explaining just what it was and how its appearance had come about.

El Mas dels Tregells 

This farmhouse is also known as Sant Rafael and during

Sant Rafael at El Mas dels Tregells 

the Middle Ages it was the centre of its own township. Pretty much all evidence of this town is now buried beneath its surrounding agricultural fields so the Mas stands alone looking either proudly impressive or a bit self conscious, depending on your point of view. At the end of the nineteenth century it was restored and given its current neo-Gothic look complete with side turrets, battlements and machicolations. Now, I admit we didn't know what machicolations were and I thought it might be a bizarre mistranslation from the Catalan (matacans) or Spanish (maracanes), but No! It's a real word in English for holes in the floor of the overhanging battlements through which rocks or boiling oil etc. could be dropped onto the heads of any optimistic attackers below. Good luck slipping that into conversation any time soon!

Our planned two hours walking turned into three as we got ourselves somewhat lost by relying on signposts instead of Dave's intuition. This did allow us to see a fabulous murmuration of hundreds of starlings coming into roost. The flock made the most incredible shapes in the sky and I loved watching them for several minutes. I don't remember seeing birds in these numbers in the UK for at least a couple of decades now. Is that because they are just not in our skies anymore or have I just been in the wrong place? Sadly I couldn't get an image for this post as my phone isn't remotely up to that!

So I will leave you instead without another plant picture. We don't know what this is and, judging by where it was growing, it is probably nothing special at all, but its leaves were the most gorgeous red colour in the sunshine.

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The Barracas of Montroig del Camp

Do you remember that a few weeks ago Dave and I visited

Barraca del Tutu

the Joan Miro museum in Montroig del Camp? Part of the museum had been turned over to an interesting photographic exhibition documenting the building of a number of barraques / barracas in the nearby countryside. Yesterday we finally got around to doing a walk which would allow us to see some of these structures in situ. We drove to the barraca named Barraca del Tutu which is numbered 1 on our map - Senderisme Mont Roig i Miami Platja - and parked up before setting out on foot, complete with picnic lunch, to explore. Several of the barracas are signposted from the T-310, but we didn't initially realise this as we drove along that road. If you're looking for them too, watch out for handmade signs with a capital letter B and a number pointing off down dirt tracks!

Barraca doble de Cal Rabosa 

A barraca is essentially a small rural shelter and I have

Inside Barraca del Tutu 

seen the word translated into English as meaning anything from a workmen's hut to an Eskimo igloo. The Montroig barracas use ancient building techniques to create domed stone structures with a simple arched doorway. There aren't any windows although we saw several that had small alcoves inside, presumably for candles or lanterns. Stones high up inside the roof were often blackened by smoke and there is no chimney hole. I guess fire smoke dissipates through gaps between the stones. Generally no fixing substance - such as mortar - is used so it's a bit like dry stone walling in the UK. Looking inside, I was also reminded of the one of the dolmen we saw at Antequera almost exactly two years ago (although not the one pictured in this post). These barracas feel timeless!

Seeing the fields and orchards in this part of Catalonia

explains immediately where all the building stone comes from and I wondered which came first - the need to have small shelters or the need to do something with all this rock! Hill slopes are terraced, again with immense volumes of rock, and there must have been incredible work needed to actually create viable agricultural land here. What is sad to see is where formerly worked land has been abandoned and allowed to revert to scrubland again. The effort required to get it usable again may never make economic sense.

The barracas are all slightly different shapes and designs,

and vary in size. The smallest were tiny huts where we had to crouch to get through the door and probably no more than a couple of people could be seated together. The largest we saw, I think, was this one for which I got Dave to stand in the photo to really give you an idea of its scale. As most of the barracas didn't have name plaques beside them and weren't always where they appeared to be on the map, we did have trouble not only finding them, but also identifying the ones we did see! I think the large barraca pictured here is Barraca dels Communs del Pellicer, but it could be Barraca de l'Aiguader.

Perhaps the most spectacular, and certainly the easiest to

Barraca 'en espiral' 

identify(!), is Barraca 'en espiral' meaning, obviously, in a spiral. This one looks fabulous from the outside, but has no sign of its spiral construction on the inside.

It was very close to another barraca that we probably wouldn't have been able to name had we not seen them almost as a pair. Pictured below, Barraca dels Lliris was the only one we saw which had plants growing on it. I didn't know what the plant was, but it looked to have been deliberately planted all across the roof. Maybe this helps with waterproofing? Maybe it is just for decoration?

Barraca dels Lliris 

There are dozens of barracas across the Montroig area and we only saw a fraction of them. Most aren't directly alongside the camis (agricultural tracks) or footpaths so require shortish detours to find them. Plus, being made of the same stone as much of their surroundings, they blend in remarkably well!

The Oddfits by Tiffany Tsao / Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson / Lonely Is The Valley by Gwen Kirkwood

The Oddfits by Tiffany Tsao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk
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I received a copy of The Oddfits by Tiffany Tsao from its publishers, Amazon Crossing, via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The novel is set in Singapore which appealed to me as I know very little about the city and Tsao gives lots of interesting insights into everyday life there. I loved the cover art too!

Tsao has created a great character in her protagonist, the unfortunately named Murgatroyd Floyd. A blonde haired, blue eyed caucasian child of British parents, Murgatroyd hasn't found his place in Singapore, even though he has never lived anywhere else, and Tsao uses this extreme example of not belonging to highlight the sense of alienation that most of us feel at one time or another. Physically different and socially inept, and with a name that is unpronounceable to Singaporean tongues, Murgatroyd only finds 'home' in an ice-cream shop owned by a strange elderly man who had previously vanished for over sixty years. Billed as science fiction, The Oddfits does take its readers to other worlds, sort of, but it is essentially a novel about how we view ourselves and how other people see us. Murgatroyd seems to call out to be pitied, yet he doesn't see himself as especially hard done by. He is content in a job that suits him perfectly, with a best friend he has known since his school days, and with parents who always do their best for him. However, once he meets a one-eyed woman in a green dress, he begins to wonder whether his future is quite so clear as he had once believed.

I frequently found myself smiling at the rich and often bizarre imagery in The Oddfits and I now really, really want to visit Singapore. There's lots of delicious-sounding food there for a start - this is another novel to read with snacks on standby! The idea of L'Abbatoir restaurant is gorily appealing although I am far to squeamish to ever eat there, and the Duck Assassin is one scary creation. I did like Olivia and James too - not as they are, obviously, but the idea that people could really behave like that is great for the book. This is a fun read with a seriously thoughtful side. It won't appeal to sci-fi fans who like action-packed books, but those who like to take a sideways glance at our own world will probably enjoy the ideas a lot.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

I picked up my vintage copy of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson at a campsite book exchange in France knowing nothing about the author and being primarily attracted to the book by virtue of its being a King Penguin publication - the writing would at least be of a good standard even if the story wasn't completely to my taste. As it turned out, both writing and story were superb. Housekeeping is very likely to feature in my Top Ten list for 2016!

Set in small town America, in the wonderfully named Fingerbone, Housekeeping is told from the point of view of Ruthie, the younger of two sisters left orphaned after their mother's suicide. Abandoned to their grandmother's care then briefly picked up by a pair of nervous great-aunts, before finding themselves coping with (or in spite of) the best intentions of their traveller aunt Sylvie, the girls are left increasingly to their own devices with fascinating results. Robinson describes what could be seen as an idyllic childhood, roaming free instead of attending school, but all around are reminders of what the girls have lost and, perhaps more importantly, what they still do not have. When elder sister Lucille begins to rebel against Sylvie, we as readers suddenly understand how the family are viewed by the rest of the town and how rigidly narrow their expected life path should be.

I love how Robinson writes women. The great-aunts have so obviously always been together that they cannot even speak independently. Even Helen's brief thoughtfulness in providing her children food, although she will leave them moments later, is a very real detail beautifully portrayed. I was gripped by Ruthie's narration throughout the novel and her ultimate decision of whose expectations should direct her life is emotional to read.

Lonely is the Valley by Gwen Kirkwood
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk

I received a copy of Lonely Is The Valley by Gwen Kirkwood from its publishers, Endeavour Press, to read in preparation for their Virtual Historical Fiction Festival which is happening in April. As Kirkwood is a Scottish author, I am counting this as my second book for the 2016 Read Scotland Challenge.

Lonely Is The Valley is set in a rural Welsh farming community at the time of its writing, the mid-1980s. I admit to being surprised at its era having expected books with a greater time distance for a Historical Fiction Festival read. If my childhood years are considered history now, then I must be older than I think! The plotline follows a pretty standard 'light romance' trajectory from antagonism to love with most of the action being driven by missed communication and misunderstandings. I liked the descriptions of the valley itself and the close-knit community vibe, however I was disappointed with the shallow characterisation which made it difficult for me to believe in our protagonists' interactions. The novel is infuriatingly dated in its gender attitudes too.

Ceri Owen, the heroine, is frequently described as independent, yet rarely displays any behaviour other than that of a doormat. Mark, her would-be suitor, is creepily patronising, controlling and emotionally abusive yet, as readers, we are apparently not only supposed to find these attractive traits, but also to blithely accept that being sexually assaulted by him triggers thoughts of love in Ceri. I frequently felt very uncomfortable while reading Lonely Is The Valley. Mark's treating of Ceri as if she is a child and her own clinging need to be subservient to a male figure, almost at any cost, is decidedly awkward and an unhealthy example to promote as a desirable relationship.


View all my reviews on Stephanie Jane or on Goodreads

Why I have changed my Blogger comments to CommentLuv

A visitor wrote a lovely comment on the post I blogged

yesterday about our recent cycle ride and walk. I know this comment exists because I received an email from Google+ to tell me so. However I cannot see the comment on the post. How ridiculous is that?

It's not the first time that Google have decided my blog comments should remain invisible to me. Apparently it is some arbitrary ruling to do with the commenter not being in my circles, or I am not in their circles. Something to do with circles anyway. But it's so annoying. If someone has taken the time to write on my blog post, they must want their words to be seen. Obvious, innit?

In exasperation, I have done my research about other commenting options that are compatible with Blogger. Disqus and CommentLuv seemed to be the favourites and I have used both on other blogs so am comfortable with them. CommentLuv won out for me though because its installation intructions at IntenseDebate.com were straightforward enough for me to feel confident about twiddling with my blog's settings. CommentLuv also allows commenters with blogs to easily link up a recent post of their own. I love to see what other people are writing about :-)

I have only set the new system up for yet-to-be-written posts because I don't want to lose what has already been written and couldn't see an import option. So the big test will be when I press Publish for this post ... will CommentLuv be enabled and waiting for us? If you can see it, please do comment and let me know ;-)

Here goes ...

So, there went, and writing again now, a couple of days later, it's a mixed review. CommentLuv worked perfectly on the desktop version of my blog and people left comments to prove it.

However, CommentLuv didn't show up at all on the mobile blog version so that was showing a Google-hosted comment box. (Not Google+, just Google. Not sure where it came from but it seems to be the Blogger default setting!) I could have managed with this duality if Google and CommentLuv had kept their distances. But today another visitor commented via the Google facility on the mobile version which caused the pre-existing CommentLuv comments on the desktop version to vanish from my post, being replaced by the Google conversation. Apologies to Andy and Aj for losing your comments. I wasn't expecting that! (And I think I am developing a headache.)

So in conclusion, as I want to keep CommentLuv and am now even more irritated with Google, I have hidden the default Blogger comment facility which I think will prevent anyone using it on my blog pages. It does also mean no one can comment at all via the mobile site version, but hopefully this won't be too inconvenient for phone wielding visitors? Plus no one can comment on posts - including this one - where there are (now) existing comments via Google. It's certainly not ideal and is getting very confusing.

I have trawled the IntenseDebate.com help pages to no avail so would be interested to hear from others who have had the same problem, especially if they surmounted it. I will keep CommentLuv for a couple of weeks to see how it works out, but have a feeling that I might have to revert to the default Blogger/Google facility. At least it's not Google+ though.

Cycling to Salou and walking to Riudecols

Two gloriously sunny days have meant two lovely

excursions for us! Yesterday we jumped on our bicycles for the afternoon, taking advantage of the extensive cycle path network around Cambrils and along the coast.Beginning from Camping La Llosa we cycled a little inland to get to the village of Salou and passed even more huge campsites that we hadn't previously seen. All looked to be closed up for the winter. One had dozens of wooden chalets to rent, all painted in bright primary colours, and another had a pair of bizarre wooden sculptures outside the entrance, one of which is pictured here. They didn't look especially Spanish. We are beginning to understand just how madly busy this area of Catalunya must be during the high season! It certainly wouldn't be somewhere we would want to visit in Summer, but in its just-ticking-over capacity in February, it is pretty perfect for us!

Salou town centre was a little frantic, traffic-wise, than the rest of the ride and it's one way system baffled us briefly. However, it was simple enough to head for the sea and we knew that, once there, we could return on the promenade cycle path. We paused for a coffee at a seafront cafe, Fabiola, and a while later paused again to sit on Cambrils harbour wall and gaze at the boats. Idyllic!

Sporty cyclists were out and about in force today as it is

Marta and Dave discuss walking routes 

Saturday and we drove past a dozen or so on the way to our walk's starting point. We had borrowed Chris and Marta's local walking map and set off to do a walk they had recommended. If you get yourself the 'Baix Camp Mapa de la Xarxa de Camins' from Cambrils Tourist Office, this is walk number 16 - an easy and fairly straightforward 12km which begins and ends in Botarell, taking in the edge of Riudecols at the farthest point. (An aside: Marta is wearing the hat I crocheted for her! I also crocheted the flowers and leaves that she later appliqued.)

We parked outside the sports centre in Botarell, a new

Gaser mural at Botarell sports centre 

facility with murals depicting the games played inside. I spotted the mural artist was Gaser - who also painted the brilliant dice player and eavesdropper street art we saw in Tarragona. Following the road uphill for maybe a hundred yards got us to the green walk route signposts and, from there on, the way marking was clear practically all the way round. The first few minutes were noisy with barking dogs and several large sheds of factory-farmed birds. We couldn't tell whether they were chickens or other birds, but the terrible sound reminded me why I choose free range whenever possible.

Overall this wasn't a spectacular walk, but included a variety of pleasant terrains from pine woods to agricultural land, dry river beds and sunken earth-walled lanes. The woods were scattered with dozens of empty shotgun cartridges which were surprisingly pretty for litter! I later took photographs of some gorgeous red poppies that were unexpected for February! And we passed a large orchard of possibly-almond trees that were in bud and will look fabulous when they all blossom soon.

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Beach walking in the sunshine

There are so many wide sandy beaches along from

Dones Remendadores by Maria Dolores Ortuno 

Cambrils that it is easy to see how the many holiday apartments and campsites around the area will fill up during the hot summer months. It's fantastic having everything practically to ourselves at this time of year though! Admittedly a good proportion of the bars and restaurants are closed on weekdays - far more open up for the weekends - and we have only braved sea paddling - although we have seen other people swimming - but to be able to wander and gaze out at yellow sand, blue sea and huge blue skies feels wonderfully privileged.

Yesterday we cycled along the promenade and a bumpy dirt track for about half an hour before chaining our bikes up and walking for an hour along the sands. It was so peaceful and pretty. We could see built up areas in the distance, but once we were clear of Cambrils itself, there was surprisingly little construction along this coastline and most of what does exist is low level one- or two-storey buildings.

Returning back to our bicycles via an inland route wasn't

always quite so picturesque especially here where the footpath goes through a drainage tunnel! Fortunately it was dry - in comparison with the motorway underpasses a couple of days ago which were several inches deep in water.

I enjoyed walking past fields of agricultural land. Yesterday's crops appeared to be mostly almond and olive trees and we are seeing the first of the Spring blossoms beginning to flower. This reminded me that I hadn't yet posted the beautiful bluebell-like flowers we saw earlier in the week. When we were at Foxley Wood in Norfolk, we learned that they call a pale mauve bluebell variety Spanish Bluebells. I wonder if these red-pink flowering plants are remotely related? The bloom shapes are similar but the overall plant shape is quite different.

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Happy Valentine's Day from Cambrils!

I hope your beloved remembered?! Dave and I exchanged

Street art on Cambrils prom 

cutesy cards this morning and went on a lovely walk up a dry river bed rambla this afternoon, returning by way of cami tracks through agricultural land where we saw wide fields of curly kale and Brussels sprouts as well as several different huge cactus varieties. The weather nearly bested us though - glorious sunshine as we started, spitting rain for the last ten minutes, and we had just closed our car doors as the heavens opened. Our walk was just a couple of hours and I was shattered by the time we got back to the car.

Street art on Cambrils prom 

The reason? I have actually got A Cold! In Spain! That's not the idea of coming out here at all, but it is the first of our three winters that I have succumbed. I've felt rubbish for the past three days and improved today so hopefully it will all be over within a week and we can get back to our usual hilly walks. Yesterday was embarrassing - after just forty minutes gentle strolling along the seafront promenade, I was happy to turn for home! However, I enjoyed spotting examples of the 'Hola!' street art along the route. There are lots of differently styled men and women, all wearing monochrome striped tops and saying 'Hola!' to cyclists, joggers and walkers. It was such a lovely afternoon that Dave even went paddling in the sea. I didn't capture that moment, but here he is wistfully gazing further along the coastline to where we might explore another day.

Dave doesn't want to turn back yet! 

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Museu d'Art Modern Tarragona and a Carnaval firework finale

We had lightly researched Tarragona's indoor attractions

Self portrait by Salvador Martorell 

prior to our visit expecting, at some point, to be driven undercover by the forecast winds and rain. As it turned out this preparation was almost completely unnecessary so we are still pretty much none the wiser about the city's Roman heritage. Dave's daughters, visiting from England, were keen make enjoying the sunshine a priority and we had already explored fabulous sites in Nimes and Arles late last year. However, we did overlook the ruined amphitheatre with its ocean backdrop and lots of solid Roman walls can be viewed simply by walking around the streets. The photograph below shows two column segments with Roman inscriptions and a Hebrew-inscribed tombstone, all of which had been embedded into a relatively modern wall of the Antiga Casa del Dega. In other places, historical ruins were separated from streets only by wire fencing so we could peer past feral cat gangs to admire towers and arches.

Roman inscriptions and a Hebrew tombstone 

One museum I definitely didn't want to miss though was

Maria, La Gitana by Julio Antonio 

the Museu d'Art Modern Tarragona (MAMT). Established in its present location in 1976, MAMT's collections include a large number of bronzes by sculptor Julio Antonio, a huge Miro tapestry and works by Lluis Saumells (a director at MAMT whose public work Thales we had viewed the day before). Several rooms were taken up with a temporary Rafael Bartolozzi exhibition with which, to be honest, I was rather underwhelmed! I loved the detail and expression in the Julio Antonio sculptures though. My favourite of his works, pictured here, is entitled Maria, La Gitana and was created in 1906. The Salvador Martorell self portrait pictured at the top of this post was great fun and I would like to find more of his work in the future.

Joan Miro tapestry at MAMT 

Joan Miro's tapestry was much larger than the example we saw in Montroig and this one was actually created during his lifetime. Miro had given a painting in the same design, in lieu of payment, to a young doctor who had treated his daughter after she was hit by a train in Montroig. That painting inspired Miro to embark on his then-new artistic direction commissioning the young artist Josep Royo to create tapestries of striking Miro designs.

Of the modern works at MAMT, I especially liked the

Homenatge a Julio Antonio
by Francesc Angles 

relaxed style of Homenatge a Julio Antonio by Francesc Angles, created in 1995. Angles is another artist whose public work we had already seen outdoors in Tarragona - he sculpted Als Castellers.

If you visit MAMT too, be sure to pay attention to the building's interior as well as to the artworks. There are some beautifully decorated niches and ceilings, classically white painted, but with interesting details.

After this afternoon of serious culture, our evening was completely different. The last event of Carnaval was a firework display with a difference in the Plaza del Rey. This enclosed square was a fabulous venue for the well-choreographed madness! People dressed up as devils and demons skipped around with whirling fireworks held over their heads - scattering sparks everywhere which an eerie banshee wailing sound. Troops of drummers beat out primeval rhythms and four large costumes of mythical beasts - a bull, a griffin and two dragons - were each worn by a man who made them dance. The creatures were also loaded with fireworks that sprayed or spun sparks high into the air. Once the procession of these demons and creatures had entered the square, their fireworks were repeated reloaded so they could take turns being centre stage. I noticed that the drummer troops were each associated with a beast. They would start up their rhythm, then speed up when all the beast's fireworks were alight and firing, and slow down again once all the fireworks had burnt out. I guess this was a signal to the man within the costume that he could safely return to his 'team' for reloading. It was all an incredible spectacle!

Enjoying Tarragona seafront and anticipating the new Rachel Ries EP

We are back on our Cambrils campsite now and taking

Tarragona seafront 

advantage of a couple of light rain showers to stay lazily indoors all afternoon. We're exhausted! However I have still got lots to write about the attractions of Tarragona. Before I wax lyrical about the port, marina and wide sandy beach though, I have two other mini announcements to make.

Firstly, a book I nominated as part of Amazon's Kindle Scout programme has been selected for publication so I am looking forward to reading The Three Deaths Of Magdalene Lynton by Katherine Hayton (update: book received, my review here) when it becomes available. I was attracted to the book by its synopsis and also because its title is similar to that of one of my favourite film, The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada.

Secondly, singer-songwriter Rachel Ries has a new EP out

Cardinal by Rachel Ries 

on March the 4th to coincide with the start of her European tour. Entitled Cardinal, the EP was written during her residency in Rouen, France, last summer and 'each song represents a direction or a key for living.' Rachel says, 'if you ever have trouble holding on, or struggle to believe in your path ... well, then I made this for the both of us.' Cardinal is available for pre-order via Rachel's online shop now and there's gorgeous artwork options encasing the physical product.

Back to Tarragona!

We walked down to Tarragona port and marina on

1927 Crane 

Monday. It covers a surprisingly large area and the port consists of a number of large buildings called Tinglado. Several of these looked to be administration offices, but one had housed a theatrical work during what in the UK would have been pantomime season. Another is the headquarters of a group of Castellers, and Tinglado No 1 is curreny displaying an exhibition of Ethel Marti paintings. Unfortunately the exhibition is closed on Mondays and we didn't get back that way on Tuesday. Examples of the port's history are preserved for visitors. The pictured crane, which is a roundabout centrepiece, dates from 1927 and I think I remember correctly that it was the first electric crane used on the harbour front. Another roundabout displayed a little old steam engine. There are wide promenades for pedestrians and cyclists plus a sign I hadn't seen before - roller bladers are directed to use the cycle paths!

Pausing for refreshments at the marina led to a two hour

Beatrice Bizot sculpture 

hiatus as the three Gin and Tonics ordered came in such huge glasses that we continued on to order a good lunch at the same bar-restaurant. (My red tea was nice too, but considerably smaller!)

A trio of sculptures were situated in shallow pools along the promenade. Each had been created by Italian sculptor Beatrice Bizot in 2007 and all three are pictured in the Public Works section of her website. The one pictured has a Romeo and Juliet feel to it and its accompanying plaque is in Catalan: 'La finestra, apertura per on entra el futur quotidia i surten els nostres somnis.' (Opening the window where it enters the future and leaving our everyday dreams)

We had a beautiful day for our wanders, even enabling me to wander barefoot along the sandy beach and paddle at the edge of the sea. The water was cold, but not numbingly so!

Tarragona marina 

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Walking Tarragona for street art and sculpture

I love walking around new-to-me towns and cities. I believe

Gaser mural near the Modern Art Museum 

it is the best way to really get a flavour of my surroundings and I get to see so much more detail than I would zooming past in a car or on the bus. Tarragona is a particularly compact city so perfect for exploring on foot and the narrow stone streets of the Old Town don't even encourage cycling. As we arrived on a Saturday afternoon and most of Tarragona's historic sites and monuments are closed on Sundays and Mondays, we have had lots of time simply wandering which is great. I am enjoying my time here immensely. The Spanish street artists are wonderfully talented and I love discovering all the different styles and subjects.

This mural of a domino playing man is near to the Modern

Gaser mural near the
Modern Art Museum 

Art Museum (which we haven't visited yet. It's not open on Mondays.) The mural is signed by Gaser who is a known local street artist. A second, partner mural is just around the corner and depicts another man listening in on his neighbours.

I don't know the artist for the below image of jelly baby style figures climbing up the side of their building, but I love the idea. The figures are painted in such a way as to make the building appear to have three-dimensional steps or terraces. I am not sure if this effect comes across so well in my photograph as it did standing in the street below and gazing upwards. In reality the painted wall is perfectly flat.

We looked inside the Cathedral yesterday. It is a beautiful

Mural inside Tarragona Cathedral 

structure, as probably should be expected, and I was surprised at the expanses of pale coloured stonework inside. Small chapels line each side, one of which had these preserved medieval paintings. It must have been amazing to have seen the works when the colours were still new and vivid.

One of the most famous painted facades in Tarragona is this building painted on the end of a building by Carles Arola. I was reminded of the similarly fantastic yellow building that we saw in Lyon. Arola has murals exhibited all over this region and was also responsible for painting the outside of the temporary Municipal Market here while the hundred-year-old Market is renovated.

Carles Arola building 

Two sculptures caught my eye yesterday. The first was this

Thales by Lluis M Saumells 

elongated gold-coloured bronze figure by Lluis M Saumells which is three and a half metres tall and was created in 1976. It is entitled Thales. Saumells has other public sculptures in Tarragona including a tall tree-like piece that I just caught sight of in a Plaza. Having looked through his website, I see there are also sculptures in Cambrils and Salou so I will have to look out for those when we return to Camping Llosa.

The 'building' of castles out of human bodies is a traditional skill around here although we haven't actually spotted it happening yet. There are photographs in all the tourist offices though and we saw this bronze representation yesterday. It looks ridiculously dangerous! The sculpture is entitled Als Castellers. It was created by Francesc Angles in 1999.

Als Castellers by Francesc Angles 

We saw more Castellers painted on a bollard today as well.

Castellers bollard 

It was one of a whole street of differently painted posts and I think was the work of a number of artists because the styles changed as we walked along.

There is a section of the Old Town which has a suddenly strong artist vibe. Several of the houses looked like they might actually be artists' studios, however, because it was Monday today, all the doors were closed up so we couldn't see what was going on inside. The doors themselves were interesting though because they are predominantly heavy dark wood which has been intricately carved with natural or geometric designs. Maybe we will get to go back around tomorrow when we explore some of the historical monuments and the artists will be out in force as well.

Painted bollard street 

The last fun mural I saw today was this fun example of children playing. It was created by Marius Arts.

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