I could go into a lot of detail about our adventures over the Atlantic, or landing in Barcelona, or renting a car and navigatin south along the scenic Mediteramian coast to our first home away from home in Valencia, but ain’t nobody got time for that.

What I really want to cover in this “sesh” is our detour in Taragona which is in-between Barcelona and Valencia (about 1/3rd of the way). Yes, we had already been awake for 24 hours. Yes, we’re in a foreign country where they speak a different language. Yes we had someplace we were supposed to be getting to but .. when they say “stop and smell the roses”, what they mean is that you should not waste one second of opportunity when a flower opens and presents its beauty to you. Tarragona was our “Rose” today and we stopped and gazed upon her and what she had to offer. The city did not disappoint us.

When you first arrive at a foreign place and you don’t know where to go, what you do (what we did) is set the nav to one of the “top 5” attractions on TripAdvisor and – bam – that will take you to some place that you will most assuredly find interesting. In this case the top 3 or 4 locations of interest were all concentrated in one specific area. Navigating winding streets with no street signs is a challenge but thank the Universe and technology the “maps” app can get you close. We had to park about a mile away, but since steps are my thing, I was happy to get out of the car and go.

The destination I mapped was Murallas (wall) de Terraggona. The “heart” of this destination was Roman ruins which included an impressively tall structure with many, many stairs to the top. Not only did the view from the top overlook the coast a short distance to the east and the Mediterranean Sea, but also the city to the west. It was built in the 2nd Century BC and that makes it the oldest building I have ever been inside of. It’s awe inspiring to think that the stones that make up those walls were placed hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And here we are, walking through and taking snaps! They do have a few statues and tablets with inscriptions inside, on thee lower levels. In fact, the lowest level was a tunnel underground which was incredibly creepy.

When we finished our little self-guided tour of the area we made our way back to the car stopping briefly to marvel at the breathtaking views of the sea and the waves crashing on the beach. It’s still too chill for beach-going but there were lots of boats out there. It would have been a lovely day for a bit of a sail, if that’s your sort of thing. As it were though, we had both been awake for about 24 hours and still had a two hour drive ahead to get to our final destination of the day – Valencia.

That afternoon we made it safely to the AirBnb we would call home for 3 days here in Spain. Exhausted from the travel, we dropped our things and found a quick bite to eat (plus some red wine) at a cute little place on the street level of our 6th floor apartment, Anita Gyro. By then the day and night and day had taken it’s toll and we could stay awake no longer. We were in bed and asleep by 9PM (which is 2PM Nebraska time). Wowza!

Tomorrow will be our first full day – day 1. If today is any indication, this is going to be one unforgettable trip!!

Peace and Love from Spain,

~Miss SugarCookie