Parador
Paradors are castles, monastaries, forts, etc. that have been taken over by the Spanish government and turned into upscale hotels. They were apparently very cheap but have gotten less so, although they were still reasonable. Now, they aren't what we would consider luxurious but they were pretty nice. The staff when we checked in late the night before wasn't that nice, althogh they warmed up eventually. After that, the front desk staff was helpful and one of the guys tried to show us the difference in pronunciation between Espanol and Catalan. One comment; the people of Spain are genrally very proud of the area they come from within Spain, especially in Catalan (the area in and around Barcelona). The language of Catalan is fairly different. We knew a few words of Spanish which allowed us to muddle through well enough, but Catalan...forget it. It also sounds very funny to an American ear. There are alot of "th" sounds which makes everyone sound a little like Sylvester the Cat or like they're lisping. So Barcelona become barTHelona. This casued us endless giggles through the rest of our trip, which I'm sure endeared us to the Catalan people.
The Castle was pretty cool and had some great views of the town.
The weather had improved slightly so we decided to explore the town a little and chance the rain. We started the day tryng to drive but quickly determined walking would be easier. (You are at the top of a hill, so just be prepared for the walk back up). We went to visit the cathedral but it had weird tourist hours (the siesta) so it was closed. We walked around town a bit. Tortosa is an odd mix of old and new. The ancient jewish quarter is supposed to be the oldest of it's kind. It was really just a collection of REALLY tiny streets (in a town of tiny streets) with a few non-working wells.
In addition to the old though, there are more modern stores and shopping areas in the center of town.
We visited Els Jardins del Princep a garden with really lovely plants and centered around the sculptures of artist Santiago de Santiago Herandez.
Some of his sculptures were cool:
some were odd:
and some were downright disturbing.
We had a very nice lunch at the resteraunt Pailet (http://www.paiolet.com/), which was very good (try the beet carpaccio salad) and seemed crowded with locals. Afterwards we visited the cathedral which was pretty cool. It was only a three euros and you get to tour pretty much the entire place, including the catacombs, again Denise resisted her fear of closed spaces and braved the dark underground area, but it was well lit and she did fine. The cathedral had alot of great artifacts, many of which were very close or even out in the open.
Back to the Parador for cocktails. Tortosa didn't seem like a party town, although the girls and I didn't look very hard, we were content to just relax. We had dinner atthe parador and had another excellent meal. A brief comment on the rooms; They were again failry small. We had reserved a "triple" which was a double bed with a oversized chair that was a pull-out bed. We opted to get an additional room. The girls shared a room and I had one to myself...which the girls probably enjoyed sonce I snore :) The bathroom was really big compared to the rest of ther room. The beds are VERY firm, verging on uncofortable...but again we weren't in Spain to sleep. I should also mention "Brunhilde". Of course, her name wasn't Brunhilde, but that name sums up exactly how she looked. She was our waitress a number of times and was great, she was like our Spanish mom and always took care of us. One night I just told her to bring me whatever she thought was good and had a delicious fish dish. She didn't speak very much English and we spoke no Catalan and only a little Spanish so we communicated through pointing, pantomime and just smiling, but it all worked out great. The parador also had a breakfast buffet that was really nice. I got hooked on the traditional Catalan breakfast of toast (or better yet grilled bread) rubbed with a clove of garlic, fresh sliced tomato and anchovies. The buffet also offered cereals, eggs, fruit, salad items, coffee, tea, fresh squeezed juices, pastries, Spanish meats and cheeses...it was pretty good and it was included in the price of our rooms. Spain has great pork products and delicious seafood pretty much everywhere you go. Of course try a paella dish, which is what Denise and Reed had this night, I had eel...yum.
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