It was already mid-afternoon by the time we left Figueres. The next leg of our roadtrip would take us back down through Barcelona, and along the coast towards Valencia. It was going to be a pretty long ride, and we weren't sure how far we'd get yet this afternoon. We wound up in Tarragona, a mid-sized coastal town with a nice rambla in the city center that led right to the cliffside edge overlooking the Mediterranean. We found a reasonable hotel along the rambla, and then found a surprisingly delicious Italian restaurant (set up terraza-style with tables and chairs in the street). Fresh pasta, good wine, and a comfortable bed made for an unexpectedly nice evening...

We slept in, woke up the next morning at about 10:30, and opened the windows to a bright sunny day over the blue sea. We walked down the rambla to the water overlook, and also checked out a well-preserved Roman amphitheatre just a block off the main street. The amphitheatre was quite intact, though there was some construction on the surrounding fortifications so it was blocked off to the public. It was in a great location, just up the hillside from the water, with a tremendous view. After a quick croissant and cup of coffee on the rambla for breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and headed off to see the main attraction: a Roman aqueduct located just a couple kilometers from town, right at the intersection of two major highways running past Tarragona.

This aqueduct dates back to the first century A.D., and spans a small valley in the midst of a preserved wilderness area. When we got to the little dirt parking area, there were no other cars - we couldn't believe that we might have this place all to ourselves! We walked along a trail into the forest and read the welcome sign. A map pointed out several hiking trails that led to the quarry from which the stone to build the aqueduct was taken, and other Roman archaeological bits and pieces. The aqueduct itself was fully intact, with two levels of arches at the deepest points. The coolest thing about this aqueduct was that you could walk right up onto the top of it and cross the valley in the trough that used to carry the water! What a fun surprise. This wasn't as impressive of a structure as the one in Segovia, but it was still a fantastic site to see, and its secluded surroundings meant that we didn't have to contend with a bunch of other tourists.

After playing around on the aqueduct for a couple of hours, we again headed south. Our destination today was the Ebro River delta, an important wilderness preserve for migrating birds, and a key nesting site for thousands of flamingoes (apparently one of only three places in Europe where the flamingoes successfully reproduce). But just getting there was a bit of an adventure. From the moment we exited the highway at the first signs for the delta, directions were very sparse. We quickly left the villages behind and found ourselves in the midst of endless rice fields on a grid of little dirt roads that went on and on. We drove around in the fields for what seemed like hours, and eventually happened upon the main town in the delta, Deltebre. There we found the info center for the Ebro Delta National Park (a very nice center, by the way) and learned a bit about the area.

Most of the delta is exploited for rice farming and aquaculture, and the state of Catalonia finally made an appeal to the local population to preserve what little wetlands and coastal dunes were left. So most of what you see is rice paddies, popping full of rice ready to harvest. (They grow about a dozen varieties of rice here.) The fields were lit up nicely by the setting sun, and we saw a couple of huge harvester machines rolling into the fields - they look like tanks with huge treads across the front set of wheels. We had read about a nice hotel right in the midst of the rice, so we went to see if they had any spare rooms. Unfortunately they were booked, which was a total bummer. Instead, we wound up in a lonely little hotel in the middle of the nearby non-descript town of Sant Carles de la Rápita. I guess it's a fishing town that's trying to become a beach destination, but so far wasn't quite either - lots of construction going on...

[Side note: After seeing all of that rice, it became a quest to eat as much paella as we could. We read that the "birthplace of paella" was amidst some rice fields a bit further south, closer to Valencia, at a place called El Palmar. Our mission was set. We later sought out El Palmar, found a visually appealing restaurant (called Raco de L'Olla) beside a lagoon on the edge of town, and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. The grilled vegetables were amazing, the sangria the best we'd had yet, and the paella was served straight in its big cast-iron paella pan, straight out of the oven! Wonderful - mission accomplished...]

Anyway, back to the Ebro delta: my head was definitely not together this particular afternoon. We drove around for 20 minutes looking for a supermarket we swore we had seen on our way into town, which turned out to be located literally across the street from our hotel! And then as we left to head back out to the Ebro delta for sunset, I left my backpack (full of camera gear!) sitting on the sofa in the hotel lobby. Ugh, we drove out about 30 minutes to an observation tower near the end of the road in the wetlands before I realized it was gone! Luckily it was still sitting there when we got back - thank goodness for the honest hotel staff. So we drove off again to the observation tower and barely caught the setting sun over a lagoon. It was all very pleasant in the end, but we were fairly exhausted from the panic and extra driving. The sun set, and we munched on some cheese and paté while watching the silhouettes of flamingoes kissing in the afternoon light. Whew, bed time - but not before making advanced reservations at our next destination!