6th June, 2016

Hi,

I flew to Carcassonne on Wednesday 25th May to be met by Duncan for the two hour trip back to Arles sur Tech. Lesa (with an 'e', Duncan's niece) was visiting from New Zealand along with her friend Rubia. It was good to catch up with Lesa after a few years. Sampled the local Roquefort pizza and very tasty it was too! The girls left in the morning and we started to make plans for the rest of the visit.

By the afternoon we were back in the car and heading over the border into Spain. It was a three hour drive to Tarragona, an old Roman town on the main road along the south-eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula south of Barcelona.

We booked into the Hotel Canada, clean, cheap and cheerful. Dinner in the hotel was adequate and I introduced Duncan to Patxaran as a digestiv. In the morning after breakfast we crossed the road and the bus took us into town in about half an hour. We took a dander down the main street Rambla Nova, before booking onto the mini train which takes you around all the main sights. This gave us a good overview of the city old and new. The old town focuses on the Roman ruins and the Cathedral. There is a balcony at the end of the Rambla Nova which gives a great view on to the Mediterranean and over the Roman amphitheatre. The beaches looked good and we passed the bull ring and the Necropolis, which were both within the more modern part of the city. However as you go around there are bits of old roman walls sticking out all over the place.

We started back at the Balco Del Mediterrani and then descended to the roman amphitheatre before getting on the tourist train for an overview of the city. This picked out the highlights for us and we went back to the older part of the town and its roman ruins prior to cherry picking the bullring, necropolis and the market in the newer part of the town. The beach and the fishing port looked attractive but we didn't have time to take them in. Anyone could happily spend three days looking around and relaxing in this lovely part of Spain. Hopefully the photos will do it some justice.

Back in France the weather was not so great. We moved out to Perpignan on Monday for a pleasant day trip even if most of the places of interest were closed!

Tuesday turned into an action packed adventure. We visited the mediaeval castle of Castelnou, stuck up on a remote hillside surrounded by a sleepy village (population. 341). Even more impressive was the 'Site des Orgues 'of Ille-sur-Tet where the rock decor is sculpted by waters which change the landscape continually. The site we visited opened out like an amphitheatre. The type of rock formations reminded me of Bryce Canyon in Utah and I have also seen similar type of structures in Cappadocia in Turkey. A great last day out.

Back to Arles and a run back to the airport the following day. Thanks again to my old (well he is retired) pal Duncan for his hospitality. New territory was breached in this fascinating part of the continent.

Hope the photos give you a good flavour of the places visited.

Murdo