Wed, May 18 To Tortosa

Wed, May 18 - Another clear day! I got up at 7:00 and Bob and I and Máquina, the large grey dog, set off for a walk on part of the Gran Ruta, the country-wide hiking trails. We walked past hazelnut trees, wildflowers and old stone terraces, up a ridge until we were overlooking Pratdip, which for some reason, at eight in the morning had a blaring recording of band music playing over the town! It sounded quite nice from our distance, but must have been rather jarring in town.

We returned back to the hotel and joined Hilary for the usual really great breakfast, and then relaxed for a bit before packing up and sadly leaving the wonderful hotel Mas Mariassa.

Hilary drove and we set off on back roads in the direction of Tortosa. We met the Ebro River and followed the scenic narrow road along the left bank through farm land and vineyards, reaching Tortosa about 1 pm.

The town is quite small, set on the river, and dominated by a large castle, La Suda, which was a Roman-Iberian acropolis, an Arab palace and a Templar castle, before being blown up in 1938 in the Civil War. The government put it all back together again and made it into one of the Parador Hotels. The Paradores are a chain of hotels started in the 1920s by the government to preserve old nunneries, castles, government buildings and to promote tourism in more remote parts of Spain….a pretty nifty system.









From the river we climbed steeply up a narrow stone paved road entering a one-lane stone-walled alley leading to the entrance of the castle. We parked and checked in and walked a long ways to our rooms overlooking the courtyard and down to the river and town.







As it was early, we set off once again to the delta of the Ebro to try and see the Slender-billed Gull, the other rare gull of the area. Hilary drove round the endless rice paddies and we found one of the small nature preserves and a bird hide. As we were driving, Hilary spotted a gull and Bob identified it as an immature, but unmistakable Slender-billed!

We returned to the Parador at six, blogged, rested and met for drinks at 7:30 and found the dining room at 8. The Paradors try to feature the local foods at each of their locations; we started out with noodles in beef stock and artichokes, and cheese and leeks on toast. Bob and I shared a black rice paella, and Hil had cod on spinach. All were good, but the portions were huge which we found off-putting. Also after three nights at Mar Mariassa nothing would measure up!