Tarragona; Saturday, 07 February, 2026

Another good night’s sleep and early breakfast meant I was able to head out early and be up by the Cathedral shortly after it had opened to visitors for the day, which meant that for most of my exploration of the building I had the place almost to myself. Along with the cathedral itself the entrance ticket also included access into the treasury, the cathedral museum, the archaeological elements of the building – including being able to get into the space between the rear walls of the side chapels and the external walls of the cathedral itself, and the spectacular cloister and garden.

From the cathedral I headed the short distance over to the Casa Canals. This is the late 18th century home of a wealthy Tarragonan family which at one point had played host to King Charles IV of Spain when he visited the city and has been restored to how it would have looked around this time.

From the house I headed back down into the heart of the Old Town and the Plaça de la Font, a large square that is home to the Town Hall as well as a large number of restaurants and I took the opportunity to have another very filling long lunch - something that I could get very used to if I started doing it more regularly!

Lunch completed I headed out on a relatively lengthy walk, in part to see more of the city, and in part to burn off some of the excess calories from lunch. I started by walking down the Rambla Nova, the kilometre long dead straight historic shopping street of the city. The centre of the road is a wide pedestrian boulevard dotted with fountains and sculptures which makes for a pleasant place to stroll. One of the main statues on the road being the monument to the Castellers, this is the Catalan tradition of building human towers, often many people high, and the statue demonstrates how the towers are formed.

It was a short walk from the Rambla Nova over to the Mercat Central de Tarragona, the city’s main market house that opened at the start of the 20th century in modernist style. From there it was just a blocks walk to a much older market area, the site of the Colonia Forum of Tarraco, unfortunately at the time of visiting the whole site was fenced off as it was undergoing major renovation, though it’s difficult to hide the large stone vaults of the basilica and the multiple columns of a portico, so it was still possible to make out quite a bit of the site even from behind the hoardings.

A little further on and also closed to the public, but much more visible in a space in the side of the hill is the former Theatre. Less remains of this than of the other Roman sites in the city, but the outline of the seating area of the theatre has been recreated in steel beams so you can get a good idea of the scale of the site.

Almost next door, and with even less remaining, was the site of a set of Baths, today only the rear wall of the complex exists and an empty space in front of that, which is all fenced off, but still visible.

I had a bit more of a wander around this part of the city, stumbling onto the remains of a former Roman Nymphaeum as well before I started to make my way back across the city towards my hotel.

After spending a little bit of time in the hotel freshening up and relaxing, I headed out again to go for another wander around the city at night and to grab a beer and some tapas before heading back to bed.