Well this wasn't part of the plan! A distinct lack of winter sun - Autumn Trip part 4
Abandoning Barcelona and discovering Tarres
Warning, this is a long one, so the text will be interspersed with photos to break it up!
Watching the horrendous events from Valencia on TV was sobering and made us question if we should even be in this part of Spain...but the weather looked better for Barcelona and the one place mum wanted to see on this trip was Sagragda Familia, so we set off and hoped for the best.
Then the rain started and didn't stop for the next 12 hours... and then it got torrential. We were unsure as to carry on or not, but found a bakery a few minutes drive away. I got soaked running out for breakfast bits and as we set off again, we were unable to hear the satnav telling us directions because of the noise of the rain; that should have been a warning sign. We were also ploughing through water on the roads and looking, with some fear, at the jets of water coming up out of the drains, about two feet in the air in some places. We didn't take long to decide this was crazy and we attempted to turn back towards the hotel we had left, to get to higher ground.
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| Montblanc Town walls |
We had tunnels to go through, which did offer some respite*, but we had to keep going until we could get off the main road we were on. Just as we turned to come back the most horrendous noise came on our phones warning us that it was a red alert and to get off roads as the weather was a danger to lives. We went very quiet and counted down every minute until we got back onto the road to the hotel. Unfortunately, the road up to the hotel was also flooded, we couldn't get through; we had no idea where we were in relation to safety or escaping rain so we headed to a carpark we had seen.
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| Royal Gateway Monastery at Poblet |
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| Church of Santa Maria Montblanc |
We all frantically scanned Google maps for hotels in the neighbourhood and found one 5 minutes away; luckily they had rooms. Mum was very relieved but I continued to worry about Daisy being in an underground garage, after what we had seen and read about Valencia.
Now Barcelona was flooded in many places and roads closed, but by mid afternoon the sun came out. This weather is truly freaky and scary.
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| Tarres viewed from a walk around the village |
We either had to abandon the trip or rethink the route. So we did the latter and headed inland. I found us a lovely house to stay in Tarres, in the mountains, to get us up as high as possible. The only worry here was with landslides, if the rain continued. Thankfully it didn't, apart from one small storm. It wasn't all sunny, however, it was unbelievably beautiful and we can certainly say we have discovered an area of Spain that we cannot wait to come back to, in fact we don't want to leave it now.
Tarrés and Montblanc are beautiful places and we spent days exploring both and other days simply relaxing. We discovered a monastery in the nearby village of Poblet. It was fantastic, so much so I investigated staying in the hotel attached to it once our time was up in Tarrés. Again it was another ‘next time’ moment, as we were keen to get to what we had to see and then leave Spain.
The Monastery of Poblet took us a few hours to explore. The chapel contains the remains of eight kings of Aragon, the area of Spain we had moved into. It was the first time we had seen the tombs with the bodies suspended sideways, it was something we would see again multiple times. The visit finished with an animation, which was actually quite moving and made me reflect on spirituality in general, usually something I am not moved to do.
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| Stormy skies |
The same afternoon we had our first visit to Montblanc, which was cold and wet, so we returned the next day to wander its streets and see the church. Daisy squeezed through one of the old gates to the town through the smallest archway as we all breathed in! A quick stop to see the old town bridge on our way out was timely, as a new storm was heading our way. It was fierce rain, but thankfully short lived and as we returned to our village it was slowing down. Time for fire on and chilling.
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| Cross in Tarres |
The rest of the time in Tarrés allowed us to do some short walks around the village and into the surrounding countryside. We also visited the local restaurant which we think is community run; it was a great experience, local hospitality and friendliness abound. El Sindicat has a buffet of local foods and specialities and if you use the link, the photos show just how much is on offer. We watched a couple drinking from a bottle that was on their table and they smiled and then indicated to us to do the
same. A few other tables joined in with instructions of how to do it the local way! Much laughter and a very soggy t-shirt later, we were so full and wandered back the couple of hundred metres to our cosy home.
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| The village washing area and animal drinking vats |
At the edge of the village there is an aire for motorhomes so we know this is definitely a place we will come back to. A small mistake made whilst contacting people during the storms in Barcelona, meant I had rebooked the Sagrada Familia a day earlier than I thought, so another email sent to the hotel in Tarragona allowed us to change our night there for a third time, this meant a decision to unfortunately miss out Zaragoza on this trip. Plans were changing quickly, but we all agreed it was for the best in order to relax a little on the trip rather than being in fear of the next storm.
Tarrés is a haven in the most beautiful surroundings. Life is slow, bread is collected twice a week from the ground floor of the small village hall and vegetables can be bought on two other days. The one restaurant in the village only opened on three of the five days we were there. The church bells sound out every quarter of an hour, which I love and other than that, when we were there, nothing else happened. It was perfect.
* At least one of these tunnels featured on the news later that evening, it was full up to the roof with rainwater. Not the respite from the rain that I had believed!
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