A few happy snaps from some final days out with my parents, taking in some sun and culture in Tarragona and Miravet as well as some bird spotting down at the Delta Ebre...
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| Cafe con leche on the terrace? Yes please... |
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| The Roman Amphitheatre at Tarragona - well preserved despite being full of school groups! |
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| Perusing the City walls... |
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| The impressive Cathedral... |
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| ...with intricate carvings |
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| ...and funky door knockers! |
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| A visit to Miravet Village and Castle on the Ebre River. In the summer you can cruise along the river... |
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| Walking up the narrow cobbled streets to the Castle... Despite being nearly November(!) it was pretty scorchio in the sun and diving into the river was actually pretty tempting! |
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| Admiring the views from just beneath the castle. |
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| Paddy fields at the Delta Ebre, a peninsula an hour's drive south. A totally different landscape today, with paddy fields, wetlands and sand dunes! |
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| A feeding frenzy as the tractor churns up the soil... |
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| Trying to identify the birds with the help of binoculars and Mum's trusty bird book! They all looked fairly grey and white but there were definitely seagulls, grey herons, purple herons and egrets of several sizes! |
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| A stroll along the beach at Punta del Fangar |
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| A pleasant spot for lunch and more bird spotting! |
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| We got to the bird hide hoping to see flamingos, but think they have already migrated for the winter. Hundreds of coots had taken their place, though as Mum says you can see these at Thatcham Lakes (our local park in the UK!). However, there was a pretty impressive consolation prize... |
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| A bee eater! I saw a flash of colour but questioned my sanity, as I've never seen anything like that before. But I was pretty sure it wasn't a crisp packet blowing in the wind or a hallucination and thankfully everyone got a glimpse later and could identify it! |
