Visit to #Tarragona and the Museu D'Art Modern Tarragona

Our next port of call was Tarragona. Here we needed a coach into town and as we stepped off the bus were greeted with a superb view of the towns old ruins of a coliseum.

One criticism of the cruise shore excursion staff were the maps provided. These were often difficult to follow, not always to scale and at times the places of interest were in Spanish or Portuguese. We had planned to visit the art gallery, which we had read about but it took us quite a while to actually find it. However, in our search we did come across some impressive buildings with lots of small alleys and interesting areas to explore. One of the highlights was the magnificent cathedral.  We sat on the steps, which led to the main entrance  to eat our lunch.

As we wandered the streets, we kept bumping into this same old lady. It was almost ghost like the way she kept appearing, either that or we were going in circles.  Sitting for a drink  gave me a chance to observe the locals and do some sketching.

Eventually, we found the art gallery we had been looking for and were immediately impressed by the building and art on show. For a relatively small town the quality of the paintings etc. was exceptional.
As well as featuring local artists, there was work by well known painters including a piece commissioned by Joan Miro.

Founded by the Provincial Council of Tarragona in 1976, this museum fills three separate 18th-century houses that have been grouped together and appropriately refurbished. The collection includes 20th-century paintings and sculptures by Julio Antonio, Salvador Martorell, Santiago Costa, Josep Sancho, José Nogué, Ramon Carreté, Lluís Saumells and the winners of the biennial painting and sculpture awards, as well as documentary and avant-garde photography. The museum also has an auxiliary library, a documentation centre and photography archives and offers temporary exhibits and guided tours for school groups.

As we wandered the corridors, the wide variety of work continued to surprise us and we spent a good couple of hours viewing the exhibits before catching the coach back to the boat.

Another impressive town and only the second one we had visited. This holiday was exceeding our expectations and we couldn't wait for what the next day would bring!