Another day of great weather! We made some last minute changes in our route so that we could drive along the coast, and that turned out to be an interesting choice :) At first it was beautiful. We found another very rich part of Spain - yachts, expensive cars, and beautiful houses built into the hills with great views of the water. That area was a lot of fun to see!
Tempting to just stay here
The roads we saw had some really cool construction!
We were totally lovin' the drive, and then things started to get a little weird. We were driving through orange fields, which we were used to, but we started to see VERY scantily dressed women. Oh yes, there were prostitutes ALL along this really long stretch of road through nothing but orange tree fields! Odd.
We made it to Valencia around lunch time, so Bri found a cool restaurant on the water where he humored me with one last paella. It was so nice to sit out in the sun!
The rest of the afternoon, the views weren't the best, but we made great time and had no trouble finding our hotel in Tarragona. It was a nice hotel, and we were really excited about the "free mini bar", which turned out to only be a water and a soda. Haha! We ventured out and found the harbor that had a bunch of restaurants where Brian indulged in a very manly drink :)
I liked the paper strawberry on the straw
He cracks me up! For dinner we had a shrimp and avocado salad with some calamari, which was all tasty. We had found a yummy looking gelato shop before dinner, but it was closed by the time we were done with dinner! Boo. I don't handle the unfulfilled anticipation of ice cream products well, but I somehow managed to get by :)
*Personal note: the government furlough was huge on TV at this point in our trip. We had no idea what would happen or what we were supposed to do if the furlough happened, but we briefly contemplated going back to a couple of the places we had visited!
The next morning, we had breakfast at a small cafe a couple of doors down from the hotel. Fresh squeezed OJ and pastries always hit the spot. We made another route change today. In light of the previous day's lack of impressive views on the coastal road, we decided to head to the mountains today. EXCELLENT choice. We saw gorgeous canyons and rock formations!
Around noon, we stopped at what appeared to be a regular ol' gas station to fill up. When I went inside to explore, I found a cool restaurant out back with a great view! So we decided to take a break and eat a potato sandwich with grilled veggies. I was so surprised by how good it was! I was expecting gas station food :)
Gas station lunch view
Mmm - potato sandwich
After lunch, the views continued with all kinds of cool architecture and impressive mountains.
Our next stop was at a little cafe that overlooked a valley and cute little town. While I was in the cafe, this little girl with huge blue eyes and blonde curls came up to me and started speaking French. Cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. I wanted to take her home with me. At that point I decided I want my kids to learn French :)
Man, that was a beautiful day. We saw so many cool forts and castles. You know you're on a good road when you see tons of antique cars and luxury cars cruisin' around. They were everywhere!
With two hours left in our drive, we stopped at another gas station that had an impressive view of this fort built into the rock of this hill (it's on the right side of the picture).
We arrived in Lyon around 8 and went to dinner at a brasserie that was across the street from our hotel. It was a really beautiful restaurant with great food. We both had a braided roast that was served in a delicious morel mushroom marinade. The waiter recommended a local specialty for dessert, which was a tart with cream. We loved it! As we were finishing our wine, we noticed the couple next to us ordered 3 desserts, and they devoured the creme brulee. So we decided to try that as well, and we were quite impressed! It was the lightest creme brulee we had ever had. After such a huge dinner, we took a walk around the city, and then we slept really well that night!
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