Monday, August 17th - Mataro, Spain

It is finally a week day and there were indeed businesses open and people on the street when we walked down the street about 11 a.m.  Of course not all businesses were open and those that were open started closing at 1 p.m. for the afternoon siesta.  Some say they open again at 4 and some say 5.  Even the tourist information booth is open from 10 to 1 and then doesn't open again until 5.  I have a feeling that there is a lot of late afternoon / evening business and probably some very active night life but so far we haven't exactly seen any.  And knowing us we may never stay up late enough to see very much.

We went first to the tourist information office and picked up our audio guides for a walking tour of the city.  We just had to follow the map and then at each location key in the number and listen to the story.  It was a pretty easy walk and it took us to some parts of the city that we had not seen.  Overall it was pretty well done.

It started at City Hall and it took us a minute to find it.  The tourist office was inside City Hall so we were looking around it but not where we had just come from.  It's a pretty simple building.  On the inside it is white and has some decorative arches that make it look classical.  The one area has wood panelling for the ceiling and it looked quite nice  but we couldn't get too close to it.  We also couldn't get into their portrait gallery but then it was just local dignitaries so we probably didn't miss much.

We went to various sights including several churches.  I had already visited the Santa Anna Church and the Basilica of Santa Maria and blogged about them before so not much new to report there.  There was also the Chapel of Saint Sebastian that was very small and just a corner cove from the original church.  I had walked past it several times and missed it, which is unusual because statues of St. Sebastian are generally pretty unique since he always has a lot of arrows sticking out of his body as that was how he died.

We saw some of the old ruins around the time.  Can Xammer is an archeological find of Roman baths from the time of Augustus, probably between 1 BC and 2 AD.  All we could see were the excavated walls around the three baths (hot, medium, cold) and some of the piping to move the water.  Nearby there were the remains of the old city wall and one of the round towers from the 16th century made mainly of rough stone and mortar, although some of the section was made of bricks.

We saw the Hospital of Sant Jaume and Santa Magdalena.  I couldn't quite figure out who the wall statue was of but it was a horseman who just happened to be riding his horse over people.  Was he drumming up business for the hospital?  There was a church attached to the hospital and I should clarify that the statue was on the church not the hospital but it still didn't make any sense to me.

We were wandering down a lot of narrow lanes in the old part of the town and at one spot we saw La Confianza, a store from 1896 that had incredibly intricate designs on the outside.  The glazed tile mosaics and down each side of the door and the iron decorations above the door were very impressive.  And then the interior was equally beautiful with a decorated ceiling and walls and incredible iron work for the cabinets on the wall (or at least it looked like iron work.  It was a small shop that sold pasta and olive oil back then and still does today.  This shop was very intricate and yet just down the way there were other small shops that looked like they were equally old but definitely not fancy.  Some were very dark on the inside and had just enough room to walk in and out with displays and counters on either side.

We visited a couple of markets.  The Rengel Market from the 19th century provided fresh fruit and vegetables.  We also saw the building that housed the old fish market.  It is not that now and we questioned why the market would be so far from the water.  Then we wondered if the water wasn't that much higher back then so that the market really was near the water.  The building has several "sea" features to it like a statue of Neptune, but it looks rather Roman or Greek with six columns right out front.

We saw a number of houses that belonged to the rich people of the time.  Casa Parera (1894) had fancy balconies, statues and slanting roofs but it was hard to see from the street.  Luckily each sight had a sign in front of it as well.  Casa Coll I Regas (1897) was very ornate and decorated in many different styles.  It was also two house widths wide.   Most houses are tall and narrow so this one had more width for bigger rooms.  We also saw the Can Serra Arnau from the 16th century.  While originally a home, this is now the Mataro Museum, which of course was not open and seems to only be open on certain evenings.  The Can Palauet house from  the 17th century is now owned by the city.  Ornate window decoration was about all these two homes had to distinguish them.  We also went by Ca L'Areness, the Art Museum of Mataro, another old house which has been converted, but it too was not open.  The Residencia Sant Josep (1912) could be a large house but it was actually built as a school and now it is an old folks' home.

As we walked along we saw the city cultural office and went in because we wanted to buy tickets for a jazz concert next week.  We felt quite lucky to have spotted it on our way by.  The next stop on our tour was La Beneficencia but we couldn't seem to find it.  We also didn't know what we were looking for as there was no translation for the name.  Well, it turns out that it was the building of the city cultural office and we'd already seen it but just didn't know.  It was originally built as a home for orphaned girls but is now a city building.

The Sant Josep historical heritage building (16th century) was very plain on the outside in a baroque style.  It is still an operating church but wasn't open.  The sign on the door made it seem that it was only open for mass or just before for confession.  I guess even church hours are cut back in this area.

We listened to a couple of descriptions but did not go to them.  Nau Gaudi was one of Gaudi's first buildings and it was built as a textile bleaching shed for the textile industry  It is nothing fancy on the outside and I never would have guessed it was a Gaudi.  It is now a youth centre.   The Torre Llauder is right near our hotel and that's where the jazz concert is so we'll see that then or on Saturday night when it is open for guided tours.  It is a Roman villa from somewhere between 1 BC and 6 AD, and I'll probably get more of that later.  And the College of Validemia was a bit further out of the down town area so we didn't go out that way but assume we will see it at some time.

La Preso or the former prison (1863) is an interesting building.  It is rectangular on one side and a semi circle on the other side.  This was apparently the "new" way to build and run prisons and it was a prison right up to 1967.  We aren't sure what it is now.

All in all it was a great way to see the city and we now know what places we have to go back and visit - when they are open.   

We had lunch where we ended the tour and then I went back to the hotel to have a massage.  After an hour or so of sitting around it was 8 p.m. and finally time to go out for dinner.  We went to one that we had looked at before but couldn't wait until 8 to go into.  They have a large seating area outside but it was just a bit too cool and windy for our liking so we went inside.  Olives and calamari for appetizers and paella and monkfish with prawns for main course.  It was all good but I can't say I was overly excited by any of it.  Everything was pretty salty - and it has to be really salty for me to say that!  However, the price was okay.  With 3 glasses of wine and all of the food the bill was about 25 euros or under $40. and the portions were not small.  After dinner we walked home and didn't have too much time to kill before it was bedtime.  I guess there are benefits to eating after 8 p.m., but I bet the locals were up until midnight or later.  We're definitely not totally on their schedule yet.