In the 11th century there was a noble family named Burdet from Cullei in Normandy, France. Like many noble Norman families, they were adventurers — after all, they were descendants of the Norsemen, the Vikings. One part of the family participated in the Norman Conquest of England, and since they were from Cullei, and nobody’s spelling was great back then, they were referred to as “de Culy” (i.e., from Cullie).

Ah, now you’re starting to see the light.  Well, in the early 1100s, another one of the Burdets from Cullei, Robert, left to seek his fortune in Aragon (which was the kingdom in northern Spain at the time). Robert Burdet eventually became Prince of Tarragona, where he was known as Roberto d’Aguiló (probably like his older relatives were called “de Culy”).  In addition to the Wikipedia entry, you can also read more about him in Chapter 3 of this book.

In other-words, Roberto d’Aguiló, the Prince of Tarragona, was an early Culy relative. Is it any wonder, then, that we went to Tarragona while were in Spain? After all, we needed to stop in to see Chris’ Great Uncle Rob.

While walking around Tarragona, we had fun figuring out what “Great Uncle Rob” had been up to. He was probably responsible for one of the two(!) church ruins inside the old Roman amphitheater (which you can see the Friendly Tourist posing in front of in today’s photo gallery). Great Uncle Rob definitely had a nice castle that we visited, too. He was even mentioned in one of the tourist pamphlets. Cool!

BTW, from the top of his castle’s walls I spotted a little courtyard that had both a church and  a tiny seafood restaurant. It was where we wound up eating a most delicious lunch that day. In fact, it was probably the best food  of the trip. Great Uncle Rob knew how to live well.

The rest of Tarragona was also nice; you’ll see I even found a spot where the opportunities for photos of reflections were intriguing. All-in-all, Tarragona was quite the cute little seaside town: quiet — at least in March — and interesting enough to warrant another trip back some day, even if we just go back to figure out why one house was decorated with some crazy trompe l’oeil paintings, before going back to that restaurant to eat. The seafood and saffron paella there was really that good. 🙂

Ah, but the question I’m sure you really want to ask is,  was Roberto d’Aguiló, the Prince of Tarragona, really Chris’ great uncle? Well, truth be told, it actually seems unlikely. The furthest back Chris can trace his ancestors is the 1700s in England, though they had probably come from the Continent in the 1600s. But still,  it’s fun to pretend.

And you never know …

*****

P.S. A special thanks to Chris for writing up the text of most of this post!