Girona was incredible. I lived in Spain for 4 months when I was a junior in college, studying Spanish at the Universitat Polytècnica de València. During that time, I traveled around the country a little bit: I saw the Palacio Real in Madrid, the Alhambra in Grenada, La Ciudad Encantada in Cuenca, and the Roman aqueducts in Segovia and Tarragona. But nothing I have done so far in this country was more enjoyable than Girona. I have a few different kinds of things I like in Spanish cities. I like modernity, clean sidewalks, a functional transit system. I like ancient, narrow streets running uphill towards cathedrals, crowded on either side by stunning balconies. I like a city built on hills so that you can find a high point from which to view the whole thing. And I like a city which is hospitable to tourists. The reason Miki and I had so much fun in Girona was because it had all of those things. It was beautiful, it was ancient, it was modern, it was touristy. The food was excellent, the deserts were to die for, and the views blew us away. If you are staying in Barcelona and have a free day you don’t know what to do with, please, please go to Girona. I promise you won’t regret it, even if you don’t like it as much as we did. Our day did not start off excellent, if I’m being honest. Miki and I rose early in the morning and arrived at Barcelona Sants, the main train station in Barcelona, at around 8:20 for the train that would leave for Girona at 8:25. After finding our seats and sitting on the train for about 40 minutes, the train staff announced (in Spanish and Catalan only, no English) that, due to mechanical problems, the trip to Girona was cancelled. If Spanish is your second language, you might know how difficult it can be to understand announcements over an intercom, so I wasn’t really all that sure what was going on until a kind man informed us, in English, that we needed to make our way to platforms 13 & 14. After a stressful 10 minutes of trying to figure out if that man was correct, Miki and I were waiting atop the escalator to go down to the platforms. From the bottom of the escalator we heard a bunch of shouting- we found out later that the platform had been completely packed with people, and that the escalator was pretty much just shoving people into one another. Luckily we avoided that mess, and found ourselves waiting on a hot platform with a few hundred people, none of whom knew how exactly we were going to get to Girona. Renfe ended up cancelling a few other trains, specifically one that was going to carry people onto France. We met some Americans who were trying to get to Leon, others who were on their way to Paris, and a couple who, like us, were heading to Girona. We stuck together for the most part, working together to try to get onto the right train. Eventually, we all boarded a Rodiales line headed for Girona. Rodiales is a short-distance, multi-stop train system operating in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia. It did eventually get us to Girona- about 3 hours after we had originally planned. From that point onward, our day was incredible. It’s possible to take public transport into the old part of the city, but Miki and I just walked. The route took us through very stereotypical narrow European cobbled streets. Our first stop of the day was La Fabrica, a coffee shop owned by a couple of expats from Germany and Canada living in Girona. It was some of the best food we had when we were in Spain- I got the pulled pork sandwich with mango salsa, and Miki got a breakfast sandwich with egg, ham and cheese. She actually ended up being pretty jealous of my sandwich. If you are in Girona and looking for a place to have a cup of coffee or some excellent brunch, we cannot recommend La Fabrica enough. From there our day took us to the Girona Cathedral, which, while not the most impressive church i’ve seen in Europe (the Pantheon and la Sagrada Familia are pretty close to that honor) it was pretty cool, and the stained glass was likely worth the visit- some of the more ornate, beautiful designs I’ve seen. From there we walked to the Basilica sant Fileu, which, while not quite as impressive as the Cathedral, was still worth a look, for its tower if nothing else. Later in the day, we visited the old city walls, which have a wonderful view of Girona. We had bought some fans earlier in the day, which saved our lives up on the walls: direct sunlight in July in Spain is hot. After the walls, we walked back down into the city and along the river, where we stopped to have a glass of Coke at a small riverside bar. That was actually one of the best parts of the day- yes, Coke is available everywhere, but there was something peaceful about sitting at a table by the river, in the shade of some trees, sipping Coke because it was cold and the day was hot. Take breaks when you travel! Nothing wrong with buying a drink and kicking back to recharge for the rest of your day. After our break, we found some good gelato (we found a lot of that on our honeymoon), and I bought a Spanish copy of National Geographic. Then, after some great photos on the city’s famous bridges (including one of my favorites Miki has ever taken, the first photo of this post), it was finally time for some book shopping. I had this idea of collecting a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in the language of every country I visit. It's my favorite book in the series for a multitude of reasons. I have long since given up that idea as impractical, but I still felt drawn to a copy of the book translated into Catalan, the language native to the Autonomous Community of which Barcelona is the capital. Libreria Geli was where Miki bought me my copy of HP5 in Catalan. I also took some time to chat with a worker at the bookstore- one of my only significant conversations in Spanish while on our honeymoon, and he helped me find a stack of books that would be suitable for my students back home.
After the bookstore, we had dinner at Unicorn, a nice little pasta place, where we also tried Xuixo, a pastry famous in Girona- we definitely recommend Xuixo if you get the chance. Finally, it was time to go back to Barcelona and get some rest. Except, it took us hours to get back to Barcelona. Because we had train troubles again. We sat around, reading in the train station, for three hours. Two trains back to Barcelona were cancelled- we never found out why. We did eventually make it back to Barcelona, to our AirBNB. And we came to a conclusion: We adored Girona. And we hated the trains in Spain that day.
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Miki & BobWe're an adventurous couple that travel internationally and travel nationally in our RV. We have a corgi named Sophie that comes along on our adventures. Our goal is to encourage others to travel and show genuine travel over Instagrammable travel. CategoriesArchives
April 2020
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