Girona, Spain
Girona is a smaller city north of Barcelona that is primarily known for its well-preserved and extensive medivial area known as the Old Quarter. We arrived in Girona via a 45-minute high-speed train from Barcelona. This was our family’s first time on a high-speed train and both Zach and Jeff spent most of the trip monitoring the maximum speed (which is posted realtime in the train carriage). Roughly 120 mph if our conversion rate was correct. The Metra will be a disappointment when we return home! We had a 15-minute walk to our apartment, which was the longest we’ve walked with our backpacks thus far. Our apartment was in the Old Quarter, and the minute my Chacos hit the cobblestone streets, I was in love. It was just like living in a medieval village for 4 days, except we also had the minor things like electricity, indoor plumbing, and even AC.
Barcelona to Girona on the AVE
Down every narrow cobblestone street and around every corner in this lovely Medieval town with the Pyrenees Mountains backdrop was a photo opportunity. I was ready to explore and see all the Gothic Cathedrals, drink all the Americanos, and eat all the Jamón sandwiches on baguettes. But, before I could do any of that, I needed to put my Google Translator to work and set it to Catalan because that was much more predominantly used than Spanish here. Fortunately, we found that the locals are very generous and patient with us, and most everyone in tourism speaks English quite well or well enough to intercede before we butchered their language.
Since we only had a few days here, we wanted to see as much as we could while still having some time to just breathe and have a Radler beer. I prefer wine, but with the heat in Spain, I’ve become a big fan of lemon beer which is quite popular here. I was also gullible enough to fall for an old Girona tradition….if you kiss the lioness’s bottom, it’s a way to show that you want to come back to the city. Everything was in walking distance, so we started wandering through the amazingly preserved Jewish Quarter and then came upon the Catedral de Girona. Part of its foundations date from the 5th century.
The Girona Legend of kissing the lioness’s bottom
While I loved everything about Girona, one memory stands out in my mind. Jeff and I decided to get up early one morning to beat the crowds and take some photos of the Cathedral and the medieval wall. As we were walking up the stairs, women were singing their morning prayers from the church windows. It felt like such a gift! Then, as we were walking the wall overlooking the city, the bells from the Basilica’s Bell Tower rang out. It was truly a sacred moment that I will always remember.
A few of our favorite images of the Old Quarter are below:
