After Barcelona, Girona was a welcome break. It
was back to seeing the more authentic and historical side of Spain. Girona had a beautiful old centre situated on a hill, with ancient
walls around the outside, some parts dating back from the 1st
century BC, although during the 14th century a lot of the walls were
thoroughly rebuilt. Whilst walking along these walls we were able to enjoy some
marvelous panoramic views of the city of Girona, especially delighting in the beautiful
skyline with the towers of Sant Feliu and the Cathedral overlooking the narrow cobble-stoned streets below that make up the Jewish Quarter.
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| Skyline from the old city walls of Girona |
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| The old city walls |
The Jewish Quarter is the essentially what makes
up the old town of Girona and made for a nice relaxing place to take a stroll
around and admire the little streets and see all the locals and tourists
partaking of a relaxed Menu del dia from one of the many restaurants right out
in the middle of the streets, basking in the Spanish sun.
However the best part of Girona, and the one you
will see in most pictures if you look up Girona, will be the colourful houses
that line the east bank of the Onyar River. They are all painted a variety of
colours that especially on a sunny day (of which there are plenty in Spain) really stand out and make for a fantastic picture! On the slight downside however the river can apparently get quite smelly in the height of summer when the river dries up.
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| Houses on the River Onyar |
For us Girona was also a place to relax and get a good nights sleep after spending some not so quiet nights in Barcelona (thanks to having some very noisy American neighbours). It was nice to spend a night in a really comfy bed with no other noise to worry about. We got a really good deal and ended up with a 4* star hotel for £32, a bit more than we would normally spend, but it was nice as a treat.
After our brief stop to recharge in Girona we
headed even further North into Catalonia via blablacar again, this time heading
for Figueres, a small city famous mainly for the Salvador Dali Museum (the second most visited museum in Spain after Madrid's Prado). Whilst in the car on the way to Figueres we were chatting with a Russian girl who was also getting a lift who told us about her travels, but most of all we were interested in her views on what is good to visit in Russia, and she gave us a good sized list of things to see. Just talking with her was really interesting as it is a different way of life in Russia and it's intriguing to hear things from her point of view, not just from what you hear in the media!
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| Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres |
I digress; the Dali Museum is a fascinating place to explore, as one might expect due to the fact that Dali himself designed and lived in the Museum in his later life, the building is in fact Dali's single largest work. The building is set around the main theatre building and the courtyard, with rooms running all around the outside of these, going up multiple levels, displaying works from all periods of his life. You could easily spend half a day in the Museum.
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| One of Dali's paintings in the main theatre building |
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| A painting of Dali's wife |
Unfortunately due to the museum being so famous and popular it also makes it extremely crowded. We had to queue up outside for half an hour to get our tickets and once inside you have to really move with the crowd or be pushed along as it is so busy. You felt like you couldn't stand still for long. We even got told to move several times by people trying to take photographs, which put a slight dampener on the experience. But if you can get past that, it is a truly fascinating place to go, even if just to see how insane Dali's mind was.
