Girona by Motorhome – Easily Done.

Zagan the motorhome is surrounded by balconies, many of them displaying the Catalan flag, as he is parked up in an aire close to the centre of Girona (N41.98373, E2.81386). This place reminds me of the ‘pop-up’ aires that appear in the capital cities of the Baltics in summer, a little-used car park which has been turned over to us motorhomers, with the addition of a service point.

Back in the restaurant aire in Cantallops, as the night descended the wind increased. Each gust made me shudder and wonder if the satellite dish was still attached to the roof. It’s designed to take wind hitting it from the front of the van when we are driving, but we have no idea how well it would fair with the wind coming from the back. By 9pm we could take no more, and while the dish was still attached we quickly packed up and drove down to the lower car park which offered protection from the onslaught.

The following morning all was still and Zagan had survived intact. It was time to move on. Mike and Mandy, who we met a few days ago, had visited Girona and said it was worth a look, so we set co-ordinates for the new aire near the centre and followed the free NII down here. It weaves around the paid motorway, and at one point we hit roadworks where we ‘think’ the signs said the motorway was free at that point – but as it’s a while since we’d listened to our Michel Thomas CD’s we weren’t sure, so we stayed clear.

The drive to Girona was pretty uneventful, apart from the last few hundred metres which saw us squeezing between parked cars to get to the entrance for the aire. On arrival we pulled onto the pavement in front of the gate and pressed the buzzer. The gate slid open and we were greeted by Juan who spoke very little English, but made us feel most welcome. The aire’s on top of an underground car park (the cars use a different entrance), but we all use the same ticket office for payment. Juan gave me a form to fill in with our details and pointed to the price chart. As we’re under 6m (well we were in Norway!) it was only €10 for 24 hours. So I was surprised to see the underground car park charges €20 for a car for that amount of time – no wonder there’s a steady stream of Porsches and expensive looking cars going in and out.

Juan then talked me through details about the aire, how to get in and out when the car park was closed, what there is around the city, and through several maps which showed the old town (a 10 minute walk away) and how to get to Lidl – he knows what motorhomers need. Of course this was all in Spanish, so I only really got about 5% of it verbally, but with a lot of pointing and demonstration of the card entry machine it all made sense. I returned to Zagan and grabbed my Spanish phrase book – what day is Martes? Ah, Tuesday. What day is it today? Ooooh Tuesday. It’s market day! We’d arrived with an hour before the huge market on Devesa Park opposite the aire started packing up. We headed over there and stocked up on refreshingly cheap fruit and veg, before taking a opportunity to giggle at the luminous bras and huge flesh=coloured ladies undies every Spanish market has.

We also made it out for a steady 5 kilometre run around the park, which gave us a chance to work out our bearings and see the skyline of Girona and its imposing cathedral. After a spot of lunch we headed over the Onyar River, which is lined with houses painted in a rainbow of colours, into the old town for a look around. Of course we forgot all the maps Juan had given us, so wandered around taking in the sights making our way upwards until we reached the cathedral.

From the cathedral we climbed further until we reached the city walls which envelop the upper old town. Made up of Roman, Carolingian and Medieval parts we walked along the walls and climbed up the various towers. From here we could take in the the views over terracotta rooftops across to the snow-capped Pyrenees.

By the time we were only half way around the walls I was shattered. The Christmas lurgy is still lingering, so we headed back to Zagan just as all the shops were opening again after ‘lunch’. It’s going to take us a while to get onto Spanish time. On our way back we crossed a red metal bridge. Its construction looked familiar and on reading the information plaque it was confirmed – it was built by Gustaf Eiffel (seems he didn’t just do the tower in Paris and the viaduct we saw a couple of days ago). We also passed a cake shop and as we’d been for a run and done a lot of walking, we treated ourselves to a huge meringue and nut thing and one of the local ‘El Xuixo‘ (pronounced el chuicho). We plonked ourselves down in Placa de la Independencia in front of the bars and cafes and scoffed the Xuixo, it was basically a custard doughnut, but it was just the sugar hit I needed. Around us the square was decorated with yellow ribbons, the Catalan flag, and political posters – the century-long fight for independence from Spain continues.

After a quiet night, considering we’re sleeping in a city, this morning we woke to cloud. Hoping it might lift we walked to the local Mercadona supermarket for a few supplies but the weather was in for the day. Around noon there was a knock on the door as Andy and Julie from New Zealand (although originally from the UK, so we were a tad thrown by the midlands accents) popped round to say thank you. It never ceases to amaze me that folks read what I am typing and some even find it useful! Anyway, it was great to have a quick chat with them before they headed off into town for a guided walking tour. They are coming over later for a longer catch up, and so we’ll be quizzing them on all things Girona as we’ve just been wandering around and not really done any research on the place – as you can probably tell from this blog post! Update – they really enjoyed their tour and it turns out that Girona was used for Braavos and Old Town scenes in Game of Thrones. If you are thinking of visiting this site tells you how to find them all.

In an effort to see some of the ‘sights’ marked on our map (which we remembered today!), we headed over to the local indoor market, which always seems to make our stomachs turn. A pile of chicken feet, a skinned rabbit and a whole pigs head were some of the delights on display. I’m sorry but I am just too used to my food not looking like what it used to be. We looked it up, and the general consensus was that when a country is ‘rich’ enough to not need to eat everything on the animal, a generation doesn’t get to experience them and those cuts fall out of fashion. So, you end up with someone like me who baulks at the idea of chicken feet for my tea. After the market we found El Lleo (The Lion) sitting on top of his tower monument, then headed back across the river again to finish off the rest of the walls.

At the end of the walls was a small concrete triangle entrance leading into the ground. Above it a children’s play area. We spotted an information board and wandered over to read it. The entrance lead to a bomb shelter built to house 600 people during the Spanish Civil War – it’s so strange to think of this beautiful country tearing itself apart not so long ago.

We made it all the way around the walls today, to be fair they aren’t that big, but there are quite a few steps. The distant views were not as good today because of the cloud but I found the cityscape fascinating and could have stood up there all day watching the world go by.

My reward for today’s walking was suggested by Karina on our Facebook page. Girona has a very famous Michelin starred restaurant, not really our thing, but the restaurant has an ice cream shop – very much my thing! I managed to resist the sauces and various toppings and opted for a simple cone of chocolate ice cream. It was delicious and a fitting finale to our visit to Girona, a city that I have really enjoyed spending time in and hope to return to one day (when it’s a bit warmer).

Ju x