Thursday 7th March 2024
“Up-n-out” this morning, but not too early!!! Our time in Spain is nearly over, today we head towards Frejus to stay at Andrew”s “iconic”, but “quirky” house, but will do an overnight stop in Gerona; we’ve never been there, so it will be good.
Fortunately we had started to pack the car yesterday evening; the 36-steps takes it out of us these days so we spread the “job” over two timescales!!!
After breakfast we completed packing the car and helped Martin get things back to normal as he leaves tomorrow after his short visit.
Christine had pre-booked the hotel in Gerona, reasonably close to the old town and by a large park and naturally they took dogs. We hit the road mid morning, motorway all the way so the 5-hour drive will be easy. It’s so nice to drive in Spain, well in this region as all the toll booths have been removed, all the motorways are free, why can’t France do the same???
Arriving in Gerona early afternoon was fine, but getting to the hotel was a different story. Waze kept telling us to go up a certain road but it was closed and we drove around in circles until Christine spotted a very small side street, so we headed down it and low and behold the hotel’s garage entrance appeared on our left, so parked and Christine walked round to the front and booked in, at which point they opened the garage door and we were in. Ouch, a steep narrow ramp into the “bowls of the earth” under the building. But if that was not enough, the hotel receptionist was waiting and told us to go down again to a lower floor. All I can say is it’s a good job we have a small car as the corner was sharp and the width was very narrow, as evident by the chunks out of the wall!!! And if that wasn’t enough, they must have recently had their carpark floors re-resigned as each time the front wheels turned, the screeching sound was very loud. Anyway, without mishap we parked and extracted our overnight cases and headed to the lift but then it happened, Tom-Tom had terrible diarrhoea on this smart new shiny surface👹👹👹, but with limited resources we managed to sort it all out!!!
After settling into our room we headed out towards the old town and Jewish quarter.
From our hotel and to get to the old walled town we had to cross the river, and as we did, we were admiring all the old buildings lining the river, all decorated in numerous vivid colours.
There are a total of eleven bridges that cross the river in Gerona, One of which is the “Eiffel Bridge” constructed by Gustave Eiffel just before the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Girona is the capital of the Girona province in the Catalonian region in North-eastern Spain. It lies on the Oñar River in the foothills of the Los Ángeles Mountains, a short distance inland from a Mediterranean Costa Brava. The city comprises of three zones: the interior, which includes the old quarter; the modern section; and a residential area.
The history of this place is impressive because of its position on the coastal route from Gaul to the Iberian Peninsula. Girona was a fortified site whose ruined walls date back to the 4th and 5th centuries, and historically this city has been the subject of many wars, sieges and take-overs including the Romans, Visigoths, Muslims and Franks and at one stage it was part of the Kingdom of Aragon. Until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. There was a thriving Jewish quarter and much of the original labyrinth of narrow passageways are preserved in the old town and can be walked around today.
We did try to visit the Cathedral that stands high up on the hill, with its broad steps approaching an imposing entrance but alas, it was closed but not too disappointed as we did visit one church but I fear this was the poor relation!!!
There is much to see here but a few short hours doesn’t do the place justice; back for a longer visit sometime I think.
Wandering along the “hilly” cobbled narrow streets we decided to have a drink and take in the atmosphere but apart from a few students, there was none. Our timing was wrong, a Thursday with dusk approaching and too early for the evening to begin, we headed out of the old town, over another bridge and into the more modern “traditional Spanish square”, and by now restaurants were opening and folk were coming out to play!!
We decided on which lucky restaurant we would donate to and this evening made do with several Tapas and naturally vino!!!
Our hotel was just around the corner but diverted to the very big municipal park close to the hotel for the dogs to have a jolly good run before settling in for our last night in Spain🥵🥵: France tomorrow.
