Girona, Spain

 We landed in Barcelona on my 70th birthday, but didn't (yet) get to see the city; we were met at the airport by a man in a suit who loaded us and our suitcases into a black Mercedes and glided in quiet luxury comfort about 90 minutes northeast to the old city of Girona. We learned that it has been inhabited since at least pre-Roman times, was conquered by the Moors in around 715 A.D., had one of the most extensive and best preserved Jewish Quarters in this part of the world, was retaken by the Catholic Spanish in 1492 when the Muslims and Jews were told to convert to Christianity or leave, and had been invaded by the French multiple times in later centuries. Quite a tumultuous history, at least in part due to its strategic location -- a total of 25 sieges and captured 7 times, per wikipedia. We also learned that Catalonia is a semi-autonomous part of Spain and that Spanish isn't the primary language there. The other thing we learned? That it was fascinating, and beautiful.

Random "street" scene in the historic section: narrow, cobbled, OLD

Another street. We don't have a car here; everything is in walking distance from our (modern) hotel.

After beige Bath, everything here in Girona is quite colorful. The red bridge Dan is looking at was designed by the same guy who designed the Eiffel Tower.

This statue to the defenders at Independence Square is wearing what I’m guessing is a football (soccer) jersey to celebrate a regional team's win.

Another random street in the old section

and another

There's a cathedral at the top of a steep hill; its plaza is paved with these stones in intricate artistic patterns.

The green and rugged countryside that the city is set in.

Public art in a traffic circle. The shape changes completely depending on the angle it's viewed from -- a stylized bird, a sunlike disk, a tower.

Same traffic circle, same sculpture ...

Medieval corridor

This is the entrance to the bridge designed by the designer of the Eiffel Tower. They used to bring the fresh fish here to sell and the church bells rang a special pattern to announce the catch had arrived.

Street mural

The attention to detail in the ironwork on this doorknob reminds me of my favourite latch on a door on the Galeon’s cannon deck

another corridor in the medieval “Jewish Quarter” said to be one of the largest and best preserved such areas in Europe

Cathedral steps

Plaza at the top of the hill

The randomness and colour here, so opposite to our immediately previous stop in Bath.

Check out the detail in the stone paving!

We stopped in a tiny ... can't even call it a town, a hamlet? in an old fort. There were only 3 streets within the walls, they were all narrow and curving. But inside, within the sunbaked stones, was also a cool garden and the place we'd have lunch.

It was a hot day, so the chilled gazpacho was perfect! There was also a vegetarian paella (no pix because I didn't remember until it was almost gone!) So, so good.

The rough steps up to the archery tower.

You could eat your lunch inside here (the mass of the stone walls kept it surprisingly cool) but we enjoyed the garden.

Next up, the resort area of Costa Brava on the Mediterranean.

The names of the winds in Catalan. This day we were expecting tramuntana, the cool wind from the Pyrenees, much welcomed to break the heat wave

view of the Mediterranean

Our guide Aleix said that the white buildings with blue trim reminded him of Greece. He left us to wander here on our own for a bit while he visited an elderly friend (or father of a friend? something might have been lost in the translation) who was ill; I found it quite vulnerable and charming that he did that. 

Lots of boats as well. And the water was just as clear and blue in person as it looks! There was opportunity for swimming here had we brought our suits; but there was also quite a nice pool on the rooftop of our hotel we could use instead.

And now a moment to talk about food. Our vegetarian/pescetarian diet is a bit limiting -- sometimes we can't fully dig into cultural things like a barbeque or conch fry in the Bahamas because of those limits. Really enjoyed the UK, but by the end, the food was kind of boring and we found we missed … vegetables. Lots of excellent fish-and-chips, but the most common side with those was nicknamed "mushy peas" and pretty much had the texture of baby food. (maybe it was an acquired taste...) Here’s Dan on our first night in Spain. And I was able to order in Spanish and get it right. Score!