City of the Four Rivers: Girona

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One of the cool things about our accommodation in Barcelona was it was close to everything… including Passeig De Gràcia, a Metro station with a connected railway station for suburban and regional trains.

It was our final full day here, and we’d planned a day trip to Girona, a town about 100 km north-east of Barcelona. It’s reachable in 40 minutes by high speed train (but not from the station near us) or about 75 minutes by regular train (from Passeig De Gràcia). That seemed easier, so was the better option.

The station has only had two suburban/regional platforms, with trains to various destinations coming through every few minutes. A bit like Footscray in Melbourne, but completely underground.

We could be thankful that all the trains were electric, so no fumes choking the tunnel, but clearly the Spanish rail network has a mix of rolling stock, old and new, some carriages shiny and clean, others covered in graffiti.

Also trains of varying lengths, and given some of the information screens were pretty basic, no clues as to whether you were standing in the correct part of the platform.

Our train was a bit late, but we found seats and settled in for the ride, which was pretty smooth, but continued to be about 10 minutes late all the way to Girona. (I was tracking the times in Google Maps, trying and failing to figure out how to add to the crowdsourced information that it was delayed, with no luck.)

Not to worry. With the rest of the crowd, we made our way out of the station and started the 15ish minute walk towards the old part of town, along the river Onyar.

It was market day, and the place was buzzing.

Once off the main drag, we found ourselves in lovely narrow (and steep!) cobblestone streets. Very occasionally a car would intrude, but for the most part this was pedestrian territory.

In fact I’d come to realise that on the entire trip, in England, France and Spain, I’d seen almost no private vehicles bigger than a small hatchback. Maybe a few medium-sized SUVs, but none of the giant utes that some people in Australia have decided are a sensible family car. They wouldn’t go well in these streets, of course.

Girona is where they’ve filmed some scenes for Game Of Thrones, and it’s not hard to see why. But even those with no interest in the show would find plenty to see here.

They seemed to be setting up for an event at the cathedral, with crews deploying audio-visual gear. Amazing building.

We found a walled garden to have a rest, with the view from the top of the wall providing a vista over other parts of the city.

Further on we found the Arab Baths, dating back to the 1294, but built in the style of Roman baths.

It was well past lunchtime, and tummies were rumbling. We roamed around for a bit trying to find a restaurant that wasn’t packed full. Eventually we found a place that did brunch and lunch, run by a couple – one of whom was a professional cyclist, and there’s a bit of a motif going on with the decor.

One thoroughly delicious lunch later, and we set off walking again.

I was fascinated to see what gets dug up in a historic city like this when they do drainage works.

All of this walking had earnt us an ice cream, and we found a place famous in the area for its frozen creations. After a long wait in a queue, we exited with quirky flavours that… well okay I’ll admit it wasn’t quite my thing, and perhaps not worth the wait. Maybe I’m an ice cream philistine. No matter, it was still ice cream, and it was tasty enough.

It was about 4pm now so we headed back to the station, and caught the train back to Barcelona.

After a rest back at the flat we went out for an evening walk and found dinner at yet another tapas restaurant.

Another great day.

But the holiday was ending. Time to pack up our bags; it’d be an early start to head for home tomorrow.