Girona!

October 17, 2022

Cousins’ Trip Day 2, Girona, Spain

Monday we toured Girona, Spain. We started by crossing the Eiffel Bridge a red bridge that is picturesque and also has nice views of the colorful buildings lining the Onyar River. It was constructed by the same Gustave Eiffel who built the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris! Then we started looking for the city walls, and stumbled across the pretty Sagrat Cor church before finding the steps up to the ancient city wall.

Girona has a well preserved ancient city center, and ancient walls (Passeig de la Mural) which partially enclose the old city. Though first city walls were built by the Romans in the first century b.c. they were rebuilt in the Middle Ages, from the 9th-14th centuries. They are some of the most complete city walls in Spain.

We walked up to the walls and the various lookout towers (using spiral staircases). The views over the ancient city and surrounding countryside were very nice. After wandering up and down towers and the wall (which undulated up and down…at the end of the day I. had climbed 41 flights of stairs), we got off the wall at the Girona Cathedral (or the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Girona). This cathedral has the second widest nave of any church and the widest of any Gothic church. It was built starting in the 11th century on the site of an older church and finished in Gothic style in the 13th century…it’s old!. The interior and exterior (with 90 steps) are beautiful and inside it’s peaceful, with many beautiful stained glass windows.

After touring the church we wandered through the old town and the Jewish section, the streets of which were really narrow, and lined with alleys, some of which were staircases leading up to the church and city walls.

The old city and the buildings along the Onyar.

We found an empanada shop for lunch…best empanadas ever! I had a tuna and a veggie empanada. The bad news was that I put my backpack down and left it on the chair, the good news was that I didn’t have anything valuable in it, and the best news was that we went back about 10 minutes later and the proprietor of the coffee shop next to the tables had found it and saved it for me!

After lunch (it was 3pm by then), we headed off for our next stop: Avignon, France, in the middle of Provence. Sidney drove the whole way so Sonya could rest and work (jetlag was kicking her), I navigated and edited photos, and we made it to our apartment with far fewer problems than yesterday, even though we are again in the middle of the old city.