The Rain in Spain!
⬅ previous ⬆intro next ➡Day 5 (May 12) ~ Girona
Today we're going to see some of the sights in town, visit some museums, be proper tourists, that sort of thing. It's even looking like it's going to be a nice day!
Look at all that blue stuff behind the cathedral!
The flower display on the Cathedral steps is pretty much done now.
These posters are all over town. They tell us that the festival is happening, but absolutely nothing about it beyond that fact. Presumably the locals don't need to be told, and as we know, this is a long way from being the most touristy part of Spain. Indeed, you may notice that the text is all in Catalan, not even Spanish.
As an aside, in many places around the world, you'll see multilingual signs in the local language for the natives and English for the foreigners. In Catalunya, they seem to reckon the rest of Spain is quite foreign enough, thank you, so often standard Spanish is the only concession to visitors.
There's a picture frame on a bridge, but to get behind it for a selfie, you'd have to be able to fly. Perhaps you're supposed to use it to capture the river view.
Oh yes, definitely looking better than yesterday. But I guess I thought the frame was a bit too naff.
Now as as some of you will know, we do have a bit of a soft spot for a good cow. But just inside the doorway of a shop, we are slightly taken aback by a cow on wheels with an umbrella.
We don't quite understand. We may have to investigate further later.
You were wrong, Beatles, love is not all you need. To be scrupulously fair, of course, WiFi hadn't been invented in their day, so they can be forgiven for not mentioning it in a song. These days, I understand, you are supposed to find love through dating apps, so WiFi probably has to come first.
A giant multi-coloured knitted doll, of course, on a bed of flowers and branches.
You see these flags and yellow ribbons all over the place. The blue triangle with the star is added to the official red and yellow striped Catalan regional flag by supporters of independence, and the ribbons declare solidarity with the political leaders who have fled Spain or been arrested.
Mind, I hadn't quite realised the number of things that a yellow ribbon can mean around the world! See what Wikipedia has to say.
I have no idea if BioSaurus baked organic corn snacks are actually dinosaur shaped, but I shall be terribly disappointed if they turn out not to be. Admittedly, we weren't brave enough to actually buy a packet, because whatever the contents are, they can't possibly be as good as the packaging.
Another small mystery: you can no longer post your letters here.
What wimps people are today. We would never have dreamt of choosing just one or the other in our day. Here: Monty Python's Philosophers' Song!
Hmm... The bridge didn't have these rocks hanging down yesterday!
They're fake, of course, made of fibreglass. Obviously.
As I believe I mentioned earlier, Girona is a big cycling town. Bike shops and related businesses lurk around every corner. Here are a few random selections...
So what could be more appropriate for lunch than a cycling cafe?!
"La Fabrica" - The workshop or factory, in English.
The food is fabulous: it really does taste as good as it looks.
I suppose it's even healthy with all that green stuff and sprouts and everything!
Inside, they have bike racing memorabilia and a deli counter too.
It's a little bit of a pity that the rain starts, but it really has been a very fine lunch. There's little doubt that if we were staying longer, we'd be back again.
But if it's not so good outdoors, we have plenty of indoor stuff to investigate.
A bit of bling in the cathedral.
Sing-along-a-monk in the museum.
And by purest coincidence...
Flower festival wine! It's not that local - although it is a Catalan wine, it's from a lot further south - but obviously we have to buy it. Fortunately it turns out to be a very fine drop. It's a combination of Muscat, Gewürztraminer and Xarel.lo, so being a bit floral is rather to be expected.
For dinner, after yesterday's slightly mixed bag, we've found somewhere that gets top reviews and sounds very much to our taste. It's called "L'Arròs &...", which means "Rice and..." with the "..." being fish and seafood. Presumably that goes without saying to the natives.
If it looks more like a fishmonger's than a restaurant from the outside, that's not entirely misleading. Basically it's a fishmonger's where they cook the fish for you!
You have a chat with the guy behind the counter, decide what you like the look of and how you fancy it cooked, then take your seat and have a drink while it's being prepared. And look, they have the very wine I just featured three pictures ago! We order a bottle of it and for a moment, they don't think they actually have any available, because it's a brand new wine to them too.
I suppose it could be a bit off-putting if you prefer your dining experience to be less interactive, and that had come across in one or two of the reviews we read, but we love it. And I guess it's not particularly cheap, but good seafood isn't, and this is far from expensive for what it is. Definitely recommended if you are in the area.
Afterwards, we take a little walk around town as the light fades.
The cathedral at dusk.
And back at the hotel, there's an interesting metal stencil artwork in the stairwell. It's Corten steel, so rusty by day (which we are not fans of) but rather stylish by night.
⬅ previous ⬆intro next ➡