I woke up early today and I packed my bags after having a great buffet breakfast.. I headed to the station around 10 am.. the station was a few blocks from my hotel so it was not that bad of a walk.. when I arrived at the station, they told me it was the wrong station based on my web-purchased ticket and I may need to pay more, but they ignored that and let me in anyway. Now it was just a waiting game and understanding their train system of numbering and naming. All I really cared for was that my train was scheduled for 11:46 and i needed to be patient while people came and went. At 11:46 my train arrived and I was finally on my way. At the downtown station, more people came on the train and all empty seats in my car were filled. The train headed out of Barca towards a French border town passing by few Spanish towns. After one hour, we arrived in Girona, this small sleepy town at the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. At the station, i walked straight to a taxi and showed him the hotel name I was going to on a piece of paper then we were off. It took just minutes to get there as the town is small.. After getting a room, I took a shower then I rested for a while. It was hot outside anyway so need to leave the room just yet. Figuring out how to lock the safe with Spanish directions was a challenge so I had to get some help from the front desk. The safe is very important to me as I keep all my important stuff in there.. I have a picture of my passport on my iPad just in case but the passport stays in the safe. Once all is secured, I was off to explore the new town.. I was given a map and told about few must see sites then I left.
The heat was intense outside, 101 F or 35 C, the town was empty and add to that I went in totally different direction then told so.. I walked for a long while without a sign of the sites they told me about so I approached a person walking in the opposite direction and asked. The person, a male, happened to be from originally from Georgia, former USSR. His English was so-so but he tried and that was important... I understood I was way off from the place I wanted to see so we walked together all the way there and all the while we were talking though it was tough getting the points across but we managed. When we arrived at independence square I knew that was the place the hotel told me about, there was also a river with several bridges crossing it and the famous castle was on the other side of the river... I thank my Georgian helper and he was off to his home. I crossed one of the bridges and ended up near the castle. What a site it was... awesome!! I entered the castle and bought a ticket for the museum where I spent a good hour or so. Afterwards I just roamed the grounds of the castle .. it was huge... I walked and walked and walked until I thought I would never get out of this place... from time to time I ran into humans but for the most part I was alone and lost in this castle... the castle was like a maze, I just kept going and going ... but eventually I arrived at a place where there were more people so I felt relieved as the sun was setting...
Remember I said sleepy town up above, well cross that out, because as soon as the sun was gone, people were all over the place I don’t know where they came from.. out of the wood work as they say. It was amazing, I had to negotiate my way through these very narrow streets of the old town full of cafes and restaurants and stores.... what a scene I thought ... where did all these people come from all of a sudden??? The independence square was buzzing with people too... I loved the atmosphere so I sat outside at one of the restaurants and had a nice grouper dinner... finding my way back to the hotel was another story but I will spare you from that one. In a nuttshell, I am terrible at reading maps in a city with no street signs... just awful...
The day ended with me walking about 19,000 steps or approximately 8 Miles!! Not bad for my second day on vacation...
The heat was intense outside, 101 F or 35 C, the town was empty and add to that I went in totally different direction then told so.. I walked for a long while without a sign of the sites they told me about so I approached a person walking in the opposite direction and asked. The person, a male, happened to be from originally from Georgia, former USSR. His English was so-so but he tried and that was important... I understood I was way off from the place I wanted to see so we walked together all the way there and all the while we were talking though it was tough getting the points across but we managed. When we arrived at independence square I knew that was the place the hotel told me about, there was also a river with several bridges crossing it and the famous castle was on the other side of the river... I thank my Georgian helper and he was off to his home. I crossed one of the bridges and ended up near the castle. What a site it was... awesome!! I entered the castle and bought a ticket for the museum where I spent a good hour or so. Afterwards I just roamed the grounds of the castle .. it was huge... I walked and walked and walked until I thought I would never get out of this place... from time to time I ran into humans but for the most part I was alone and lost in this castle... the castle was like a maze, I just kept going and going ... but eventually I arrived at a place where there were more people so I felt relieved as the sun was setting...
Remember I said sleepy town up above, well cross that out, because as soon as the sun was gone, people were all over the place I don’t know where they came from.. out of the wood work as they say. It was amazing, I had to negotiate my way through these very narrow streets of the old town full of cafes and restaurants and stores.... what a scene I thought ... where did all these people come from all of a sudden??? The independence square was buzzing with people too... I loved the atmosphere so I sat outside at one of the restaurants and had a nice grouper dinner... finding my way back to the hotel was another story but I will spare you from that one. In a nuttshell, I am terrible at reading maps in a city with no street signs... just awful...
The day ended with me walking about 19,000 steps or approximately 8 Miles!! Not bad for my second day on vacation...
At night cafes come alive
Independence square at night
The old and the new separated by the river
What a cute idea in old Girona
Dark alleys like this one abound in Girona
From the top of the castle
A picture on the castle top
The old and the new meet in Girona
The castle
Girona is all about its castle
Narrow streets are all over in old Girona
Inside the castle museum
Inside the famous castle
The steep steps leading to the entrance of the castle
Awesome structure
Colorful river banks
The bakeries are to die for: forget about colesterol in this place. Let the doctors worry about that!!!
