Back in Nov 2024, I wrote a blog about Girona, Spain and how it was one of our favorite small cities and a great option to staying in Barcelona. But how is it two years later?
I am pleased to report that not much has changed and it remains a small quirky city with great wall to climb around…..for free.
I am not going to rehash everything that I wrote about in 2024 and I recommend that you read that blog for more details. On this trip, we went to decompress for a few days before we jumped on a cruise ship for three weeks that would eventually return us home to Florida.
We arrived late on a bus from France and walked about 20 minutes to the Doubletree Hotel in the City. The Flixbus was about $30 and it was an uneventful 7.5 hour ride with only 3 stops. The bus was pleasant enough and the most efficient way for us to get to Girona.
We checked into our upgraded room (Hilton AE Credit Card provides upgrades and breakfast) around midnight. Girona is a quiet and safe city, so walking around late in the evening was no concern.
The next morning, we were expecting rain, so we headed off early. To save time we took the bus to the old town to begin exploring.
Our first stop was the city walls. We have been around Europe and we believe that these are some of the best-preserved walls anywhere. After about an hour, we had worked our way around the city walls and visited all of the lookout towers. In comparison to our last visit, I believe that the City had actually cleaned them up quite a bit. There are still a few homeless characters around, but less than before.
When we came off the walls and entered into the old Jewish Quarter, we stumbled into a local festival. This was a strange festival depicting a fight between two powerful families and a short man with a huge fly on his nose. It included lots of drum beating and dancing and all the children were dressed-up in support of one-side or another. It was fun, and typical of this quirky little city.
We spent the early afternoon wondering the medieval streets. Looking at the statues of people pooping (good luck in Catalonia) and eating Gelato. Of course, we had to visit Eifel’s bridge and the Lioness Lamppost. The tradition of kissing her butt, so that you return to Girona is frowned upon…..but still done….often. We skipped this on this visit.
We strolled back to the hotel through the massive park. Here they were setting up for a huge fall festival with games and rides. It wouldn’t start for another week, but the park was full of workers preparing everything. The rain was starting to move in, so we headed to the grocery store for some Spanish wine and tapas for our traditional Spanish evening meal. Great City! Great Fun!
The next day, we grabbed a taxi to the train station for our 40-minute ride to Barcelona and our next adventure. Girona, Spain is a great city! I recommend that once you see Barcelona you head north and enjoy this City before it becomes too popular.
