Through Catalunya towards Barcelona

A last road trip ahead of us before moving over to Japan! The plan was to drive to Barcelona to spend a few days with our good friends Mireia and Richard, then drive to La Rochelle. And then back to Nice.

On the way to Barcelona, we decided to stay the night in Perpignan, a decent-sized French city I'd actually never been to. It's part of French Catalan country, and it does sort of show. The place has a slightly different feel to your average French city, and a bit of that Spanish touch does come through as well. In fact, the place used to be the capital of the Mallorcan kingdom until 1659, when it was annexed by France.

It's a rather pleasant to walk around, with a decent-sized historic town center. Our walk started at Castillet, a rather impressive medieval castle that guards the entrance to the old town. We walked through the historic streets of the old town, and made our way to massive Palace of the Kings of Mallorca - a testimony to Perpignan's past grandeur. Unfortunately it was not possible to visit the place, so we contented ourselves to walking around the impressive walls.

After exploring the medieval town center a bit more, and visiting the beautiful cathedral, we headed back to the hotel, to have a quick rest before having dinner, very satisfied with our quick but interesting visit. It turned out to be very tricky indeed to find a restaurant with a table for two (fair enough, it was Saturday night after all), so we ended up at a trendy burger joint, where we had a pretty decent dinner.

The next morning, we got up bright 'n early, and drove on towards Barcelona. We wanted to visit Girona before arriving in Barcelona, where we had a lunch date with Mireia and Richard (late lunch, mind you, this being Spain, or should I say Catalunya?). Girona is one of those cities that impreses straight away, with its compact old city lined up along the river, with the impressive cathedral dominating the city, sat on its hilltop.

I have to say straight away that I really loved Girona. I love European medieval cities, and Girona is the perfect example of one. We started off by crossing the river, and visiting the beautiful Romanesque style Sant Pere de Galligants Benedictine church. From there, we crossed the atmospheric former Jewish Ghetto (with its characteristic narrow streets and tiny squares) - Girona had one of the biggest concentrations of Jews in Spain until the expulsion of all practicing Jews was ordered in 1492 (at least they got the option to convert to Christianity!).

Another interesting place to visit in Girona are the Arab Baths - built in the 12th century, and very heavily inspired by Roman baths. After that, we checked out the gem of Girona, the cathedral. The interior is impressive indeed, but the most impressive thing about the place is the huge staircase leading up from the lower levels of the city to the cathedral. You may recognize the setting from Game of Thrones... The views from up their over the old town are pretty amazing, too...

I could've easily lingered here longer, but alas, it was time to push on towards Barcelona...