Girona, Spain
Standing on the Stone Bridge and looking at the Eiffel Bridge you see beautiful Girona — you can see the tide is low in some places maybe due to the heat wave in Europe in the summer of 2022? I don’t know if this is always the case, but the water was clear and we could watch the fish swim. 🐟
I even remember where I was sitting when I first read about the city of Girona, Spain. I stumbled upon a blog written by a solo women traveler—something which I aspired to be at that time. Girona became a dream destination for me. It’s a city that feels special to me while somewhat off-the-beaten path from the obligatory Spanish visit to Barcelona and Madrid. No shame in the big, bold, sticker destinations—we visited them too!—but I’m going to keep searching for the magic of a city like Girona in each new country we visit.
I have looked at-length to find that original blog post and haven’t been able to find it. Something my Dad quoted to me often, in my early days of funeral directing, “people will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” (attributed to Maya Angelou). I don’t remember the blogger’s exact words, but she definitely made her mark. That unknown blog sparked something in me that nine years later blossomed into a beautiful and memorable trip with my husband. Maybe this blog will give you your own Girona to dream about? Maybe it will actually be Girona!
Long before Game of Thrones was filmed here, I was longing to visit, but most tourists now are probably fans of the show. Sorry, I haven’t seen it, so I have no idea if this was a filming location, but isn’t it gorgeous??
Girona totally lived up to my lofty expectations. There are 11 stunning bridges over the Onyar River—all different—the most famous was designed and constructed by Gustave Eiffel just before he started on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
You can see the train passing by in the distance. ♥ We took that train to Barcelona the next day and it only took only 38 minutes.
5 of the bridges are pedestrian-only (except the Stone Bridge allows bicycles) and crossing all 5 was such a neat way to see the city.
Stone Bridge
Eiffel Bridge
St. Agusti Bridge
Princess Bridge
St. Feliu Bridge
Eiffel Bridge It’s also called the Pont de Ferro (the Iron Bridge) and the Pont de les Pescateries Velles (the Old Fishermen’s Bridge). We were taking an early morning train, so I insisted on a walk to cross the bridge one more time to say goodbye to this Iron Lady after a late dinner of pinchos.
PINCHOS! Pinchos are like tapas, but instead of ordering them at your table, you go right up to the bar and take whatever you want. The waitstaff will then count the number of toothpicks left on your plate when they’re ready to calculate the bill.
We crossed each bridge multiple times, it was my favorite part! Here we’re heading to find a morning pastry and a coffee.
Get a table outside!
Every pincho dish was only €2 and so so so tasty! We tucked in at TXALAKA which was a short walk from our hotel. You know it’s going to be good when there’s a wait and you’re the only two people speaking English.
This restaurant actually closed kind of early by Spanish standards at 23:00H (11:00 PM) and opened for dinner at 19:30H (7:30 PM)—but perhaps this was augmented hours after Spain was still ramping back to ‘usual’ after the pandemic so check before you visit. Spaniards lunch late (3:00 PM) and dinner starts between 9:00 PM and midnight! (Though, if you’re a fan of The Office, you already knew this one. 😉)
Gelato at midnight? YES, PLEASE!
Just outside of Girona there is a three Michelin star restaurant called El Celler de Can Roca. You have to wait 11 months and be very lucky to dine there (openings sell out on the first of every month when they open the calendar 11 months into the future). It’s operated by the three Roca brothers.
Since we planned this trip about two weeks before we left, obviously there was no way a meal there could happen (not to mention there are no prices listed online, so I guess two reasons 😂), but luckily one of the brothers Roca opened up this gelateria so that more people could enjoy their delicious and whimsical desserts—some of which they serve at the restaurant! We happened to visit on a Saturday and it was clearly the date-night-spot for locals with outfits ranging from cute-and-casual all the way to black tie. It’s a short walk from the main plaza so we went there to people watch while we enjoyed our treat.
With the euro and the dollar almost equal during our visit in August of 2022, it was very nice to eliminate the mental mathematics—though this can’t be helped on most trips. My grasp of the Spanish language came in handy too and these combined made the trip a bit more relaxing for us than our usual.
Girona, you stole a piece of my heart. ♥
I feel like I can say so much more about Girona like the last-minute reservation we snagged at Aqva. It’s a modern spa modeled after ancient Roman baths and located in the first hospital of the city of Girona (XII-XVII century!). Or wandering around the market to buy greengage which we ate later during a brief summer rainstorm. Or the hour we spent talking, laughing, drinking a beer, and watching tourists try to kiss the butt of a stone lion to guarantee them a return trip to Girona… but I think I’ll let you discover more about Girona on your own trip.
Girona was my travel-version of a earworm—you know, like a song you can’t get out of your head. A mapworm? Not sure that’s catchy 😂 but do you have a place like that?