Blogs from Girona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe - page 5

The Fortress of Sant Ferran is the largest fort in Europe. Built in the shape of a pentagon the total length of the wall is 5.6 kilometers. The fort was begun in 1743 to protect southern Spain from the French. It seems they did not get along with each other very well in those days. At the end of the Spanish Civil War it was the last bastion of the Republican forces. As the end of the war neared,several portions of the fort were blown up. Munitions stored in the fort were exploded to prevent them from falling into the hands of Franco's forces, the Nationalists. When we arrived in Figueres, neither of us knew that the fort existed. I noticed it on a map at the train station and asked about it at the hotel ... read more

Figueres is the birth place of Salvador Dali. Figueres, Spain is very close to the French-Spanish boarder. Its primary claim to fame is it is the birth place of the artist, Salvador Dali. If you know anything about Dali, you know that he was ... well different. He must have been a 'pistol' (American expression meaning a kid who is a lot of trouble to control. Who does the unexpected at all times.) when he was a kid in elementary and high school for he certainly was a very unusual person as an adult. The Dali Museum is located in a building that replaced the building of the former Municipal Theatre. The Theatre was built in the 19th century and was destroyed at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Here Dali had a new surrealistic ... read more

Thursday 21st October 2010 - Trafalgar Day Agde ( France ) to Sant Pere Pescador ( Spain ) a drive south through the wine growing country of the south of France. Villages with names familiar on supermarket shelves at home - Corbieres and Fitou . In addition to the normal wine, olive oil etc. on sale direct to the public other services were widely on offer which appeared oddly out of place amongst the vine lined route. Passing through one village we were invited by a large sign to visit the Cave de Clappe ( I kid you not ) but decided to decline not knowing what we might find or catch ! Arrival in Spain was through the busy French border town of Le Perthus which appeared to be doing a lot of trade in ... read more

So the next day Panxii and I got up to go look at their town's weekly market, which actually wasn't really that great. There was a huge section of it where they just sold clothes, which is different from the US, but then all the rest of it seemed to be just normal fruits and stuff. There were a bunch of booths with different meats and cheeses, but mostly it seemed like regular stuff that you could get at a grocery store, which I guess makes sense that they would have it since their grocery stores are way smaller. It must be that in the US, where Wal-Mart is the norm, farmers' markets need to do something special so that they can compete, and so they have cooler products. After that we had a coffee and ... read more

It's hard to believe we made it through another five days in Andorra, but somehow we did! As a reward it was time for another vacation, this time to the Catalan-speaking enclave of L'Alguer on the Italian island of Sardinia. But first, as we were flying out of Girona, a city perhaps an hour south of Barcelona, we had the opportunity to spend some 6 hours meandering about another one of Catalunya's major cities. In its early history Girona changed hands between the Iberians, Romans, Moors, and Visigoths until it was reconquered in 785 by Charlemagne and made one of the fourteen original countships of Catalunya. It became a legitimate city in the 11th century and was one of Spain's most prominent centers of Jewish culture and learning. This obviously changed during the Inquisition, but the ... read more