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Published: June 29th 2017
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There are 2 ways of getting to Girona from Vielha, both are long and through the mountains. So it was a coin toss as to which route we took. We decided to head south through Lleida then East to Girona after some suggestion that a quick visit to Andorra might not be the best.
The road south again was through some stunning valleys of the Pyrenees including a 5.4 km tunnel near Vielha and so much superb scenery that constantly tugs at the driver to steal a glance. Very few opportunities to stop present themselves and usually do so when not expecting them or you have some-one else in a tearing hurry up your rear bumper making it impossible to take the time to admire.
Some gorgeous lakes had been created by damming the river to provide water and hydro power to the communities along the valley. Like we saw yesterday, the gentler slopes had been cleared of trees for grazing or for ski slopes and the steeper slopes tended to be bare rock reaching imposing heights above the valley.
After leaving the mountains and valleys behind we were soon just gobbling up kms on the motorways into
Girona, not all that far from Barcelona.
With another unbelievably tight squeeze the car was parked under our hotel at the edge of the Old Town area right beside the impressive Basilica de Sant Feliu.
The river area could do with some TLC as its presentation is more representative of its utilitarian history than its aesthetic potential. A number of dwellings facing the river look a little sad. In comparison the houses on the nearby low hills were brightly coloured and well kept.
Friday night on our arrival we found was the Eve of San Juan's day so some celebrations were afoot from early evening through to early hours of the morning. These included processions of dancing and music by members of the community, some dressed up as caricatures of the Saint and other characters of the city's history. As dark fell, though, the celebrations reduced to fireworks particularly those of the very noisy exploding type and with little limitation to these activities from consideration of people trying to sleep even well after midnight.
Next day exploring Girona we found has some Roman history similar to a number of other cities we have visited with quite
a bit of work in recent times to try and preserve the city walls and remains of the various fortifications. We took advantage of the elevation of these with a walk along the walls taking in views of the city.
On Sunday we had quite a bit of a re-union with Rob's sister Shirley and husband Andrew joining us from Barcelona for lunch with Silvia's dad Juan. We had not seen Juan since he left Melbourne to return to Spain after Silvia & Lucas' wedding early in December. It was so good to catch up in the Casa Marietta restaurant in Placa de la Independencia.
After Juan's friend Rosa joined us we did some walking through the old town together with Rosa giving us some great insights into Girona's history and legends.
Juan and Rosa we're good enough to take us on a further journey out of Girona visiting Salvador Dali's wife Gala's residence in Pubol where Dali lived so much of his life and created so many of his paintings. From there we went on to a unique little stone village called Peratallada. This is so far off the tourist trail but hugely interesting because of
Gala's House
Gala wife of Salvatore Dali. it's long history and well preserved buildings and roads. The stone road surfaces still have the wheel ruts that were made, probably over the course of centuries, by horse drawn carts. The village was built on the site of a former fortress and is documented from 1065 AD. There are constructions revealing the various eras of the village's development over the centuries. We considered ourselves most fortunate to have visited this village as without our guides we would never have known about it.
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