Girona

This Catalan city is a good place to change trains when coming from France and going on to explore Spain. To change from a high speed train to a slow(er) train means a short walk. But if you have time on your hands, why not go the long way round via the first-rate medieval town? - You can even pick up some local goodies…

Interactive Map

Medieval Girona with goodies (3K blue)

We are going to start at the high speed rail terminal in Girona which is in its own building along with the bus station and go for an instant culture fix.

Wander over to the pointy building with the palm trees in front.

This is La Punxa (the Point) designed by Girona’s favourite architect Rafael Masó and it forms a part of pair

Rafael was a founder of a group of Catalan architects who were worried that Modernism was getting a bit out of hand (and left-wing) and decided to come up with their own styles which were rather attractive to people who had the money to buy them. Hmm…

There’s a walking tour of Masó’s works, which takes you past the Masó Museum that has been set up in his old house.

Look down the road to your right and you’ll see the other part of the pair. Let’s go and see it up close. La Farinera or flour mill and was made for entrepreneur Alfons Teixidor.

He was so impressed, he even lived in this bit.

Now lets continue walking along this road and under the railway and all the way to the end. Then we have to wiggle slightly left then right as the road becomes the Carrer Nou and narrows.

Keep going all the way to the end and you will emerge at the Pont de Pedra (stone bridge) and here we get our first brochure-worthy view.

We’ll cross this bridge on the way back. Stay on this side of the river and turn left and walk along Carrer de Santa Clara. Then take the first right and cross the old fishmongers’ bridge. If the bridge looks strangely familiar, I may help to know that it was designed by the Eiffel Company

On the other side of the bridge, turn left and walk to the end of Rambla de la Llibertat where there is another Rafael Masó building, the Farmacia.

If you want to get that perfect bridge shot, you could go left here and hop on to the bridge it leads to.

Follow the road/path to the right and cross over to the Carrer Bonaventura Carreras I Peralta and walk along it until you get to some steps and then turn left on to Carrer de la Força.

As we walk up here, the road narrows. We have entered El Call, the historic Jewish quarter. There’s a Museum of Jewish history where you can learn more about the complex past.

Continue along Carrer de la Força all the way to the Cathedral

Carry on through the Portal de Sobreportes and turn left following the road all the way down back into town. And with all the culture out of the way, we can start thinking about our tummies. As we get to the bottom of the slope (Pujada de Sant Feliu), The are a series of eateries and delis. A good place for local (eco) produce is Queviures L’Estuca (1 Carrer dels Calderers), and along here are places specialising local vermouth, apples and Xuixos.

This long and (almost) straight street ends up as Carrer de les Peixeteries Velles and when you run out of road, turn right (Carrer de les Olles) and immediately left which brings you on to the Rambla de la Llibertat with its line of cafes.

The road runs out of buildings on the right and thats because we’ve hit the river. Time for us to cross back over on the Pont de Pedra, which we saw on the way in and continue back down the road we came from (Carrer Nou).

At the end of Carrer Nou, we need to wiggle slightly right and left to get on to Plaça del Marquès de Camps and then when we come to a roundabout, go down the left hand road which takes us on to Carrer Barcelona.

We are now walking parallel to the railway line and need to cut up Carrer Bailèn to get back to the station - this time on the slow(er) train tracks.

And there we have it. We’ve taken the long way round from the high speed exit at Girona station to the main station in (just about) the slowest way possible.