It is easy for us to get around in Girona. All we have to do is look for the tall spire of the church in the front because our hotel is right beside it. Our first night in Girona, we went over to Independence Square for some tapas and we stumbled right into the middle of a parade for the Catalan national day. There was a parade going on and I caught this video on my iPhone.
There was also another group that marched, that were clearly a political rally that seemed to be advocating for the independence of Catalan from Spain. I didn't realize that they speak a different language in Catalan which is some combination of French and Spanish and its own language.
On Sunday AM, we went exploring the city nearby. We went into the church right near our hotel and into some very old
Arab baths. The city is quite old, some of it from the 1300 and 1400s.
Since nothing is open on Sundays, and especially on the holiday weekend, we decided to go to a medieval festival that one of our hotel clerks told us about. It was about an hour from Girona. So, we hopped in the car, set Jespers (our nickname for the GPS), and headed off. We had checked the map and realized that where we were headed, was not far from the Mediterranean coast so we thought we might head over there as well.
We missed the turn to the festival, so we just kept going to the sea and, after searching for a parking place, had a nice lunch on the sea
. Caroline is in the picture below.
It was a beautiful spot, with lots of people.
The festival was interesting. The main fun was people watching. Many people were dressed in
period costumes, and of course there were plenty of vendors selling wares. This was a family outing for many people so there were lots of children with their parents.
We stopped to listen to a
band which was actually pretty good. They had 2 drums, some pipes, some kind of horn, and other rhythm instruments.
The band gathered a big crowd and were entertaining. This little boy was playing along.
Jon really enjoyed the band.
We headed back to Girona, and had pizza and salad for dinner.
