Girona; Or, Never Judge A City By Its Bus Station

We passed through Girona en route from Barcelona to Figueres. Granted, we were on a bus, a bit jet-lagged, but Girona looked pretty pedestrian, or worse. It did not occur to us to go there again. Reading about it in the guide book in the Pubol parking lot changed our minds, however, and happily so. Girona is an old and distinguished city, scenic, well preserved and well-presented. We spent just an afternoon there, and might well visit again. What's not to like about a place that is quite nice itself and that is an hour's drive from a) Barcelona, b) the Costa Brava and the Mediterranean, c) the Pyrenees, and d) France?

After the suburbs and big-box neighborhoods, you cross the
river, above,

Find yourself in something of a forest,

And then turn onto the view of the old city...

Crossing a scenic diversion of the river

And there you are, in a beautiful old town

With plenty of new trappings...here another food-truck-themed
restaurant, like one we saw in Buenos Aires

Seagull eye-view of the old city, with the
basilica and the cathedral foremost

Funny faces on the older basilica

Old city towers and walls

128 steps up to the cathedral

A very late but not flamboyant Gothic, with an unusual design:
the second widest nave in Christendom (only St. Pete's is wider);
although the chancel is not so wide nor high; read on...

As is almost always the case with Spanish cathedrals, the choir,
or, here, the organ, prevents a full west-east view of the building

Cloister

The diagrams explain how Girona's cathedral is different (it's
the second from left)

Capital on column in cloister; something has gone terribly
wrong here

Moving right along now to the so-called
Arabian Baths; Moorish in origin, perhaps,
but definitely Roman in design

With hot and cold rooms, etc.

City walls, cathedral and buttresses

Inside the older, smaller, basilica

More old walls

And a bit of Art Nouveau

Another beautiful place to return to...