Spain – Catalonia – Gerona (En)
Gerona has two motorhome areas, one free outside the city and the other private just 10 minutes from the city centre. We decided to stay in the private one near to the centre because the people were complaining about their campers and motorhomes being robbed at night. The private area is called Parking Vayreda (41.984208,-2.813577 lat, long), 19 euros per day and included free wifi, filling and emptying of black and grey waters and electricity for 2 hours for 1 euro. When you arrive you take a ticket and the door will open, with that ticket you can go in and exit, so the area is very safe. When you want to leave you just put in your ticket and pay. We will recommend it if you want to visit the city as it is safe and very near to the centre.
Gerona is beautiful with its cobbled streets of the old town in which jewels such as the Jewish quarter and the magnificent Cathedral stand out. It should be noted that it was the scene of the mythical Game of Thrones series, such as when Queen Margaery walked the path of shame on the stairs of the Cathedral or that of Ayra fleeing from a girl who wants to kill her in the Arab Baths.
We started our tour by going to see the Houses Onyar with brightly coloured facades that hang over the Onar River, in the section that runs through the old town. We went to see them from the Peixateries Velles bridge, an original iron bridge built by the great Gustave Eiffel in 1877, where you can see the houses and in the background the Cathedral and the Tower of the Church of Sant Feliu.
Then we went to the Rambla de la Llibertat, the former market, which is a commercial street with a lot of terraces where you can have a drink and has a medieval air with several modernist buildings and a beautiful area of arcades, which makes it unique in the city.
Next, we visited El Call located inside the old town, which is the Jewish quarter best conserved in all of Europe. It is a neighbourhood with narrow cobbled streets and beautiful patios, in this area the Museum of the History of the Jews is located in an old synagogue.
Then we visited the Cathedral with its impressive staircase of 90 steps and baroque style that leaves you in front of the fantastic Cathedral. In the square of the Cathedral, you can find also the Shepherds House. Just on a side of the Cathedral, you can tour the defensive Wall of the city with its various towers, for me one of the most beautiful places in Gerona. This wall, of which a large section has been preserved and offers fantastic views of the city and surroundings, is next to the Arab Baths, a Romanesque construction from the 12th century. Its name comes from the inspiration they took from the Roman baths and Muslim baths, and from using the Arab-style steam heating system.
Our next visit was to the Basilica de Sant Feliu. originally from the early days of Christianity and which was the main temple of Girona before the construction of the Cathedral. In front of the Basilica, there is a square with bars and restaurants and we decided to have lunch in a restaurant called River with an amazing view of the basilica. We shared nachos with cheese, beans, guacamole, bolognese and jalapeños with a jug of a very nice sangria!
After lunch, we went to see the Pujada de Sant Domènec as they had told us that is one of the most beautiful corners of Girona. It is a stepped street, located in the heart of the Old Town, which is surrounded by the Renaissance Palace of Calemany, the Agullana Palace and in the background the baroque-neoclassical church of Sant Martí Sacosta. Several scenes from the movie El Perfume were filmed on these baroque steps.
To finish our tour of the city we went to Vi Square, a wide space of arcades with some of the main buildings of the city such as the Town Hall, the Municipal Theater and the General’s Palace.
We think Gerona is a beautiful city with many things to see and enjoy, we recommend visiting it. And tomorrow Sunday we are leaving Spain and going to France, the first stop is Narbonne, which you can see in the next post!
