Last Two Months: Girona

Monday May 16th was a holiday in Spain, la segunda pascua, or the second Easter.  Easter is such a big holiday in Spain, I guess they need to celebrate it twice.  Bob was traveling in the US, but the kids had no school so I decided to plan a little excursion to Girona and bring along Charo (my long-time visiting teaching companion) and her husband Angel.  Both Charo and Angel have been so kind to our family ever since we moved to Barcelona.  I was glad that we could take them out for the day.

I packed up the kids in the van and we picked up Charo and Angel and set off for Girona.  It was only an hour and 15min and we found free parking near the centre of the city.  I didn't realize that we were arriving the day after the Temps de Flors, a very famous festival in Girona where different artists and organizations decorate the city with giant floral arrangements.  We were fortunate to be able to see many of the floral arrangements before the city workers started dismantling them.

We started our tour of Girona at Plaça Catalunya where we climbed up to the medieval wall that used to protect city.  It is a great way to see the city from up high.  The kids really enjoyed walking along the wall and climbing up the towers.   We ended up at the Catedral de Girona which is surrounded by beautiful gardens and we walked through the commercial district back to Plaça Catalunya.

It was a beautiful day, and I promised the kids that we would go to the beach so we headed over to Playa D'Aro to grab some lunch and then went to the beach.  Of course this is mid May and the water was way too cold for most Spanish people.  I think that Rylan was the only one that actually went swimming. Charo and Angel enjoyed walking along the coast.  Costa Brava still has to be our favourite place to visit in Spain.

Charo and I inside a flower arrangement at the Jardin de la Infancia

Walking along Girona's fortified wall

view of the city inside the wall

View of the city outside of the wall

Jardins del Alemanys (German Gardens)

Strange floral display inside the German Gardens

Gardens around the Catedral

Floral display near the Catedral

Giant ants in a park in Playa D'Aro

Sant Pol beach

Rylan caught some really transparent jellyfish

Last two months: Recinte Sant Pau

It was clear, that we would have to leave Barcelona before July 1st.  So during our last few months in Spain, I felt the need to visit as many sights as I could that we had missed during the previous 3 years.  It just goes to show that even after 3 years of living in Barcelona, there was still so much more that we hadn't seen and done.

One of Barcelona's hidden gems is The Recinte Sant Pau, which used to be a fully operational hospital from the 1930s until 2009.  The hospital complex was designed by one of Catalunya's most famous architects, Lluís Domènech i Montaner in the Modernist period when Barcelona was booming and had plenty of money for ambitious projects.  What makes the Recinte Sant Pau even more incredible was the fact that it was a hospital for the poor, as the more wealthy could afford to be treated in their own homes.  Walking through the buildings and grounds you can't help but wonder what life would have been like in Barcelona at that time.  Each building is so elaborate and unique and always designed with the patients' happiness and comfort in mind.  They don't make buildings like this anymore, let alone hospitals.

This is a place that every visitor to Barcelona should see.  It's very close to the Sagrada Familia and because it's still relatively unknown, you don't have to buy tickets in advance or line up and deal with huge crowds. I recommend taking the guided tour, it's a little more expensive, but more interesting.  With a Barcelona Library card you do get a 20% discount.

Recinte Sant Pau, view of the centre courtyard and surrounding buildings

Main administrative building

One of the rooms for patients