Our adventures in the beautiful town of Girona then onto Salvador Dali's hometown of Figueres...
We had a tour booked with Viator, although Julia Travel was the company that did the tour if you were interested in going direct (although there is no difference in price). The travel company was only around the corner from our hotel meaning just a gentle morning stroll. The humidity from the previous day had dissipated and left beautiful sunshine in its place.
The tour was pretty full and on the coach Adam and I couldn't sit together. It was a 90 minute journey to our first destination of Girona and it was a scenic drive, through olive trees that we were told were over 700 years old and beautiful fields. I couldn't help but nod off a few times though and missed a great deal of what was said!
Once we arrived in Girona we did a walking tour that lasted 1 hour 45 minutes. Originally when I was told the length of the tour I thought 'Jeez, that seems long,' but actually Girona was so stunning and the guide was so interesting that it whizzed by in no time at all. In our tour I felt we saw all of Girona's main sights and really got a feel of the place. It was incredibly picturesque and we'd love to come back and stay for a few days.
After the tour they gave us an hour and a half of free time. We were pretty hungry by this point and decided to make food our priority. We stumbled upon a little cafe called 'La Terra' which at first we thought wasn't open due to the fact it was empty. However we were welcomed in and we sat at the back of the restaurant, where it backed over the river. It was such a beautiful view. The place was great value and we shared some tomato bread and sheeps cheese to start and then both had some sandwiches. It was all delicious.
Afterwards we got some ice cream and walked along the main street, crossing over the Eiffel Bridge (which Gustave Eiffel built just before the tower) and enjoying the river view.
Our next stop was the museum of cinema. Adam is a huge fan of cinema so when we overheard it mentioned on the bus he begged to go. It was included in the information booklet we were given on the coach and it seemed close, plus the entry was only 2.50 euros (a discount was included in the booklet), so I agreed. We were expecting something small, on the coach it was mentioned how it was a private collection, however it turned out there were over 12,000 items in the collection and we ended up having to rush around so we could get back to the coach on time. It was very interesting though and started at the origins of cinema in shadow theatre and puppetry and ended with modern movie memorabilia.
On the coach there was a bit of tension. Both Adam and I had got to Girona sitting apart, next to people who were on their own. When we got back on we asked if they could sit next to one another so we could sit together... and they refused! I didn't see how it made a blind bit of difference to them, it was incredibly stubborn. Anyway we had half an hour on the coach sitting next to them before arriving at our next destination of Figueres.
Figueres was the hometown of Salvador Dali and where he decided to curate his museum. We're both big fans of his work and the museum was the sole reason we decided to book this trip, Girona however was a very appreciated bonus to the trip. As soon as you get off the bus and see the building it's clear you're in for a treat.
It didn't disappoint. As soon as you walk into the museum you walk into a courtyard with a busty lady on top of a Cadallic. There were 22 rooms of work and although a few items were not actually by him the sheer amount of original work was fantastic. He even had his tomb there. The gift shop was quite nice too and I picked up some souvenirs.
We were dying of thirst when we got out the exhibition, we had been given 3 hours to explore and we still had about half of the time left. We found a place that was selling red bull slushies so we bought a couple and went and sat in a park. Sometimes its nice on a sightseeing holiday like this to just grab a bit of time for people watching.
We had a bit of a wander around Figueres, there were plenty of places to eat but as we weren't hungry there wasn't much else to see. I would still recommend a visit for any Salvador Dali fan.
We then had a 90 minute drive back to Barcelona. When we got back it was about 8pm and we were pretty tired so we decided to look for a place to eat on the way back to the hotel. The way our money worked was I took out a certain budget each day and then if we went over it Adam had a card for back up. We spotted an 'English' pub called 'The Daily Telegraph' that was cheap and it drew us in, knowing we wouldn't have to put anything on the card. Now I say 'English' because apart from some union jack underpants on the wall there was nothing English about it, the staff didn't even really speak it.
We ordered some drinks, I had one of my few cocktails of the holiday, a margarita and Adam got a beer. We then ordered some croquettes and a sandwich each. The croquettes arrived and soon after Adams sandwich but my sandwich was nowhere to be seen. I only managed to flag down the waitress after Adam had finished his and it turned out she had forgotten. When it arrived it wasn't really worth the wait as it was kinda tasteless and the bread was a bit stale. We ended up grabbing a chocolate muffin from a nearby bakery and going back to the hotel for another chilled evening.
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