Saturday October 31 was a travel day from Amsterdam to Girona. The flight from Amsterdam to Barcelona took a little less than two hours and occurred at the crack of dawn, a wee bit too early we have decided. From the airport in Barcelona, which is pretty fancy by the way, we shuttled over to a train station and started our journey to Girona. The train ride was nothing to rave about since most of what could be seen was either run-down industrial or under construction. With that said, the train itself was modern, comfortable, and cheap. Getting to our vacation rental was easy since the owner who speaks English came to pick us up from the train station. All told, we spent about six hours travelling between Amsterdam and Girona.

Today, November 1, we were out for three or four hours exploring the old part of Girona on foot. November 1 is kind of an important day here and marks the end of the cultural festival Fires de Sant Narcis. I can’t say too much more about it since I don’t understand the Spanish information I have on hand that well. When I get some Internet action, which is lacking in our vacation rental, I will probably do some more research. For now, I can say that downtown Girona was crazy busy today with hordes of people milling about the streets checking out art vendors and other attractions. While we weren’t navigating the crowds and attractions, we walked along most of the remaining wall that protected the old city.

Overall impressions of Girona so far: nice weather (sunny and 20-25 Celsius so far); interesting old quarter; interesting surrounding geography; tapas shouldn’t be hard to find; almost no bike traffic in comparison to Amsterdam – except for a surprising number of fairly serious looking cross-country mountain bikers.

At this point I suspect that I won’t be doing daily blog posts due to a lack of Internet access in our accommodation, but we’ll see. Maybe the library has internet access and is a cool place to hang out while I put together blog posts.

The photos that follow appear in the order that they were taken today.

Tourist map of old Girona. The wall that we hiked on is shown in red.

Some giants in that were probably part of a parade for Fires. Unfortunately, we didn't see any others.

So you think you can dance - Girona. What appeared to be a judged dance competition in Girona.

A Girona Fires dance team getting ready for the big show.

Busy, busy in downtown Girona for Fires.

Oh no, Michelle has been distracted by shiny things.

Looking north up the Onyar River in downtown Girona.

Sheesh, there's a lot of people out for this Fires thing.

A group of women making some lacy type thingies.

Sant Feliu Church in downtown Girona.

There are some hills here in Girona. This part of the old wall around Girona heading east.

Looking southwest down into old Girona from the north end of the wall.

Looking east from the wall up the Sant Daniel Valley.

A wee bit of trail near John Lennon Gardens in Girona.

The Monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants and some other buildings in the north end of old Girona near the cathedral.

Some old-school architecture near the cathedral.

That's me heading towards the cathedral.

The Cathedral in old Girona.

Close up of the front of the Cathedral in Girona.

Michelle and I getting close to the south end of the wall and the end of our walk.