Well here we are in beautiful, sunny Barcelona and we’ve had a great few days so far. Finally have (slow) internet access so will post as often as I can. I’m going split up the posts as there is just so much to write about and I’ll also add some links as it saves time writing with internet access being a bit limited.
Our first day in Barcelona started with a bus trip to Girona, about 90 minutes away. We stepped off the bus to this beautiful view…
The left side of the river is the oldest part of Girona and we spent a few hours on a walking tour there with local guide. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan you’ll recognise a lot of these sites.
Girona is one of the oldest cities, founded by the Iberians and fought over in every century, it is also known as ‘city of a thousand sieges’. It has undergone 25 sieges and been captured seven times. There are many sections of the original city walls still standing – they are the largest sections of medieval city walls still standing in the western world dating back to Charlemagne.
You can see part of the gardens on the left, which is next to the cathedral and then on the right we climbed up on top of the city walls.
The view from the top of the walls was just spectacular! You can see right out to the mountains and to the ocean.
The Romans named the city ‘Geruda’ and it became a major stopping point on the Via Augusta – the major road linking Iberia to Rome.
Girona was ruled by the Visigoths, then conquered by the Moors who ruled for 300 years, with repeated sackings and changes in hands until they were finally driven out in 1015. During that time the Romans maintained a trading presence in Girona.
The city had a strong Jewish presence for over 600 years with one of most famous Kabbala schools in the 12th century. In 1492 the Cardinals expelled all the Jews from Girona. The Jewish section of Girona is one of the best preserved in Europe. We walked through this area and I’ll post some pics of that in the next post.
Girona has also been besieged by the French several times and withstood an assault of 35,000 french troops for seven months in 1809. It was ruled by the French from 1809 – 1813.
thats just a little bit of Girona, more coming soon!