One day in colorful Girona

What’s up everyone?

Where to spend a lovely weekend getaway you’re wondering? Wonder no more, I’ve got a cute proposal for you in Catalunya: Girona!

Cumulated, we spent just a full day in Girona, as we passed through it on our way to hike the Camí de Ronda, back at the end of September. I never gave the city much thought before the trip – the main thing I knew about Girona was that it played an important location role in Game of Thrones series. Well, that might be enough of a reason to visit this town if you’re a huge fan of the series!

But back to my story! So, we arrived in Girona at the train station and walked all the way to the center to our accommodation. At first, we were a bit disappointed, as the main boulevard we had to follow was far from impressive or interesting: just another dusty boulevard spotted with bits of ugly shop advertising.

However, after about 10 minutes of dragging our luggage on this boulevard we turned right, then passed through a building and eventually landed right in the pedestrian area. Complete change of scenery!

We soon got to the riverfront which flaunts lovely and colorful architecture, especially when shining in the beautiful golden sunset light, then crossed one of the bridges and strayed through the stone paved streets.

Of course we dropped our bags at the accommodation and ran out to see as much as we could before night fall!

First thoughts: this town reminded me of a mix between Italy’s Vicenza and Florence with, of course, a Spanish flair on top.

Without any map on us, we simply wandered up and down the steep stone streets, climbing and descending countless steps before bumping in the back of the Great Sept of Baelor.. I mean Girona’s Cathedral (the location for Margaery’s walk of atonement in season 6 of GoT series).

The view of the surrounding rooftops from up there is wonderful, doubled by the green hills acting as a backdrop for the city.

After we descended the steps as Margaery did, we passed through Jamie’s archway (another scene from the same episode) and after a bit more walk we discovered the location of Arya’s theater scenes (Placa dels Jurats).

Close by is also the Monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants and the nearby gardens, plus some parts of the old city walls (which, by the way, you can walk on them and admire the city from up there!).

For more specific information about the Game of Thrones filming locations in Girona, check out these guys’ article (please note that it’s in Spanish).

We returned to the Cathedral area and gave a few more turns around these streets in the hope of recognizing other locations from the series – maybe some scenes with Arya in Braavos? We kept confounding them anyway as they all seemed so similar…

Except the steps of Girona’s Cathedral where a few Instagram husbands were hard at work, the rest of this historic area was almost empty at that time. This was probably also due to our visit overlapping the demonstrations prior to the referendum regarding the Catalan independence – when we finally headed to check out the other side of the river we were carried away by the waves of people pouring through the streets into the main meeting point. It was a peaceful walk and you could sense the fresh energy of all these people demanding their voice to be heard.

We followed the crowd a little bit and then went on our way to find an open restaurant to fill our empty bellies – without any luck. Everything was closed, more people wearing Catalan flag capes were filling up the streets, chatting, smiling and chanting songs. We ended up having biscuits at a supermarket – fine dining at its best!

Have you ever been to Girona? What do you recommend doing in the city or around?