Thursday, March 5, 2015

Back to Girona, Spain in one shot



In the way back to Girona we stopped in Rochefort. It was raining like crazy and we wanted to find the museum where they make ropes for the big ships. When we finally did, it was closed until 10, and we had 8 hours to Girona ahead of us. So we drove straight to St Rojan, where Isabelle and her family were waiting for us to have lunch.

Museum of the ropes
Since I already talked about Chateau Mercier; I'm just going to mention the actual lunch Martine cooked: rabbit, slow cooked with figs. She raises the animals and grows the figs and the spices in her garden. She also makes the alcohol she uses to cook the rabbit in; and the fig preserve. I'm really looking forward to make this dish. We liked so much and she was so pleased we did, she didn't mind we got seconds.

We got in the road not too long after we ate. It was a good time to avoid the heavy traffic of the city of Bordeaux. About 2 hour out in the toll, the car lit up a very strange signal: a cup of coffee and phrase saying literally to stop at a rest area and have a cup of coffee. Now, how in the world this car new Jim was getting sleepy? Was he wagging the car? To this date it is still a mystery to us.

The rest areas in the French highways are so nice. A restroom, a couple of pick-nick tables, the recycling bins and plenty of parking. We just parked, reclined the seats and took 1 1/2 hour nap. Very simple.

Time of arrival to Ginona: 7:00 pm. Too late to return the car. We had already tried to call the agency, but the phone call got always transferred to the head office in Barcelona. We called our friends in Palamos from Chateau Mercier, to let them know we were not arriving in time, and made reservations in an Ibis Hotel in Girona.

A rain squall caught us in the south of France, just 2 hour before the border, so the car got cleaned up. Lucky us.

Before we arrived to the hotel we stopped at a convenient store and bought some snaks for dinner. We didn't feel like seating in a restaurant. The menu was simple but so tasty: Gazpacho, sesame bread sticks, smoked oysters in olive oil, clams in olive oil and rice cakes. We ate it in the car, across from the store.

Then we drove to the Historic Villa of Girona. It was dark and being a Monday we almost had the entire place for ourselves.

Old Church in Girona
Road to the Church

Map at the bridge 


Buying fresh fruits


Gelato Store
Then we drove to the Historic Villa of Girona. It was dark and being a Monday we almost had the entire place for ourselves.

We checked in the hotel room at 11:00 pm. The Ibis hotel was very reasonable, clean and it had very comfortable beds. Next morning we took the car back to the train station, thinking we were going to get charge extra; but not. The rental car agent couldn't be nicer, he even took the time to ask us about our trip and to tell us a little about his life and the history of Catalunya.

AnechyNotes


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