On the move: Girona to FIgueres

Before we headed off for the 30 minute journey to Figures we decided to have a last wander through the Cal - the jewish area where the streets are narrow and cobbled, and you could easily get lost. There are now lots of small boutiques and artisan food shops and we mangaed to get past a nougat and Torrone (fudge) shop without purchasing anything....we were being strong for some reason!?

Then it was off to the Art Museum housed in the original old Bishop's house. The bad news was that they scored a big ZERO for their audio guide because they hadn't charged them overnight so we couldnt get one at all. Seriously!!

They had sculpures, tapestries and paintings from Roman to recent times, and more Madonna and Childs - unbelievable! One of the quirky things I have begun to notice - and I'm not sure what this says about me! - is the size of the fig leaf that they use to tastefully cover the male genitals in any nude statues. There was a beautiful statue of a young man in this Museum with the tiniest fig leaf barely covering the parts. Usually the fig leaf is a lot larger than that! I will report further on that phenomenon.

Then we packed our bags and noisily rattled over the cobblestones to the train station where we caught the train to Figueres.
Where I hear you say? Why would we go there? The answer is Salvador Dali, who lived here and built an amazing museum. So amazing that when we went to have a look there was a huge queue of more than a hundred people waiting patiently to go in. So we thought plan B:  we'd  better buy tickets online..... so we did for two days later!!

I have to admit that Ewan is winning in the Airbnb stakes: he booked the fabulous Girona apartment and the one in Figueres which is really lovely too. He booked a room in the ultra modern apartment of Isabel who lives with her two grownup children in the centre of town. It is an enormous apartment and we have our own huge bathroom so it's just perfect. To our surprise she provided breakfast as well. Communicating with her is a challenge as she is better at french than spanish, but has no English so Ewan and I have been trying to extract some of the long forgotten school french from the dungeons of our memories, and when that fails we Google Translate it. I have introduced her to the joys of the Duolingo app which teaches languages so she is all set to improve her English she says.

Anyway after the lack of success at the Dali Museum we set off bravely for a long walk to the Castell San Ferran. Walking is not going well for me so it nearly killed me despite the painkillers. It was worth the agony though. Set high on a hill we found this rather amazing military fortress which was apparently designed by some military geniuses who started construction in 1753 which continued for some decades.Despite the size of it and the number of walls and artillery it was overrun by the French not once but twice! As it was built in the last few centuries much of it was intact, as you can see from the photos and the stables were particularly interesting. The audio guide was the size of an old walkie talkie but worked well so I would give it a seven!

After we staggered slowly back down the hill I collapsed at an ice cream shop ( a pity about that !) and we were forced to sample their wares - fruit of the forest sorbet. Yum! We made it back to the apartment for some recuperation time and then headed out for dinner to a family restaurant around the corner. It was rather odd: I ordered Tuna with hummus and tempura vegetables : a rather odd combination in anyone's book! Actually it was very nice and there was lots of hummus with carrot sticks standing up in it! I'm not sure it would pass the Masterchef 'plating up' , but it tasted great.
For dessert we were given the English menu with some rather quaint translations.  Just for fun I ordered the 'Red fruits cake' as we had no idea what it was. It turned out to be a rather delicious mousse with a vanilla and berry layer and berry coulis. A delicious reward for all of the walking!

Finally we collapsed in bed after a busy day,

your exhausted but well-fed correspondent

Dianne