Giro de Girona

Although we met for dinner on Thursday, the prime purpose of this trip for me was to spend a weekend with Rosa in her new home in Girona. The drive up on Saturday morning was easy and I had, thanks to local advice, prebooked a car park space close to Rosa’s apartment. Number plate recognition raised the barrier, shared location on Google maps allowed Rosa to come and find me. Oh the technology!

Having dropped off my bag, we headed off to the not very visually exciting market and bought ingredients for a light lunch. Rosa’s flat is in a fabulous old building and is very comfortable and she is an excellent host. We sauntered through the old streets admiring the graphics on shopfronts and their contents!

Before eating however we had to take a typical Girona pre-lunch vermut. Not a regular drink of mine but most enjoyable with olives and crisps with a Tabasco style sauce. We later added a delicious little tin of cockles. It is a good thing to have someone with whom to explore local customs. And on the way back we booked a table in Safo restaurant for the evening.

The plan after lunch back at Rosa’s, was to visit the Girona Museum of Art which Rosa had not yet managed since moving here. The Museum is misnamed. It stands next to the cathedral and should be called the Girona Museum of Religious Art and Artefacts. There were some interesting things on display from many centuries of life in the city. It did not capture our imagination or demand a revisit any time soon. Rosa had thoughtfully found us a sloping route up since the cathedral steps well outrank the Spanish steps in Rome and are apparently often featured in Game of Thrones. It did give us an opportunity for a selfie looking across the city to the mountains in the distance.

We wandered back with a stop for a beer and a pass by a shop that used to sell a brilliant range of automata of which Jo has quite a collection. Sadly no more clockwork toys. We did venture into a few other shops and this gave us a chance to look at the buildings along the river Onyar which I remember with affection for their colourful reflections and sense of peace.

The choice of restaurant for tonight was important for Rosa who suffers a little from the conservatism of some of her new friends. With a taste for good food she would head for P&P bars and restaurants which would be spurned by her mates as too Posh and Pricey. Safo was one such although not so pricey. The food was exquisite – a pâté so runny I asked for a spoon to load it onto tacos, roasted polenta that was the best texture and taste combination ever with a salad – now here’s service! I asked if the leaves included spinach and was shortly presented with my personal salad which the chef confirmed had no spinach. Wow! Posh! Then a rarity for me and a first for Rosa – veal sweetbreads which were in a divine sauce. Big thanks to Safo for a superb dinner with an excellent organic local rosat wine to accompany it.

We had eaten quite early by Spanish standards but the night was not over as friends John and Noellie had been at a friend’s gig nearby and were up for meeting for a nightcap. We tried to get onto the roof terrace of the Roca Brothers posh hotel by I suspect my shorts and polo shirt proved improper dress. However a happy hour was spent on the terrace of a Georgian restaurant Qvevri at which wine and snacks were taken by some and a huge meringue-cum-Eton mess that satisfied Rosa’s craving for something sweet which she had been denied by my aversion to puddingy things. It looked amazing and was devoured by the three sweet eaters. It was a real delight to meet John and his wife. I knew that John had worked with Rosa on some of her arts projects and we had a fine chat until well past midnight when a scowling proprietress indicated it was closing time. Having slightly failed to clock locations as we tried to find the right place, before I knew it we were back at Rosa’s setting up the sofa bed and retiring after a fabulous day in Girona.