Girona

 On Thursday, September 15th, along with two of our tourmates, we caught an early taxi to Bilbao Airport, and flew on the Vueling 8:55 flight to Barcelona.  There, we took the R2 Nord suburban train to Sants Station, where we caught the 12:45 fast train to Girona.  After checking into our hotel, the very nice Nord 1901, we had a light lunch at a bar on the Plaça de la Independència.

Rather than spend three nights in Barcelona, where we'd visited after our Globus tour of Spain and Portugal with my parents, brother and sister-in-law in 2005, we decided to do an overnight in Girona, a place where people often do daytrips.  This had nothing at all to do with the fact that, like Dubrovnik, it was one of the filming sites for "Game of Thrones" and now "House of the Dragon."  We have not seen one minute of either TV series, though I must admit to having read the books, long before they got to TV.

The first thing that one does in Girona is walk the medieval walls.  The recommended direction is south to north, ending at the Cathedral.  First, we crossed the Old Fisheries Bridge over the Onyar River into the old town.  From the bridge, you get a good view of the "painted houses"--not medieval but modern, but still pretty.

 

In order to use the restrooms at a bar on the square in front of the Cathedral, we bought an orange granita.  It was so good, that we bought another!

There were signs around the Cathedral warning on a complete parking ban on the 19th, the following Monday, due to filming, presumably for Season 2 of "House of the Dragon."

The Cathedral's day job, of course, is as a house of worship, but it moonlights in an acting role, as the Great Sept of Baelor, the principal temple to the Seven Gods of Westeros.

Next, we visited the "Arab Baths," a thirteenth-century bath complex.

Then, we wandered around the old city, going up to the Jardins des Alemanys ("Gardens of the Germans"), before returning to our hotel.

We had a terrific dinner at Massana.