Week 2 – Monday 7th July – Girona

We awoke this morning to discover that the running of the bulls at Pamplona was being shown on TV. The running occurs every morning at 8am, and it would appear that it is shown on TV each morning. We caught it yesterday at about 10:50a.m. and thought that it was in the preparatory stages, because there were lots of people standing around throwing sangria all over each other, but because we don’t speak Spanish, we couldn’t tell if people were getting ready to do the run, or were drinking to celebrate that they’d completed it. Anyway, this morning we found out that it is run at 8am in the morning, so we turned on the TV to watch it, which we’ve now done. Lots of people, several bulls, people falling over, bulls falling over, some injuries – one bull hurt his hoof, some people injured worse than that, 800m run through narrow streets into the bull ring, bulls ushered out of the ring by matadors, people stand around and get drunk. The highlight of the aftermatch (or aftermath) is interviewing the ambulance officers about the injuries – don’t tell OSH about this event – it really is Bull Rush.

We had breakfast at the hotel, which was a laugh as Anne got caught in the door on the way out to the terrace and spilt the coffee and the juice all over the floor. I was sitting outside blogging, wondering why my breakfast was taking so long to be delivered.

After breakfast, we checked out, got in the car and headed to Girona, where we are staying for the next two days. It’s only a short drive so we were there just after 12. All through planning the holiday and on the way to Girona, Anne would break into the words of My Sharona by the Knack, whenever was mentioned. In order for you to experience life in my world, I have attached the lyrics to the song, so you can create the mood for yourself. Just substitute the word Girona, wherever Sharona appears.

Girona is a smallish university town with a river running through it. The old part of the town is on one side of the river and the new part is on the other. The old part is a combination of quaint old streets, chique designer shops and some historic buildings such as the church. There is a religious music festival on at the moment and they have built a stage facing the cathedral steps, and then set up rows of chairs on the steps, so it creates an awesome outdoor theatre. After a lengthy walk around the old town, we had a Menu Del Dia lunch at a restaurant. Menu Del Dia (Menu of the Day) is a Franco hangover, whereby he insisted that everybody should be able to get an affordable meal each day, so the restaurants have to put on a cheap lunch menu where you get a choice for each of 3 courses – entrée, main and dessert, bread, water and a half bottle caraf of wine. The Menu Del Dia’s range from as little as 8 Euros up to about 15 Euros.

During our siesta, we took in some of stage 3 of the Tour De France, then went out for dinner. As we weren’t particularly hungry, we confined dinner to a litre and a half of sangria spread over a couple of outdoor restaurants on La Rambla and at one of the nearby Placa’s. So as to not look like complete soaks, we limit ourselves to a jug of sangria per restaurant, so if you aren’t completely satisfied with one, you up sticks and move to another restaurant suitably out of sight of the first one. Fortunately, you hit a limit as to how many times you can do this before it’s obvious you are a complete soak, so we toddle off home before we get to that limit.

I’ve been writing this on Tuesday evening over a sangria at another courtyard restaurant in one of the small Placa’s and a guy has come along and started playing a metal drum, called a hang dram – it’s like a covered in wok, but it makes the most amazing sound. We’ve been getting lots of musicians in Girona – in just over a day and a half, we’ve had two saxaphonists, a piano accordion player and now this percussionist. I’d better put my hand in my pocket for some coins for him.

The Sangria comes in either half or litre jugs, with lots of fruit and ice and a wooden spoon. The wooden spoon, as well as for stirring is also jammed against the spout of the jug when you pour it, to keep all the non liquid contents in the jug – just so you know.