13/05/18 – 14/05/18 Girona
The drive from Carcassonne, France to Girona, Spain varied massively from the scenic to the seedy. Avoiding the toll roads we were taken through lots of small villages with narrow roads not entirely suitable for the Moho however all was made worthwhile when we came to a junction just outside of Ferrals-les-Corbiere where they had closed off the road to heard sheep through the town – Not something I’ve seen before being a townie.
Before long we were moving again and it wasn’t long before the road wound up through the midi Pyrenees – lots of switch-back bends and steep inclines but amazing views (The Scenic) – The van seemed to handle it pretty well. (I daren’t look down at the MPG however!) This led us on to the border town of Le Perthus (the Seedy) which felt more like some of the border towns we had visited in South America – A busy main road through the town with sex shops, hemp seeds and night club that looked like no-one had visited in decades.
The remaining drive to Girona was about an hour from the border and was pretty uneventful.
We parked up at our first Spanish free Aire which was basically a large sandy carpark (it did however have free water and grey water emptying facilitates) and headed off into the town which was about a 30 minute walk away.
I’m not sure if it was just that day, or that it was Sunday afternoon, or the fact that there was a flower festival on, but the old town was absolutely rammed with people and I found walking around with Marley quite stressful at times with him barking at almost every dog he came in to contact with (Only to say hello of course!) and the constant thought of him being trampled by the crowds. Having said that, the old town was incredibly pretty with narrow cobbled streets leading you up, down and around the walled city.
Game of Thrones fans may recognise some of the images – the old cathedral staircase was used in a number of episodes along with some other locations – see link to the Radio Times Article – ‘The Real Braavos’
We spend much of the afternoon walking around building up a hunger for some Spanish food – sadly we couldn’t find anywhere that catered for our very specific requirements – ie dog friendly, in the sun, with vegetarian options, so we headed back to the Moho for dinner.
The next morning we took the bikes with Marley in his basket, and headed back to further explore the rest of the town treating ourselves to an ice-cream at lunch.
