Som aquî! (We are here!)

After a long flight, with its share of snafus, we arrive in Barcelona only a couple of hours behind schedule. We must wait for the 1640 train to Girona. We need some breakfast, and, after stashing the large bags in a locker, we find a little cafe in the train station; we purposely opt NOT to go to McDonalds, although it is right there beside the cafe! Then we set off to explore Barcelona.
We find a nice little park filled with Saturday joggers, children on bikes, people walking their dogs (gossos), and settle down on a bench to enjoy the sun.
There are quite a few birds in the park, but somewhat to my dismay I recognize black-billed magpies and common pigeons as well as the ubiquitous English Sparrow ~ and not much else. I see a couple of little flitty things I don’t know, but my poor tired eyes can’t tell much about them, and my blurry mind really doesn’t care (hard to believe, I know).
It is an hour on the train to Girona, and Rob reminds me we shouldn’t fall asleep in order to get our bodies adjusted. A few minutes later I look over to point something out to him ~ and guess who is sleeping!? Unfortunately my eyes can not stay open either.
We disembark at the Girona train station, and Rob says to “look for a fireperson” (what do they look like?), when a young man comes up shakes Rob’s hand and gives me a European kiss on each cheek (guess it’s the fireperson). Edgar’s English is better than my Spanish (a LOT), and we have no trouble communicating. The language here is actually Catalan, which I've been told is very difficult to learn; fortunately, Catalonians understand Spanish just fine, so between the two of us we manage quite well.





St. Felieu, one of the two cathedrals at the north end of
Girona in the Old City.














The Riu Onyar runs down the center of Girona,
separating the Old City from the newer area.


A view of Girona with the Pyrenees Mountains in the background.






This is Catedral de Girona. It stands high on a hill in the old city. This has always been sacred ground: originally there was a temple to the Greek gods, then it was a Muslim mosque, and finally a Roman Catholic church.












Girocletas:
residents can buy a card to swipe
(kind of like a credit card) that allows them to borrow a bicycle at a number of different stands throughout the city.













Many locals, however, rely on their trusty scooters; I thought maybe someone bought this one to
give me since it has my initials on the license plate; after all my birthday is coming soon …