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| View over Girona from the city walls |
Two and a half weeks before Easter, I found out about an event that was being held over the Easter weekend, in Santa Coloma de Farners, Girona, Spain. After deciding I wanted to go to it, I consulted the excellent site at http://www.seat61.com/. This is very reliable source of information about train travel. He suggested a train journey that allowed one to breakfast in London, lunch in Paris, and dine in Barcelona. This looked pretty good, so I booked up all the tickets.
The journey was made up of three rail journeys: from Milton Keynes to London by Virgin Pendelino train; Eurostar from London to Paris; and then TGV from Paris to Girona. A bit unusual to have Virgin the slowest, and shortest train. The journey was planned to be 11 1/2 hours, but was delayed in the south of France, and into Spain. As a result it was was about 12 1/4 hours, plus one hour change in time zone. Still the original idea of breakfast in London, lunch in Paris, and dinner in Girona held.
I had planned my journey so that I had most of the day after travelling in Girona. This is a city with a history stretching back to roman times, and a substantial surviving medieval area. The old town is surrounded by city walls. These provide a very interesting walk, with quite a lot of up. This was my main activity for the Thursday, apart from getting from Girona to Santa Coloma de Farners in the late afternoon. Girona is a very pleasant place, with friendly people, and relaxed traffic. Throw in good weather while I was there - both before and after the retreat - meant it was a very relaxing and enjoyable place to be in.