Helping hands

As predicted, it rained heavily during the night, and continued to rain off and on during the morning, somewhat hampering our touristing. We had breakfast in a bar (only a cup of coffee in my case, to make up for last night), then found a marching band which we followed for a while. As it started raining again, we ended up in the Jewish museum, and then had to retreat to a cafe to avoid the ever heavier rain, and finally scuttled back to the apartment by walking underneath the elevated railway line the entire way (it comes within metres of the building).

For lunch we had a 3 pm booking at La Taverna d’El Foment, previously road-tested by S and Quim. It was delightful. They do small plates and tapas, so we shared tallarines (tiny clams the size of your fingernail). They are so expensive in France we never even eat them at home. Here we had a big pile, deliciously flavoured with parsley and garlic, for under 10 euros. Then yummy anchovy fillets from l’Escala on crisp Catalan bread rubbed with tomato, followed by a salad with artichokes and cherry tomatoes. Then we shared perfectly cooked bacalao with apple aioli, and five different vegetables (very unusual to get vegetables with your main course). And finally S ordered cheesecake; I confess I ate some of it. It was all really excellent — I can’t recommend this place enough if you’re in Girona. Total cost about the same as last night’s meal.

After a siesta, we headed back into town to watch three teams of castellers, each determined to outdo the others. Of course I took scores of photos. With only the iPad, I just picked a couple to process — I’ll look at the rest when I get home. I just can’t resist the hands, so there’s an extra. They carried on until it was dark, but finally gave up when it started to rain again. Hundreds of umbrella-brandishing people dashed through the rain into town, and we joined them, stopping in at a very nice bar for a drink and to dry off; the rain had stopped by the time we came out. No dinner required!