Girona Day Two was much like Girona Day One because that was a good plan

My first day in Girona worked out so well that I set out to do much the same on my second day, which is just as well as there was not a lot else to do there. There was probably a small museum there but Girona was a small town and did not rise to a large gallery of modern art, for example.

It was not that small though and despite extensive walking the day before there were sections of the wall and the town itself that I had not trod and I set out to correct that.

I rejoined the wall somewhere towards its northern point and headed east and south towards the point that I had left it yesterday. This section of the town was somewhat scruffier than the centre and that made it just as interesting but in a different way.

As always, I had lots of rooftop shots to sort through and I finally chose this one for the unusual chimneys at the bottom and the blue crane in the centre.

A little further on the view got even scruffier and perhaps even a little less European looking as the growing number of flat roofs reminded me of places like Cairo.

I found myself in some of the same places I had been the day before though I was travelling in different questions as I did so. On my first day I had walked passed the bottom of these steps and this time I joined them through the arch on the left as I was walking down the hill.

I was thinking about lunch at that time and the tables on the steps were too tempting to miss. The restaurant there was a little posher than I usually go to on my walking days, it's not the price that is the problem it is the time that good service takes, but the spot was so good and I was not rushing anywhere so I stayed for a long leisurely lunch. The restaurant was lovely and it was a unexpected bonus to find when the bill arrived that the wine was included in the price of the meal.

The Eiffel may be the prettiest bridge in Girona but there are many and I walked across as many as I good both to enjoy the bridge and to see different aspects of the river and the buildings crowded around it. I like this bridge for its calm functional simplicity and for the colourful buildings behind it.

Somewhere in my wanderings around the north-east side of the old town I came across this attractive building which I have included here as an example of the grander classical architecture that was on show among the more shabby rectangular blocks that dominated some parts of the town.

Crossing the river always caused me to take more photographs and this one was taken from one of the bridges at the north end of the town looking south. The centre of the town, and the Eiffel bridge, are on the curve of the river and beyond.

As with the first day, the second ended with a surprise suggested by the hotel who alerted me to the funfair in a park just to the north of the hotel. It was only 100m or so away but was well screened by trees. I had seen part of a big wheel peering over the trees when I was on the wall but had not realised that there was anything else there.

The scale of the fun fair surprised me. It was a great deal bigger than I expected and many of the rides were duplicated several times across the site. This was true even of the biggest rides, like this one.

I was also more used to fairs in fairfields but this one was in a park full of trees and I wondered how they had managed to construct some of the rides around them. The trees also meant that it was hard to judge the size of the park and to find your way around. I had spotted this roller coaster ages before I found a way to get to it and it disappeared from view when I was looking for it.

The place was large but it was also packed with families and youngsters, despite it pushing 10pm. The busyness and the lights, movement and music from the rides made it an exciting place to be and I had a very enjoyable half an hour or more just walking around looking at the rides.

To cap the evening off there was a very good tapas restaurant nearby, Txalaka which I had spotted on my way there.

Girona did more than enough in two days to justify my decision to go there and even left open the possibility of me going back sometime.

The view I had for Sunday lunch in Girona Old Town

The picture everybody takes of Girona

Girona Day One took me on to a high wall and ended with fireworks

After Barcelona my next stop was Girona just an hour away by train and still just about in Spain. I got up at a leisurely hour, I was on holiday remember, and struggled with the confusing metro system to get to the main station where it was easy to find the train to Girona.

The hotel I was staying for a couple of days, Hotel Gran Ultonia, was conveniently situated next to the old town but that meant that it was a little distant from the station. The walk took about ten minutes and was pleasant enough though the cobbled pavements made the wheeled suitcase a little noisy. I got to the hotel around 11am, quickly dumped my stuff in the room and headed the short way into town.

The town was carved into two by a tamed river and this is what gave it one of its main features, the houses that ran right up to, and even slightly over, the river bank. This was not the ordered canal-side architecture of, say Amsterdam or Venice, and it had its own charm because of that.

Large parts of the old town were only open, or mostly open, to pedestrians and that included several of the bridges that crossed the river. This one, Pont de les Peixateries, was my favourite and I guess it is most other people's too.

The solid construction comes from the designers, Eiffel (they also did towers), who were tasked with building a bridge that could survive the frequent flooding. It has been there since 1877 so I presume that it does.

I also loved the red paint, another reminder of Amsterdam, and the way that the bridge disappeared into the buildings opposite.

The views from the bridge were also the best of the riverside, in my opinion. This one is fairly typical of the several that I took from slightly different places and at different times of the day. Unfortunately the river was fairly low and exposed some of its less attractive features.

The building at the top was the Cathedral which would feature heavily for the next couple of days because of its prominent position.

Maps do not tell the whole story, especially tourist maps, and the one that I was using neglected to tell me how steep the hill was moving east away from the river. You know it is steep when roads are staircases. It was a pretty staircase though.

The main reason for walking up a hill is for the views; views like this one. My hotel is somewhere in the cluster of tall buildings at the back to the left, the river flows through the middle of the picture as indicated by the exposed flat-fronted buildings and the town square is behind the white faced buildings on the right; that is where I had lunch earlier.

I was deliberately heading for the city wall but I was not expecting this.

Having climbed up the hill to get to the wall I then had to climb up a lot of steps to get to the top of it. I've climbed a few city walls in my time, it's the sort of thing that I like to do, but I do not recall any that has such a steep drop on the inside towards the city that it is protecting.

Just in case the wall was not tall enough there were several towers along the way, such as the one here where the wall changes direction, and I climbed all of them.

The Cathedral was close to one section of the wall and my route north along the east side of the city took me right up to it and then around it as the wall edged towards the west.

The afternoon sun was being very kind to the terracotta roofs and the stone walls and they combined to produce some warming views.

The wall itself was something of a triumph.

At some recent point it had been substantially and sympathetically restored. A fair amount of the wall was old but all the walkways and much else were new. It could be argued that so much rebuilding could count as desecration of an ancient monument, and I can understand that, but in this case I think that bringing the wall back in to use was worth the loss of some history.

The wall was certainly popular and I had to wait a fair while to take the pictures that I did with so few people in them.

There were several ways on and off the wall and I came off by the Cathedral and having climbed down off the wall I next had to walk back down the hill. I had options and chose to go down these steps that led to a little square. And in that square was a cafe that was an ideal spot to pause for a drink. It had been quite a long walk along the wall on a hot day and there were no cafes up there.

Rested I meandered back toward the hotel taking in more narrow streets and another bridge.

I got back to the hotel early evening and made good use of their decent wifi before going out again for a meal. The hotel said something about an annual event taking place in the town at 10pm so I delayed going out until just before then and headed for the little town square. I was lucky to get a table at a restaurant right on the square as somebody left just as I arrived, presumably they preferred to have their evening meal before 10pm.

The fireworks started at ten.

I was on the terrace of the restaurant when the fun started and was ready for my meal, not fireworks. Those in the know were all wearing old coats to protect themselves from the showers of sparks. The last time I had seen anything like that was the squibbing at Bridgwater Carnival though that was a lot more structured.

Some of the sparks fell towards me and my meal but only enough to create entertainment, not enough to worry about. The fireworks soon moved on in a raucous procession through the town leaving me to my meal. A fitting end to a remarkable day.

Barcelona Day Four was another walk in another park

On my fourth and final day in Barcelona I again headed for a different part of the city. This was a large parkland area just to the south-west of the city centre where, according to the tourist map, there were several notable buildings to find. So I went off to find them.

My first stop was the underground station at Plaça d'Espanya, which seemed to be the closest. This was a new part of the city and a brash wide boulevard of business buildings led towards the park. There I found a little cabin selling coffees and I took advantage of that while trying to come up with some sort of plan for the day. The first part was to head almost all the way back to the metro to find a bank, small cabins do not accept credit cards.

Fuelled and moneyed I started the proper exploration.

I knew about Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion but I did not know that it still existed. Actually "still" is not correct, it was demolished after the expo in 1930 and then rebuilt in 1986 because of its significance - it is one of, if not the, most important buildings of the twentieth century. Its simplicity, clear lines, open spaces and generous glass changed everything. Modern houses still look like this.

It was also where the Barcelona chair originated and that is another design that has endured. I see it all the time in posh rooms on TV shows and I have a Barcelona sofa in my living room.

It is not a big building, it was only a concept built for the 1929 expo, but I still managed to spend a long time there taking lots and lots of photos from different perspectives and at different angles. It was almost heartbreaking to select just one but it had to be done so I chose this one of the pool off the living area.

Heading west from there and starting the climb up the hill (Barcelona was a lot hillier than London) I next went to Poble Espanyol. This was a small development of buildings (shops and restaurants) in different Spanish styles, a sort of architectural theme park. I like architecture and this was an opportunity to see lots of it in a relatively small space.

There was much more uphill walking to do and plenty of places to rest along the way. I had another drink at some point.

The development was very commercial and clearly relied heavily on tourists shipped there by coach so it was good to go there in late October when it was still warm and busy but not boiling and packed.

It was quite a long walk along the road after that with not much to see. Luckily the destination was worth it as the road let to the Olympic Stadium.

That was at the top of the hill and the walking from there would be all downhill.

Unexpectedly it was a walk through lush gardens, a marked contrast to the harsh walk along the road up the hill. The park was divided in to several gardens and the one that I walked through was Jardins de Laribal.

It was subtly constructed with paths, steps, waterfalls and a few ornamental treats. Plenty to keep the eye busy and the walk interesting but not too much to intrude on the natural mood of the garden.

There were several ways down and I preferred to zig-zag my way, taking horizontal paths like this one, rather than taking the quick way down using the steps.

About halfway down was a cafe, La Font Del Gat, almost hidden among the trees. It looked as if they were thinking of closing, it was fairly late in the afternoon by then and I was glad to get a drink before they did. It was a lovely shady spot and the service was the sort that comes with smarty dressed waiters. I was on holiday and I deserved a little luxury.

Emerging from the gardens I was hit by views of the city. I have taken hundreds (possibly thousands) of photo of rooftops while on holiday and this was my chance to substantially add to them. I love the shapes and colours of roofs, plus what they tell you about the city beneath them.

This view had the added attraction of Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia dominating the distant skyline.

Then things got even better and the (accidental) plan to walk around the park anti-clockwise proved to be the right one. The walk down from the Museu D'Art was a delight every step of the way and I took every step slowly and carefully to savour the moment and to make sure that I did not miss anything.

The cabin where I had my first coffee of the day was just off to the right of the circular fountain at the bottom of the hill and the metro station was by the two brick pillars beyond it.

The museum was something of a spectacle itself. I had thought of going there but on the day I preferred to walk outside and I ran out of days to go another time. If I ever get back to Barcelona (unlikely as there are so many other places to see) then I'll consider going there, especially if it rains. Holidays are all about making decisions like that one and I am happy with the decision I made.

Water fell down the hill like lively children showing off to their parents. It tumbled and paused and made a lot of noise as it did so.

Steps followed the water down on both sides so it was a constant and welcome companion as I walked down. At intervals the water disappeared under the path allowing people to cross the watery thoroughfare and look back at its playful tumbling.

Half way down or so the view back was as good as the view forward and the large fountain at the very bottom made different patterns with the water as a final hurrah to the water's exploits.

It was hard to say goodbye to the water but the sun was almost done for the day and my legs knew that they had walked a long way and still had a bit to do to get to the metro and then the hotel.

I had gone to the park with not much of a plan and was immensely pleased that I had managed to find such a wonderful mix of architecture and gardens.

Barcelona rooftops seen from the Museum Of National Art De Catalunya

Terrace seating as a work of art

Barcelona Day Three was mostly spent at Gaudi's Park Güell

Having discovered Gaudi on my first day on Barcelona it became a simple decision to go to Park Güell for a day.

The hotel's wifi was just about up to the task of telling me where it was, when it opened and how to get there.

The advised route was to take the underground to Vallcarca and walk from there. Finding the route was easy as a lot of people were going the same way but I was not prepared for how steep the climb up was.

It is never a good sign when the pavement has escalators and this one had several.

The Park had two sections, a public part that anybody could go to and a private part that you had to pay to go to. This was on a timed ticket and I had a couple of hours to wait before going in. That was fine with me as that gave me plenty of time to walk around the public part and to get something to eat and drink. The drink was more important as this was quite a hot day.

The public park was very structural with several criss-crossing paths spread over a steep hill and with a few strange structures along the way. It reminded me to much of Port Portmeirion and did so for the rest of the day.

Walking through the public park gave enticing views back down in to the private section and I would have been tempted then to go, if I had not already got my ticket. The people who were in before me certainly seemed to be enjoying the view from one of the main vantage points.

There were vantage points in the public park too though I had no idea how precarious this one was when I walked along it.

This was a fantastical place and I was being wrapped up in its spell. It was also large enough that it could entrance many other people too and not seem that busy. Or perhaps it is because I am used to London that it seemed hassle-free.

Then the time came for me to go in to the central part of the Park and that part of my journey started with the curved terrace that I had looked down on earlier. There were several bays in the elongated bench and I was able to find one that was empty for a moment.

The sun was too hot to allow me to stay there for too long, which is just as well as I could have spent a long time there otherwise and I had other things to see.

The erratic mosaic construction meant that each section of the bench was different and that, in turn, meant that each section was worth looking at closely. The design looked haphazard but the effect was dazzling.

Walking down the hill, through a half tunnel cut in to the rock, revealed that the terrace was suspended on pillars which, like the pillars above, stood at unusual angles.

The pillars also created an interesting indoors space that had both shade (welcome on that day) and artistic reward (also welcome) with a decorated roof.

At the bottom of the hill, by one of the other entrances, were a couple of villas. They were probably intended to be gate houses for a development that never really got started, the gardens are there but not the villas, but they have become tourist attractions and shops. Somehow I did not buy anything but it was very close.

The main (lower) entrance shows the sheer exuberance and folly of the design. This was not Port Meirrion Portmeirion any more, this was Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and I had a golden ticket.

I also had a little thirst and a little tiredness so the cafe just to the left of the picture was the perfect place to sit for twenty minutes or so before rejoining the bustle and reclimbing the hill to see some more of the park.

As elsewhere, the structures warranted a closer look. This time the mosaics were more ordered but no less colourful.

This salamander basking towards the top of the grand steps was the icon of the park and featured on a lot of t-shirts and mugs. It was not my favourite thing there but most of the most spectacular things were of too large a scale to use on mugs so it is no surprise that the one small thing there became the icon of the park.

It was a long and rewarding day in Park Güell and there was more effort to come as I took a different way back to the hotel that still took quite a bit of walking, all be it mostly downhill.

And that was enough for me for the day. I ventured only a short way from the hotel to eat that evening before settling in for an easy slumber. Barcelona was proving to be just my sort of city.

Barcelona Day Two was spent in and around the Old Town

On my first day in Barcelona I had walked around the edges of the Old Town a little and had only walked through it at the end of the day to get back to my hotel. I was saving the Old Town for my second day.

I started off by walking back down Les Rambles again. This time at a more gentle pace and with more intent on exploration than on walking, a change in priorities from the previous day.

About half-way down I went in to the market, Mercado de La Boqueria, lurking to the west of the boulevard. I like markets and have been in to many in many places. There is something special about the combination of their shape, colour and activity that I find so compelling.

There were other cute buildings along the way and I rather liked this one.

Also nearby was the opera house which had a lovely upmarket cafe on a lower level. The ideal spot for a touch of elevenses.

Where the road met the sea was the magnificent neo-classical Port of Barcelona building. It was not quite as statuesque as its cousin the Liver Building but it made up for this in ornamentation.

Also there was the monument to Columbus. This looked like Nelson's Column but a shade taller. Column's do not photograph well (even diagonally) so I've not included a picture of it. Besides, you know what a column looks like.

Following the harbour north-east again, as I had the day before, I came across Barcelona-Estacio de França. I like stations even more than I like markets and this one was somewhat special thanks to its curved and double-arched roof.

The modern trains were a marked contrast to the period charm of the waiting area where I had a light lunch, with beer, in a large hall with a tall roof. The last time I ate somewhere like that was in Prague in the much-loved Deminka.

From there I headed into the Old Town where I found something new and also very old. Mercat del Born had been the site of a market that fell in to disrepair and had then been restored together with the old street patterns in the area which put the market back at the heart the area.

The new market house looked just like a market house should.

The very old stuff was inside.

In rebuilding the area they had discovered the remains of old buildings and these were now preserved inside the new market house. Around the sides were boards explaining the site and the history of the area. Several incarnations of Barcelona ago this had been a very important part of the town where battles had been fought.

From there I wandered through the heart of the Old Town which, being old, had many small windy lanes to follow, which I did just to see where they led. This is how I like to explore, treating each junction as a new opportunity and only deciding once i get there which route to take.

There was a grand heart to the Old Town that I had not been expecting, mostly because I had been ignoring the map. Here some of the streets were wide enough to swing lamps between and these led to grand squares surrounded by grand buildings such as government offices.

Wandering to the edges of the Old Town again (it is not that big so I kept bumping in to the edges) I chanced upon the extraordinary and elegant Palau de la Música Catalana. This is exactly what I wander around cities looking for.

And just around the corner there was another one. This looks as though it ought to be a school or something (there was a school in there somewhere) but the street views suggests that it was, at that time, a series of small shops. The purpose aside, the building's appeal is obvious with the sweeping roof line, strong arches and the falling decorations.

There were several other interesting buildings in that area too, including a modern one that looked as if it was covered in eye-balls.

You can tell by the low light that this was towards the end of the day and it had been another good one with lots more walking and plenty of unexpected discoveries.