Girona is the day trip people take instead of a second one to Montserrat, and then wish they had done first. It is a compact medieval city an hour north of Barcelona, built on a slope above a river, with a row of ochre and red houses hanging over the water, an enormous cathedral at the top of an enormous staircase, a walkable stretch of city wall, and in the middle of it all the Call: a warren of stepped stone lanes that was the Jewish quarter for six hundred years and is among the best preserved in Europe.
The Call
A dense grid of stepped lanes on the slope beneath the cathedral, narrow, stone, and almost unchanged in outline since the middle ages.
Six centuries of Jewish life here, from around the ninth century until the expulsion of 1492, at times as one of the most important communities in Catalonia.
A museum of Jewish history in the middle of it, in a building believed to have housed the last synagogue, with a courtyard and a collection of medieval tombstones.
Nahmanides, the thirteenth century scholar and one of the major figures of medieval Jewish thought, was from here, and the study centre carries his name.
It is not a reconstruction. The lanes are the real ones, which is exactly why it is worth walking slowly.
The rest of the old town
The cathedral, at the top of a wide flight of ninety steps, with the widest Gothic nave in the world and a famous eleventh century embroidered tapestry of the Creation in its museum.
The city walls, free, running along the eastern edge with towers to climb and a view over the whole old town.
The Arab baths, twelfth century and not actually Arab, small and beautiful.
Sant Pere de Galligants, a Romanesque monastery below the walls, now the archaeology museum.
The coloured houses over the Onyar, best seen from the footbridges, which is the image of the city.
The Rambla, arcaded, on the near bank, for lunch.
Getting there and around
High speed train in under forty minutes at a considerably higher fare, with booking recommended.
Regional train in about an hour and a half, frequent, cheap and no reservation needed.
A fifteen minute walk from the station across the river to the old town.
No transport needed once you are there. The old town is a few hundred metres across, entirely on foot, and steep in parts.
Figueres is further up the same line, which makes a combined trip possible on a long day.
Practical notes
Steps everywhere. This is a city built on a slope and the Call in particular is stepped lanes. Wheeled luggage and pushchairs have a hard time.
Closing days for the museums are usually Monday, and the cathedral has its own hours around services.
Lunch is much cheaper than Barcelona and the region has a serious food reputation.
Summer is hot inland, hotter than the coast, and the old town holds it.
Sunday is quiet, with several museums open and most shops shut.
Where this fits in a Barcelona trip
Girona is a full day, and it is the best single day trip from Barcelona for anyone who likes walking through history rather than looking at it across a rope.
For the mountain and monastery trip that most visitors do first, our guide to Montserrat covers the alternative.
For the museum further up the same railway line, which can be combined with this on a long day, our guide to Figueres and the Dalí Museum covers the trip.
And for the coast half an hour east of here, with the cliff paths and the coves, our guide to the Costa Brava covers where to go from Girona.
The short version
Take the regional train unless you are short of daylight, walk fifteen minutes from the station, and go up onto the free city walls first thing so the rest of the day has a shape. Then come down into the Call and walk it slowly, visit the Jewish history museum, climb the cathedral steps and see the Creation tapestry. Eat on the arcaded Rambla, photograph the coloured houses from a footbridge, and check the Monday closures before you build a day around a museum.
