Girona
I was drawn to Girona, 99 km northeast of Barcelona, by the 63rd Temps de Flors (Fiesta de Flores) or Flower Festival. If it hadn't been for that, I probably would not have visited this city of which I'd only vaguely heard. I'd also no idea that it was used as a set in the sixth series of Game of Thrones, a fact I only discovered when I looked up images of Girona Cathedral on Google!!
Girona, a city of 99,000, lies at the confluence of four rivers, the Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güel. Developed by the Romans, the city was repeatedly conquered and lost by various folk such as the Visigoths, the Moors, Charlemagne and a chap known as Wilfred the Hairy. It survived 25 sieges. What draws visitors to the city today is one of the best preserved Jewish quarters in Europe, full of winding, narrow streets, sudden staircases, and picturesque stone walls. The Jewish community flourished here from the 12th Century until 1492 when Judaism was outlawed throughout Spain by the Catholic Monarchs: Queen Isabella I of Castile and her husband King Ferdinand II of Aragon.
Our stay in Catalonia happened to coincide with the nine day-long Flower Festival, organised every May, so I took myself there expecting to see something akin to the annual Patio Festival in Córdoba, Andalusia, where residents open their patios and gardens to the public who vote for their favourite and thus a winner is picked. But not at all. This is more like flower and plant-art arrangements set up in public spaces and as the plants are only in small pots or vases – or in nothing at all – by the last weekend a few of of them are looking decidedly sad and wilted! The flower arrangements are designed by students at floral schools, or so I gathered from the programme which was only in Catalan.
The festival draws some 200,000 visitors annually but even though I was there on the very last day I found a parking space easily and was able to photograph some of the streets and floral arrangements without somebody standing in front of me... given a bit of patience and being quick on the shutter! There were 157 places to visit and 203 projects. Youngsters, identified by their official T-shirts, stood about in strategic spots handing out maps on which all the projects were numbered and described. But I just used mine to navigate through the labyrinthine lanes and alleyways and let myself be either marvelled, or not, by the many flower projects I happened to walk past. I avoided places such as the Roman Baths where there were long queues.
After visiting the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Gerona, which was cool, calm and has the widest nave in the world (bar St Peter's Basilica in Rome) and the Jewish Museum which I rather rushed around, I hit a problem. I was hungry and tired. Most of the restaurants had special “Festival Menus”, i.e. more expensive than usual, and in the one café where I finally found somewhere to sit outside I was told that I couldn't eat outside. I had to go inside but that was full. I think if my party of one had been bigger they would have made an effort, but the market value of a single person was of no interest to them.
I finally found my way down to the river Onyar along which the houses sit in picturesque fashion, much like in Florence, and was drawn to the pedestrian-only Pont d'en Gómez, decorated for the occasion with yellow posts atop of which stood what looked for all the world like ventilators made of basket weave from which hung grapes of yellow orchids. Apparently, and I didn't know this at the time, yellow is the colour chosen to represent the “Catalan Process” i.e. the push for independence. A bit further on I walked down a street prettily decorated with yellow branches from which hung multiple reproductions of Picasso's peace dove. I was enjoying it until politics butted in again in the form of the explanatory notice explaining that this “Freedom's wood” was a call for “freedom for our political prisoners, (…) the return of our exiled politicians”.
There was only a 43% turnout for the illegal independence referendum in September 2017. At the official election held on 21 December 2017 the biggest share of the popular vote was won by the Ciudadanos "remain in Spain" party, whilst the pro-independence parties won 47.5% of the popular vote, but this translated into 70 seats in the Catalan parliament, giving them a very slim majority of just 2 seats! The Girona region voted 63.7% for these pro-independence parties (against 44% in the Barcelona region). The self-exiled former president of Catalonia (from January 2016 to October 2017) and man responsible for the illegal independence referendum, Carles Puigdemont, was mayor of Girona from 2011-2016. So I suppose the plethora of Catalan flags and political statements made by the flowers in his city is unsurprising.
I'd like to return to Gerona one day when there are fewer visitors and when the political ambiance is less tense. I'll wait until the "Catalan Process" is settled, one way or the other, because, as a visitor, I found it really disturbing to be constantly confronted by in-your-face pamphlets, banners, posters etc. It doesn't make for a relaxing atmosphere.
