Girona

My dad came to visit and he had never been to Catalonia before. We spent his first three days exploring the city and with me as his tour guide I showed him all the big Barcelona attractions. On his fourth day here we took the train north to Girona. Right off the train the town isn't that impressive. It looked a little industrial at first then as we walked more it began to get prettier. We stopped at a tourist information desk and they pointed us in the right direction of the old city. We crossed over a bridge and had an amazing view of the riverfront of Girona. After the bridge it appeared that we had made it to the old city center. It looked a little bit like Barcelona's gothic quarter but the streets were fairly wider and more hilly. The main reason we traveled to Girona was to check out the Jewish museum and it was located in the old town. I had learned at IES that Girona once had a prominent Jewish population and when I told my dad that it was only a train ride away he wanted to make the trip. On the outside of the museum, in the window of the apartment above, there were Palestinian flags. We entered the museum and asked why such disrespect was shown outside of a Jewish museum and they replied that they are not affiliated with the flags and they can't be removed because the apartment above the museum is private property. Once inside the museum we learned that Girona no longer had a Jewish community. The Jews were eradicated during the Spanish Inquisition and all of their synagogues were destroyed. The museum is now in the location of the best preserved synagogue. The museum was small but had a lot of cool artifacts and items that survived the Inquisition. It showed prominent Jews from Girona, their professions and their influence on Catalan culture. There was also a patio with a big Star of David and a large Israeli flag which was nice to see. It's a little disappointing coming to Barcelona, a huge international city, and not being exposed to any Jewish culture except for a small synagogue that must hide it's existence for fear of being vandalized, but now that I know a great museum of Jewish history in Catalonia exists, I am pleased. We ate lunch in the old town of Girona and headed another half hour north to Girona.