WIFI! Yes, we've got it, finally! (www.gironalet.com)

  

Shame! Now you don't need to go to the cafe....

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream

see what i mean?

 

There are lots if ice-cream parlours in Girona but if you see a queue emerging from a hole in the wall, and smug looking so-and-sos clutching little ice-cream pots with candy floss toppings and such like, you know you've found Rocambolesc! The toppings are endless and fun and you're not really allowed to leave without one. They're also really friendly. See for yourselves! The 'hole in the wall' won a design award and is gorgeous. So there.

This is what they say on their website: 

It all started when Jordi Roca decided to bring back the traditional dessert trolley of El Celler de Can Roca, which was dispensed with when he took over the sweet part of the menu. When they saw the new petit‑four trolley designed byAndreu Carulla, the Roca brothers thought it would be fun to stroll around the streets of Girona offering these petits fours to passers-by. Though it was an exciting idea, they were faced with the restrictions imposed by local regulations, so they decided to showcase it in an ice cream shop that they opened in the centre of town: this is how Rocambolesc was born.

The vintage feel of the establishment, inspired by the magical world of Willy Wonka, the fictional character that owns a chocolate factory in Roald Dahl's children's book and Tim Burton's movie, is the work of Sandra Tarruella's Interior Architecture design firm and the graphic design firm Run, which is also responsible for the corporate identity and the packaging. 

http://www.rocambolesc.com/

Saturday Market (and Tuesday)

Next time, i'll take the camera, these pictures don't do it justice. In November, the leaves hadn't fallen yet, the Devesa wood still green and sunlit and the first stalls were selling stacks of mint, coriander and jerusalem artichoke (freshly culled from the river banks?!). On Saturday and Tuesday mornings it transforms from this peaceful park, to a riot of jostling elbows and determined grandmas. And it's a pleasure to compete. There's enough for everyone and time too. Don't miss it. You walk from the centre of town to the edge of the wood and eventually have to make a decision....left or right along the Ter river bank. Left, those handbags look quite interesting, and the scarves....but look right and the stalls go on forever....maybe there isn't enough time after all....

River Ter

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Tasca Gallega - Tapas and Fish

It's a hard life here in Girona. Having guests, what to do on a Saturday morning? Of course there's the indoor market and then the outdoor market, stretching along one of the 3 rivers, but what about lunch? Our guests were not used to doing much for lunch and we thought we were for it, but around 2 o'clock everyone admitted to being a little peckish and we thought we'd try a tapas restaurant, highly recommended by some of our cyclist visitors. It's just off Plaça Independencia, you can see it from the cafe Royal on the corner.

It's extremely attractive, very small and though empty when we arrived, was full within the hour.
Not wanting to over order we asked for calamars a la andaluza, calamars a la planxa (we ordered for one and ended up repeating twice!), patatas bravas and various other seafoods. It was all delicious and they were happy to allow us to order as much or as little as we wanted. More robust appetites also catered for, and we all said we'd be back for an evening meal to do the place more justice. The only negative on just the one visit so far, was the slow service, but because everything was cooked to order and from a small kitchen. Don't go if you're in a hurry, but do go. The website in English is quite amusing as well!

http://www.tascagalega.com/angles/tapes_carta_ang.php

Don't eat in the Rambla

Too many non-specific, but bad reports from eating in the Rambla....they're going to have to learn the hard way, 'foreign' doesn't actually mean 'stupid'. Apart from professional-cyclist-spotting in the Irish bar, no-one has a good word to say about the Rambla, apart from its' appearance of course - style over substance again.