sep, 30th - feasting....

day 577:

we did plenty of feasting over the weekend. incredibly fresh seafood, crunchy vegetables, succulent fruits, an outside fire (with a special hairdryer compartment), well kitted kitchens and award winning talent in the house all makes for some memorable meals.

sep, 29th - these two....

day 576:

these two used to be at completely different stages - here Limi is 56 days old and Oats is due in two weeks and then about two weeks later, Oats as a newborn and Limi all 'grown-up' at 10 weeks old. 

now, you can hardly tell them apart.

once Limi had adjusted to Oats' impressive scream at the end of 'row, row, row your boat' (our mild scream needs some work) they were firm (if sometimes reluctant-to-share) friends and explored every inch of this house over the weekend.

communal baths were especially a highlight.

and the window cleaner is going to find multiple mini hand-prints at waist level on every single pane of glass. 

sep, 28th - market day....

day 575:

it's market day in Girona on a Saturday...so we headed down to stock up on supplies. with amazing kitchens to cook in, incredibly fresh produce to choose from, wonderful alfresco eating areas, culinary skills to appreciate and babies to put to bed it made sense to eat in every night.

as you would expect in Spain, the market has an impressive array of fresh meats and seafood. with zero Spanish (shameful as that is) it was shopping mostly down to hand gestures and big grins.

after some serious produce prodding, we stopped at a cafe in the market for the local Bocadillo and beer. Bocadillo is pure, delicious simplicity: jamon iberico de belotta (ham) in a crusty baguette that has been rubbed with the cut side of a tomato and drizzled with olive oil. this one was exceptional.

then back into the throngs for more supplies....

and we lingered until closing.....

sep, 27th - alemanys5....

day 574:

we stayed in this amazing place over the weekend with some friends. the house is a contemporary restoration of a sixteenth century building by Barcelona architect, Anna Noguera. i'm not sure any of us had ever had a strong desire to visit Girona but the pictures of this place enticed us onto a plane.

and as so seldom happens, it was even better than the pictures. a fantastically well thought out marriage of old stone, steel, wood and glass. it is certainly the small things that make you realise that someone has put serious thought into this building: the perfectly framed and surprising views through windows and doors; gaps between steel shelves and the stone wall to feed through cables; reading lights positioned in just the right spots and interesting shadows created by steel finishes. it was surprising that we saw any of Girona when spending time lounging around the vast space was so thoroughly indulgent after the London Shoebox.