I suppose it is fitting that I should be staying in the Hotel Museu Llegendes in Girona because this ancient Catalonian city is so full of legends that even the locals have trouble keeping up with the stories.
The family-owned 15-room boutique hotel, opened 12 years ago, is like a homage to saints, particularly Sant Narcis, patron saint of Girona, and artists, in particular, Salvador Dali, and one of its claims to fame is that one of the displays in the hotel contains real hair from Dali’s famous whiskers.
Hotel Museu De Llegendes: A homage to saints and artists of Girona.
“If you look at it from the top, just so, you’ll see a few white hairs sprouting out,” said Alexia, the hotel’s business strategist, as he cradles his daughter, Aurora, in his arms, and pointing to a display cabinet by the window. I went on tiptoe, craned my neck, peered at the crystal ball and true enough, I saw a few white hairs sprouting out, magnified through the glass.
I apologise for the fact that I could not take a photo from the awkward angle I was in but anyway, there’s plenty of other photos of Salvador Dali because in Girona, there’s no escaping the influence he had on the region. Considered one of the greatest surrealism artists, he lived between 1904 and 1989 and local Catalonians, old enough, remember the day he died as vividly as some of us old enough remember the day Man landed on the Moon.
When I told my tour guide, Miguel, the legend of the hotel’s whisker hairs, his eyebrows shot up. Neither confirming or denying it, he then proceeds to share other legends of Girona – in particular, how it was saved by flies during the French invasion of 1286 when flies swarmed up from Sant Narcis’ grave and kept the French at bay, which is why the city’s mascot is the fly – you can buy plenty of fly souvenirs in the shops.
There’s another legend around a weird sculpture of a petrified-looking lion clinging to a post within the old city walls, but the full story eludes me because often I was lost in my own world, tripping over cobbled stones on ancient Roman roads, imagining life as it was in this fortified city which has undergone 25 sieges and been captured seven times. That’s in real life.
Girona: In real life, a fortified city attacked several times and in fiction, location for Game of Thrones and The Legend of the Blue Sea.
In fiction, It was the location for some of the scenes from Game of Thrones, Season 6, and often Miguel would stop, pull out a Youtube video and show us exactly where Aria was sitting or when she was being chased over the bridge. It was also the location for a Korean romantic drama, The Legend of the Blue Sea, and Miguel tells me the Korean tourists he shepherds on his tours always insist on visiting the spot.
Another of Girona’s claim to fame is its red bridge, which was designed by the same architect who built Eiffel Tower. “This bridge was built before the tower,” Miguel proudly proclaims.
The sense of pride and independence of the people in this region is palpable – you feel it in the conversations with locals when they talk about their place in Spain and you taste it in the food and wine – the flavours of Catalan cuisine are quite distinct, coming through in the fresh seafood and produce in the region.
This is home after all to the famous Roca Brothers, Joan, Josep and Jordi, who’ve created quite a culinary empire, starting with the three Michelin star El Celler de Can Roca to their newer outlets like Normal and Casa Cacao, a chocolateria as well as a 15-room boutique hotel with a rooftop restaurant, and they’ve even opened a gelato store when you can have the dessert in the shape of the three brothers and, I am sure, a fly edition is available as well. The meal we had at Casa Cacao was inventive and tasty, if a little too rich and creamy for my palate.
But to me, nothing captures the spirit of Catalan cuisine and experience better than a day out on the sea with husband-and-wife team of Jaume and Clara who run La Gastronomica, a company that offers “emotional experiences” around food, wine and music.
Coastal scenery of Costa Brava
Brimming with vigour and enthusiasm, they meet us at Palamos, a coastal town in Costa Brava, where we hop onto Poppy, a handmade boat built in 1970, and off we skim across an ocean so blue and sparkling you feel like jumping into it right away. On this early June day, the weather is perfect – sunny but not too hot, breezy but not too cold.
Jaume was a physiotherapist for 25 years and Clara a nutrionist. “In half an hour, you’ll understand why we gave that up to do this,” she said.
Paddling in the oasis within an oasis
In half an hour, we arrive at a bay. We hop into a smaller boat and we are taken into a creek that’s like an oasis within an oasis. We weave our way through the rocks, formed over the passage of time. The water is crystal clear. People are paddling. The fish are swimming. Who could ask for anything more?
Clearly not Jaume and Clara who retrained themselves as chef and sommelier respectively and now they take travellers like us out to sea, cook for them and generally show them the best that Catalan has to offer.
Jaume cooks, Clara tells stories – he gave up physiotherapy, she a career in nutrition to start La Gastronomica.
While Jaume slaves over the hot stove, Clara shares stories (legends) of the sea, and her experiences – there’s one they do that matches wine with music, which sounds intriguing. She’s also the co-author of a book called “The Catalan Table”. It seems like the perfect union – he cooks, she wines and dines.
“We want to do what we love, and food and wine is connected to everything,” says Clara.
“It’s a challenge, partners in life and in business,” laughs Jaume. “She’s the boss.”
Perhaps there’s something about being on the ocean and eating but I can still smell and taste the ocean in the food we had that day – the most delicious gambas rosada (red shrimp) paella I’ve ever had (even Jaume himself was impressed). The tomatoes were huge and juicy, the goat cheese creamy and savoury, the wines dry and fine and the company, as sparkling as the water around us.
Sitting on deck, I watched as a young family, the mother and father as naked as the child the day he was born, played by the beach, and their dog fetched sticks, and I wondered, maybe I should do what Jaume and Clara did?
Such is the stuff of travellers’ dreams and ancient legends that places like Girona and Costa Brava evoke.
PS, I thought I’d end with a photo of a mouth-watering legend that’s as real as it looks.
