Girona

Girona's medieval district is quite large. You can spend a lot of time just wandering around. You can walk part of the way around it on the walls, as well. There's a decent Museum of Fine Arts (not as large as Barcelona's MNAC, which I'd recommend if you have to choose just one of them) and a Jewish History Museum that I haven't seen. The Cathedral and the nearby St. Feliu are important historic churches.

Figueres, location of the Dali Theatre-Museum, is an easy side trip from Girona by train. Figueres itself isn't, for me, a particularly attractive city, but the DTM is very appealing--and I say that as someone who really doesn't care for Surrealism. The nearby jewelry collection, covered by the same ticket, is beautiful and can be seen in less than 30 minutes. The DTM can take a good bit of time if you want to see everything (definitely over 2 hours, maybe over 3). Although I don't think the DTM fully sells out, tickets are timed, and individual entry blocks can sell out. The museum does get some bus tours, and one busload might buy up a lot of tickets. Therefore, it would be a bit risky to head up to Figueres without having bought online tickets in advance. I think I bought mine just one day ahead, but that was in 2019, and my schedule was flexible. There are both fast trains (more expensive, especially if you buy the tickets late) and slow trains running from Girona to Figueres. They go to different Figueres stations. There's a city bus connecting the two stations and traveling within a few blocks of the DTM. However, in my experience, if the train is late, the bus doesn't wait, so plan ahead by either allowing for a walk (roughly 1 mile, I think, from the Figueres Vilafant station served by the fast trains) or carrying taxi telephone numbers in case there's not a taxi waiting when your train arrives.

Another possible side trip from Girona--this time by bus--is Besalu. Besalu has a medieval center that's fun to wander. It also has a very distinctive merchant's bridge.

If you wanted to push harder and had extra time, you could go beyond Figueres to Cadaques by bus. Cadaques is a very pretty, white cubic former fishing village (not tiny), dripping with bougainvillea. It's touristy now. Outside Cadaques is another Dali-related site. It's in Portlligat, and that is a ticket that definitely does need to be purchased well ahead of time. Capacity there is limited. I think the house is about a 15-minute walk from the bus station or a 20-minute walk from the port area. The bus route from Figueres to Cadaques is very scenic. Those buses depart from outside the Figueres train station (called simply "Figueres) used by the slow trains.

Girona is where a LOT of pro bike racers (Lance Armstrong, etc.) were based in Europe 20 years ago, as it offered lots of terrain for training rides. Flatness may not be one of the key attributes, though. The racers have moved to tax havens Andorra and Monaco now.

We spent one night there, 11 years ago, after spending much of the day at the Dali museum in Figueres, then heading to the other Dali locations mentioned above on the next day. Getting dinner was a challenge in Girona. We entered a place not exceedingly early (by Spanish dining times) and they were’t excited about seating us, so we left. I don’t recall where we ate that night, but I think we tried at least 1 or 2 additional places, and just remember the cold reception at the first place. Hopefully you’ll get better results.

Acraven has already given you a lot of information. I'll just add that we spent 3 nights in Girona about 5 years ago and it is still one of my favorite cities in Europe. Absolutely stunning. We walked the walls and visited the churches and wandered forever in the old town. The night life was lively. A suggestion for those that would like to eat earlier would be a tapas bar. I can't recall the name of the place we went to, but we found the staff so friendly and helpful in determining what to order.

We took a day trip to Besalu via bus and it was such a picturesque little town situated on a river by a lovely bridge. So much history in both Besalu and Girona.

I believe Girona is known for some very good restaurants. I'm sure there are a lot of places where dinner reservations are pretty much necessary. I don't have many sit-down dinners in Spain, because I do not want to eat at 10 PM (or later).

We ate a large lunch in Girona, in fact lunch is always our main meal. I just hold off on wine until our nibble dinner.

"some very good restaurants"

Yeah, not much: Celler de Can Roca -just a three Michelin-starred joint named the best restaurant in the world two years in a row, and second place five more by the prestigious "The World's 50 Best Restaurants", LOL! :))

Aside from this one, you have plenty more to choose from, here is a sample: Si no fos, Normal, Massana, Draps, Casa Marieta, La Fàbrica, Txalaka, Can Roca -the origin of Celler de Can Roca- still run by their mother, Blanc, Ditifet, La Tabarra...

Ah, note that the "10pm or later" is a baseless myth these days... while on certain occasions and certain days (Friday or Saturday), some people might go to a restaurant for dinner at 10pm and later, that's not by large the norm; certainly not on a week-day for example. This is not to say you'll find many restaurants open for dinner at 7pm either; the most common hour would be 9pm these days. Still in cities like Barcelona or Girona, you can go for dinner at 7pm if you want... yet your available choices might not include "that" restaurant in particular you wanted to go to.

Again... I am talking about Catalonia, in parts of Spain they have different "schedules" and the 10pm is still happening. Also, another matter is those who might be holidaying... then anything goes.