Girona Temp de Flor?

This past November, we flew to Barcelona and immediately hopped a train for Girona, partly to explore the town where so many US pro cyclists have lived and trained while they are in Europe. The old town has lots of intriguing steep, narrow stairways and passageways. We didn't see inside the cathedral (it closed in the late afternoon), but it's impressive from outside, and has enough stairs to give you a workout. One local was running up and down the stairs, but was running backwards down the steep steps. Because it's a college town, there are lots of kids who speak English in the old center.

We had limited time, so were just there for one night. We stayed at the Hotel Bellmirall, which served an outstanding breakfast the next morning. Just beware of the all-glass door in the dimly lit lobby - one of us ran face-first into it (it hadn't been closed when we first arrived, and it wasn't obvious there was a door there), but fortunately an optician was nearby who was open late, and the mangled glasses were repaired.

Signage was great on the roads, and we headed north to Figueres to see the Dali musuem, then on to Cadeques. That portion of the drive got twistier and hillier as we neared Cadeques, but again, the signs were great. As we neared the Dali house, we though we might be off-course, but it turns out we were just passing a lot of empty parking lots that are probably full of tour busses and cars in higher season than November. Be sure you make an appointment, as Rick describes in his book. Even in November with just the 2 of us plus 2 others going on the last tour of the day), the ticket office was strictly adhering to the reservation policy. We drove back to Girona the next day, after spending the night in Roses, turned in our Europcar, and caught a train to Barcelona.

Thank you for the info. We are doing the train from Girona to Figures then bus to Cadiques.
Thinking after seeing the house and museum we will be tired and thinking of staying over.
Would you recommend the hotel you stayed in Roses?

Ann-I now realized that you had also posted a separate question about North Spain Itinerary, so, for the record, in Bilbao we stayed and ate at places straight out of Rick's Spain book -- Iturrienea Ostatua and Restaurant Kasko. Both were great.

For Roses, we'd been looking forward to staying at Mas Palou, and eating at their restaurant after learning that they were a dining hotspot. Upon arriving, were were really disappointed to learn the restaurant was closed for the season (November is off-season in what I imagine is really busy with beachgoers in warmer times of the year). We were tired, too, and wound up not going into town for dinner, and just ate some bars in the room that we'd packed for snacks and emergencies. Mas Palou is about a mile north of Roses town, just off the main road into town from the 2-lane highway from Cadaques, and we had a car, but decided against going into town, which the front desk told us was kind of shut down for the season.

Due to our extremely early departure the next morning so we could catch an early train to Barcelona, we were going to miss their breakfast time, but they fixed up a great continental breakfast on a tray for us so we could eat in the room/take it with us in the car. The room was in an old, renovated farm building, and had an elegant bathroom and was well-appointed. Because it was off-season, the heat had been off, so we ran the heater for quite a while to warm away the November chill. The hallway & lobby lights from our room to the front of the building were on a pretty short timer, so we got stuck in the dark leaving in the wee hours of the morning - move fast or have a flashlight at night! Overall, I definitely recommend Mas Palou, but we still wish their restaurant had been open when we were there. It might have been nice to have been able to stay longer than just the one night -- arriving at dusk and departing in the dark!