What a Town We Live In

We repeatedly have to pinch ourselves to believe we are actually living in this wonderful town, Girona, Spain. Here we are near the Costa Brava, one of the most beautiful coasts along the Mediterranean. We are near the French border on the north, close to Barcelona on the south and within a few miles of la Garrocha (Garrotxa in Catalan), the volcanic region on the west.

Last night capped them all for us. We walked a few blocks from our apartment in the old town to the cathedral, where we heard a concert by Anonymous 4, the Grammy award winning a cappella group that specializes in ancient music.

The concert began in the 12th-century cloister of the cathedral, where we heard 15th century music from nearby Montserrat. After a half hour we all trooped into the cathedral proper, where we heard music from the 14th century Codex of Las Huelgas, a monastery near here.

In the cloister we sat amid a sea of arches, columns and capitals with candlelight playing about the shadows, creating the illusion that we might have been transported back in time. The voices floated through the atmosphere accompanied by an occasional coo of a dove in the central courtyard. The cathedral was in near darkness when we entered. The voices came to us, amplified by several seconds of reverberation time and a few sparrows high above, who sang with all their hearts. It was total enchantment all evening long.

We walked out of the cathedral into the crowds of people eating at the booths set up to celebrate the religious and world music festival that is going on all month. Food from many countries around the world was being served to the hundreds of people, also from around the world. (The night before, when we ate at the outdoor tables the group at our table were from Romania.) Last night we strolled through the crowds and walked down ancient streets in the old Jewish quarter of Girona to our modern apartment in a 16th century building on the original Roman road through town.

We hardly can believe the richness we find ourselves in here and are thankful every day for our good fortune.