We're home, in Canada, from our home in Girona! That is what we felt about the apartment we rented from Miriam. We try not to be tourists, but to be travellers. A traveller tries to live with and like the local population.
Staying at Miriam's let us do this and still be easily in touch with the more "touristy" Girona. We could stand on the balcony and watch the neighbours come and go about their daily business, students on their way to and from school, and people shopping at the local independent shops. In the mornings we even ran across the street to the bakery for our breakfast bread.
Then we could walk out the door and stroll for 10 minutes down to the old city, the Rambla, the beautiful touristy area. Sit down and have a coffee, wine, or beer and watch the world go by. You could do the same in any of dozens of sidewalk cafés in the area more frequented by the locals.
But we also like to be more active, so we rented bicycles for 2 weeks. We went on many great adventures, riding right from the apartment in this most friendly of cities in which to walk or cycle.
Bottom line, I could go on forever, but staying in Miriam's apartment made this trip one of our most memorable. Highly recommended! Thanks Miriam, and to your father for all he did.