The Ghetto - Girona, Spain

I wanted to see the ghetto in Girona so we drove there from Barcelona where we were staying. We wandered the narrow, cobbled streets and I stopped to do this watercolor. My watercolor teacher later told me that I don't understand perspective, which is probably true in this painting at any rate, but I don't really care. I like the image.

We went to the Jewish Museum in the Ghetto where we learned such things as "The Jews don't light lights on the sabbath" and "At Passover the Jews eat unleavened bread." The history of the Jews stopped just short of 1492 (the year of the expulsion from Spain) which was actually what we hoping to learn something about.

For a long time I have been curious about this period in Jewish-Spanish history and I was hoping to learn more. Were the conquistadors secret Jews? Was Cervantes as some scholars have speculated? But there was nothing. When I asked about this at the reference desk, the woman there told me that they hadn't gotten to that room yet, but it was in the planning stages. I had a feeling that this was a very long-range plan.

We drove home beneath an orange full moon. It was a long drive back and we got lost several times.