Nude beaches!

Got the scoop from Oscar about the route north along the coast to Sa Riera and the beaches in that area. This route would allow us to avoid the large hill back up to Begur. We headed out under a nice sunny sky. The route climbed a little but not bad, the road followed the contour for awhile and we had great views down to the sea. We entered into a series of high-end suburbs of Begur with beautiful houses and grounds overlooking the sea. Sa Riera had a sweet little beach, pretty sandy, some nice looking restaurants along the beach but too early for lunch. So we continued on then finally came to the southern end of a huge beach. This beach, Platja de Pals, went for about 5-6 miles north to L'Estartit.

The southern end of the beach, it curved all the way north to the rocks you can see in the distance.



We dropped down to the beach and it was overbuilt and kind of tacky to start, but we found a dirt path, headed north and it became deserted with nice sand dunes. There were a series of access points with bike racks, and on this deserted stretch it was clear these were nude beaches!! Love it.

So we picked a nice spot and hit the beach. Seemed to be mostly guys here, I stripped right down, April had a bit more modesty. The water was nice so I went swimming. Nothing like swimming naked then laying in the hot sand. Its clear this is how we're meant to be. The sand, the wind, the sun, the sea and me. We all fused into one higher plane. It was like the movie Avatar, everything was interconnected! I told April I need a beach house where I can walk outside naked and swim in the ocean. I got the look.

Soon to be naked. and btw I haven't gotten as fat as it looks in this pic. My shirt just got bunched out, kind of. I think.




We finally hit the road in search of lunch. We rode another few kilometers down the beach and came to a deserted condo development, and found a restaurant. Only a few people eating at it, but it turned out to be very good. April had her best omelet espanol, and I had a 1/2 chicken and frites.

Our map was kind of sketchy for the area after lunch. It was a big flat expanse of rice fields. And they were all separated by low dykes, sometimes there were dirt roads on the sides. We could have headed out to the paved road but that would have been too sensible so in to the rice fields we went. Started out ok, our map seemed to be matching the roads we were on. It looked like there was a river that would prevent us from continuing north. But April was certain we would find a way across. Nothing makes the Tiger happier than placing her foot on a patch of earth where she's never been before.

Heading into the rice fields.



So down we go looking for the "probable" bridge across the river. We follow a sandy path that is going parallel to the river out to the sea. At times we have to get off our bikes and push them because the path is like beach sand. Surprise, surprise we get to spot where the river meets the sea, and like the map shows, there is no way across. Back we push through the sandy stretches. Then we get on some dirt roads but have no idea where we are in the large scheme of things. We head west in the direction of the paved road. The dirt roads are rough and rocky. We finally come upon a brand new paved road that heads south. Doesn't seem to be on our map. We can't resist so we start down it, but soon realize we're heading south to where we started, so we turn around and get back in the rice maze.

On we go, at every corner we have a choice, left, right, straight. The riding sucks as it's washboard. I'm close to revolting at this point. It seems the mindful riding has turned into "The Stupids get Lost in the Rice Fields".
Finally we're headed on a dirt road that seems more traveled and we can begin to see cars on the paved road. Yes! There's a little path that gets us up to the paved road. And there's a bike sign there, so we now know where we are. We cross the highway and get on a wonderful paved road. The wind is at our backs, we're going 20-25 kph, I look over and April has a big smile on her face, seriously, she's loving it.

But never fear, in about 5k the road turns to dirt. Freakin' washboard again. Did I mentioned that April claims she wants to try a mountain bike tour next.

Anyway we make our way about 15k on dirt to our town and hotel. We're staying at a **** hotel called Moli de Mig. Its run by the women who setup all the signed bike routes in this area. It's sort of a bike hotel, they have bikes for rent, they have maps, then have a bike repair area. It's situated in the country on about 10 acres. Along with the Carrilet and Majorca, it's one of the reasons we came here. The hotel is sweet. We got upgraded to a better room cause no one else is here. We shower then sit under the shade trees for a beer and salty chips cooked in olive oil. How sweet it is!



Then we nap from about 6-7:00, terrible schedule really. Dinner in the restaurant here is quite nice. I had a salmon, avocado app, then a stuffed lamb shoulder. April had a grilled veggie tart, followed by steak frites. And she managed an apple tart for dessert. We're confident we'll stop eating so much when we get back to Seattle. At least that's the plan.

Did I mention there were robes in the room? look at that smile!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sa Rascassa

Fantastic sleep last night. Our inn/restaurant, Sa Rascassa, is in a tiny little cove called Aiguafreda (cold water). No one is down here this early in the season. We love the off season feel. Just the birds and us.

Also helped that we had twin beds so we could each manage our covers as we wish. This is one of our longstanding disagreements; April likes the covers all tucked in tight, so she's slipped in just like a letter into an envelope. And I like them all pulled out so I can tuck them under my feet. Usually she falls asleep first and I can pull out all the covers while she's blissfully unaware. Sometimes I get to pull out only my half, which sort of makes both of us unhappy, she imagines I've pulled put her side, and I don't get enough play to fully thrash around and tuck the blankets under like I like. Ah 30 years of marriage.

We head down to the restaurant for a nice breakfast. We've started telling the inns not to lay out the meat and cheese plate for us since we don't eat it. April claimed the coffee was better than normal, we also had a nice fruit plate in addition to the standard bread products. Fresh squeezed oj, which is a plus. I continue to build up chits for selecting this inn. For us it's super important that the owner and staff are friendly and helpful. It really makes the stay. They give good recommendations for restaurants and things to do, etc. In this case, Oscar is perhaps the best owner we've had yet. You can tell which owners really have passion for their role and business and which don't.

It started out cloudy, then turned sunny. We walked south along the coast to the next cove, Sa Tuna. More of a sandy beach, but more busy and crowded. We pushed on further south up some significant hillsides. Great views up and down the coast. The rock here is limestone I think, and it doesn't seem to weather smoothly, instead it's incredibly sharp and jagged.

We head back to Sa Tuna for lunch in little cafe on the beach. Typical catalan fare, escalivada, butifarra with fries, omelet espangnol, some white wine, bread with a slight tomato sauce. I'm trying to eat lightly, saving myself for dinner at Oscars, but April doesn't like her butifarra and whines until I switch with her. I swear I'm not eating her choices anymore. This is maybe the third time I've made this vow on this trip.

Back to the inn for a nap. We score big with a 60-90 minute nap. We're starting to fall into the Spanish timeframe, late lunch from say 2-3, then we really like the nap in the 4-6 range. Dinner at 8:30 or 9:00. We both get in some reading and email, then head downstairs for dinner at 8:30.

We split some cod fish cakes, April had her apple salad, which she predeclared that she was not sharing with me, I had some grilled veggies with this romesco sauce they make (dried tomato based). And April had grilled chicken breasts and fries, while I had this pork meal called the "Special". Oscar explained to us they eat a ton of pork, but there is some very special Iberian pork called pata negra, black leg. These are kind of like free range pigs, with black hair, that eat more natural chestnuts and stuff, rather than being fed pig food. In fact, the Spanish use this phrase, pata negra, to signify that something is really good, ie, this restaurant is pata negra. You gotta love a culture that generalizes a pork phrase for everyday excellence.

A French couple showed up for dinner also, and they had the chicken and lobster stew. We asked Oscar where he got his lobster from and it was from Maine. This made April's day.

A home-made lemon and mint ice cream for dessert. Then we hit the room for some reading before bed.

No pics as I forgot to carry the iPad on our hike.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Carrer d'Aiguafreda,Begur,Spain

Mindful riding!

Another great sleep, this was a very quiet town at night. It's been great traveling in the off-season. Although not all the restaurants are open, enough are, there never is a problem getting in to a restaurant. Same for hotels, we can just show up and get a room, often at low season rates.

A few more details on Peratallada for the readers who appreciate history. The name is derived from pedra tallada, which means carved stone. The Peratallada castle was built on the site of a former fortress and is documented from the year 1065. There are a variety of construction techniques on the castle from different periods and styles. There is a 30 foot high rectangular tower, the Keep, in the center of the structure. The clock tower is also on a square floor plan. There's a 30 foot high round tower at one of the entrances. There are loop holes for firearms on all these structures. The moat is about 20 feet deep. You can still see the zigzag marks in the moat wall from the stonecutters picks. That's some serious work. Most of the houses in the town were built from stone carved from the moat. There's a 13th century Romanesque church outside the walls, dedicated to Sant Esteve. Can't have too many churches! Also during restoration they found traces of settlements from the bronze age. Anyway a fascinating town. Crazy how they meld current houses right into the medieval structures.

Ok, back to the bikes. We had just a few miles to go today to get to the coast so we resumed our wandering. As we wandered April got more and more passionate about her concept of using the bikes as transportation to see things, rather than just pounding out the miles. Suddenly she blurts out "See, we're riding mindfully!" A short lecture ensues and I get an earful about how we're seeing things, smelling the flowers, taking pictures of flowers, exploring villages, reading plaques, and the fast road riders don't see any of this, on and on. Just then we come upon a guy out on a dirt road who's painting a picture of the fields and a village in the distance. Christ, just what we need to reinforce her thinking. April is so excited, she stops and takes his picture.

Then comes her second great quote of the day, "Mountains are for hiking!" As opposed to biking. Seems to be a philosophical day.

We get back on a paved road and have a choice, a road about 3K to the town of Pals, or a loop around south down to Torrent and then back up to Pals, maybe 10K. We decide to head south on the longer loop. We come into Torrent and I point out a museum of confiture (jam), and it was open. My God you'd think the woman won the $360 million lottery we just had in the States. "Ooh I wanted to come through here before but it was closed. And I forgot about it. Its run by these two women. See, see, this is what happens when you ride mindfully!"

The museum is in fact amazing. It's actually a store and a museum. They have a tremendous array of homemade preserves, marmalades and jellies. There about 250 different varieties listed in their brochure. Check out some of these selections:

Black turnip and honey, carrot apricot and coriander, wisteria jelly, white beans with pomegranate, quince and grapefruit, pumpkin and peach, figs honey and laurel, rhubarb and rosemary, tomato and pistachios, chocolate and watermelon. The list goes on and on. They've even created a Periodic Table of jams, grouping together the jams with similar qualities.



We asked if they shipped to the USA, but she said it would be too expensive. Sigh. So April bought three small jars of jam, put them in her front pannier and away we went; presumably locked into "mindful cycling" forever.

We got on the road again to Begur. There was a 3K uphill on a busy road into Begur. We booked it up the road spurred on by the traffic. We had a simple and quick lunch in Begur. It started to rain a little bit while we were having lunch. So it was cool and slightly rainy as we headed down the huge hill to the coast. Remember I was "allowed" to book this little inn down on the coast in a tiny cove. As we head down this really steep long road, there are all sorts of turnoffs. I thought the inn was in Sa Tuna, but there was a sign for the inn that pointed us to Aiguafreda, the cove further north from SaTuna. Down we went, cold rainy and not sure where we were going. I was told in no uncertain terms, "I'm not climbing back up this hill, if it's not down here!" Pressure mounted!!

Finally at the bottom, there was the inn, Sa Rascassa, on the right. It didn't look like much, couldn't see the sea, seemed like it was just in a parking lot. I got the dreaded "look". We walked in, and Oscar, the owner greeted us. He spoke excellent English. The restaurant looked really nice. He showed us towards our room upstairs, and we could see down to the small cove from the upstairs deck. The room, and indeed the whole inn, was built with a serene, minimalist type of design. The design was modern, warm, clean and simple. Very nice. We were the only guests.

I tried to nap, but instead we took a short walk along the cliffs above the sea. Then we chilled before dinner which started at 8:30. We were the only guests in the inn, and the only guests in the restaurant at that time so we got to talk with Oscar quite a bit. He used to be an exec in the marketing business, worked in London for some time. Chucked it all about 10 years ago to do this inn and restaurant. He's gotten some really great reviews in the Brit press, like top 25 inns in the world, best meals in Spain, etc, etc. As we read thru all the literature and reviews he had collected, my star got brighter and brighter. I know how to pick 'em!

Dinner was excellent. Aligning with the theme, it was simple yet delicious. The chef let the fresh food sparkle, rather than having elaborate sauces and stuff. April had an apple salad that she declared was the best salad of the trip. I started with some chicken croquettes, which are ubiquitous here so I figured I'd try some and see if they were any good. They were good, but not as good as my father's. Then April had a pasta stuffed with gorgonzola and pear, topped with a light walnut sauce. I had a grilled monkfish. All delicious. Big score. We liked the clean simple meals. Even the bread and olive oil was a cut above the normal fare; the olive oil was from his friend's trees just outside of town. We had a wonderful, local white blend for our wine. And our best coulant (choc molten cake) with homemade vanilla ice cream of the trip. Man we nailed it!

Hit the sack happy and stuffed. Good thing I'm in charge of both the inns and restaurants now. April's in charge of riding mindfully.

P.S. Research provided by April Spiro, MLS

April riding mindfully towards Pals.



The little cove at Aiguafreda. Notice April on the left side.




A walk along the coast.




Outdoor seating at our inn/restaurant Sa Rascassa. Check out the old stone window frame. Oscar said it came from Peratallada.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Glorious day in the rolling hills

Heading toward the coast, seems like you can't take a girl from Maine too far from the sea.

We went out for a quick breakfast as we planned to meet CESKO (Chris, Emma, Sam, KO) at the train station outside of town. They were going to ride there and we were going to take the train. But after breakfast we got an email, now Emma was sick. Probably has the same thing Chris had. We skyped with Chris and he sounded zonked; as he was probably up all nite with Emma. Cwiss!

We caught the train north and got off two stops out of town, the train station is on the outskirts of Bordils, it's absolutely deserted. One other family gets off, and we're left there all by ourselves. There's a beautiful road heading south into the farmland. Sooo nice.

We start riding, it's sunny, there are birds everywhere, no traffic. Heaven! Maybe that why the are all these churches around here. After about 8K we get on a road we had previously ridden, a gorgeous downhill to Monells. This time we curve around Monells and head further south. We're mostly just exploring.

We keep hitting these tiny towns and we find the center section with the church and take some pics and read about the church. These churches all date from about the 8th to the 12th century. And they've been added onto, expanded, sometimes there are cemeteries connected. We found one church that was dedicated to the beheading of Sant Joan something or other. Lots of killing going on here over the ages.

There's literally a church/castle/town about every 3-4 miles as the crow flies. It seems they would have put a bigger bet on one structure rather than so many smaller towns. But I guess they needed distributed access to the fields.

Speaking of which, all the farmers were out making hay today. The tractors were out cutting, some were picking up hay, the birds were everywhere picking at the exposed bugs. A real back to earth kind of day.

We stopped in Bisbal d'Emborda for lunch. This is one of the larger towns in this area. Interesting that there were lots of Muslims in the town.

Then we made our way over to Peratallada, where I had selected our hotel for the night. Remember April was loosening up the reins and I was selecting the hotels. Actually as I think more about this, I wasn't given complete authority, I was more like a trainee. I did a lot of research, narrowed it down to a few hotels, told April my preferred selection and then she sort of okayed it, with a combo look/tone that implied, "you better not screw up." haha.

We find the hotel and the guy claims to only have a superior room left for €130 but will give it to us for €100. I seemed to recall on some hotel review a supposed deal like this, only to have the hotel be essentially empty. So we go look at the room and it's quite nice, we take it. Turns out the hotel did seem full, there were only 8 rooms.

Showered, napped, had dinner. We split a pesto ravioli dish, I had fantastic grilled rabbit skewers with fries. April for some reason ordered a pseudo pizza - ham and figs and tomato sauce on the bread they have here. She didn't like her meal, so I had to eat some of it. Nothing new here. We had crepes for dessert. Vowed to stop eating so many desserts, then walked back to our hotel to sleep.

I forgot to use the iPad to take pics while riding today so no pics of the scenery. But I took some pics in our town of Peratallada. Incredible old stonework, alleyways, church, towers, moats, walls. Really a cool place. We heard it gets packed in the summer, but now there's no one around. In fact our innkeeper told us there are 18 restaurants in this tiny town. It's very cool to be here in the off season.

Pics...

Note the foundation of the building is the stone.




The "road" right outside our hotel.




This town had a moat around it carved out of sandstone. "Hey guys let's carve a moat out of solid rock so the Moors can't get us!" WTF.





Notice the ruts in the stone roadway.




Part of the moat with a defense tower.




April in the center Placa, old and new arch work.





Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Peratallada, Spain

Rest day. And Xuixos!

Finally a full rest day. We liked the hotel, and being in Girona with the kids, so much that we decided to take a day off. This was our very first day without any chores or hikes or day rides or meetings.

April laid in bed all day with her robe on. Hahaha. Not really, but close.

Chris got sick during the night. Food poisoning or stomach flu kind of thing. Puking and diarrhea. And to speed things along he decided to chug a glass of warm salt water. That really opened the flood gates. But being the trooper he is he still rode with Em and Sam up Els Angels, the famous Mtn climb just outside of town.

April and I had nothing, absolutely nothing, on our agenda. And we were so happy about it.

First we went out for breakfast. The best bakery in town was just around the corner, we had coffee, fresh squeezed oj, and bread/jam. Then we walked to the map store, but it was closed. Then we walked to the building where they have the market in Girona, but it was closed too. No problemo for us.

We found a flea market and bought a book, "Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Perigrinations of an Epicure". This copy was from the 1960s, it's about a foodie who travels around Europe in the 1950s and eats. Looks great. Inspiration for the rest of our trip?

Then we went to another bakery, more of a dessert type of place, and April discovered Xuixos. This is like a custard filled donut with sugar sprinkled on top. But the dough is more pastry like than just a regular donut. They're sublime! April buys one, we walk out and eat it. It's so freakin good we go back in and buy another one, plus six for the kids. The lady wraps them carefully, and shows us an article where this baker got written up for his Xuixos. We knew they were good. We go sit in the Placa in the sun. I break into the package and we eat two more, leaving four for the kids, one each, good enough.

Then we hit the room to chill. Later we go out about 2:00 for a light lunch, we both buy a small sandwich and eat it while people watching in the Placa. Back to the rooms for naps.

Then Em and Chris come over and we get the scoop on Chris being sick. He still did the climb and is slowly getting better as the day goes on. Emma loves the Xuixos and eats two of them. Then Emma, Chris and April, still in her robe, all fall asleep in late afternoon. It starts to rain outside. Great napping weather, like Seattle.

Sam and KO stop by and we head out for dinner at about 7:30. We wanted to go to Sam's favorite restaurant, Vintages, but it was totally dark inside. So we wandered around the old city, checked out the church, then as we strolled back at 8:30 it was open. We had a great meal, buratta, pork filled raviolis with a pumpkin sauce, an egg and mushroom dish, rabbit with an orange glaze, a few other things I can't remember. Dessert, wine. Chris was slowly feeling better and picked at a few things.

A curious note, at one point we were laughing and having so much fun that some Spanish lady down the way had to yell at us to keep it down. This was very surprising, most of the places are very animated and loud, but I think she couldn't hear the waitress tell her the specials. Later the waitress implied, with the facial/body gestures they're so good with here, that the lady was a wankster. She sure was.

No gelato after dinner just straight to bed. We had a plan to meet at a train station two stops out of town at 11:00 AM the next morning. See, April and I hate riding in traffic out of town, and in the direction we were headed there were no bike paths. So we take the train for €2 and get out of Girona and start our riding on a beautiful farm road with no one around. It's a great plan if I do say so myself.

Late afternoon nap, Three peas in a pod....




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Girona

Rest day. And Xuixos!

Finally a full rest day. We liked the hotel, and being in Girona with the kids, so much that we decided to take a day off. This was our very first day without any chores or hikes or day rides or meetings.

April laid in bed all day with her robe on. Hahaha. Not really, but close.

Chris got sick during the night. Food poisoning or stomach flu kind of thing. Puking and diarrhea. And to speed things along he decided to chug a glass of warm salt water. That really opened the flood gates. But being the trooper he is he still rode with Em and Sam up Els Angels, the famous Mtn climb just outside of town.

April and I had nothing, absolutely nothing, on our agenda. And we were so happy about it.

First we went out for breakfast. The best bakery in town was just around the corner, we had coffee, fresh squeezed oj, and bread/jam. Then we walked to the map store, but it was closed. Then we walked to the building where they have the market in Girona, but it was closed too. No problemo for us.

We found a flea market and bought a book, "Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Perigrinations of an Epicure". This copy was from the 1960s, it's about a foodie who travels around Europe in the 1950s and eats. Looks great. Inspiration for the rest of our trip?

Then we went to another bakery, more of a dessert type of place, and April discovered Xuixos. This is like a custard filled donut with sugar sprinkled on top. But the dough is more pastry like than just a regular donut. They're sublime! April buys one, we walk out and eat it. It's so freakin good we go back in and buy another one, plus six for the kids. The lady wraps them carefully, and shows us an article where this baker got written up for his Xuixos. We knew they were good. We go sit in the Placa in the sun. I break into the package and we eat two more, leaving four for the kids, one each, good enough.

Then we hit the room to chill. Later we go out about 2:00 for a light lunch, we both buy a small sandwich and eat it while people watching in the Placa. Back to the rooms for naps.

Then Em and Chris come over and we get the scoop on Chris being sick. He still did the climb and is slowly getting better as the day goes on. Emma loves the Xuixos and eats two of them. Then Emma, Chris and April, still in her robe, all fall asleep in late afternoon. It starts to rain outside. Great napping weather, like Seattle.

Sam and KO stop by and we head out for dinner at about 7:30. We wanted to go to Sam's favorite restaurant, Vintages, but it was totally dark inside. So we wandered around the old city, checked out the church, then as we strolled back at 8:30 it was open. We had a great meal, buratta, pork filled raviolis with a pumpkin sauce, an egg and mushroom dish, rabbit with an orange glaze, a few other things I can't remember. Dessert, wine. Chris was slowly feeling better and picked at a few things.

A curious note, at one point we were laughing and having so much fun that some Spanish lady down the way had to yell at us to keep it down. This was very surprising, most of the places are very animated and loud, but I think she couldn't hear the waitress tell her the specials. Later the waitress implied, with the facial/body gestures they're so good with here, that the lady was a wankster. She sure was.

No gelato after dinner just straight to bed. We had a plan to meet at a train station two stops out of town at 11:00 AM the next morning. See, April and I hate riding in traffic out of town, and in the direction we were headed there were no bike paths. So we take the train for €2 and get out of Girona and start our riding on a beautiful farm road with no one around. It's a great plan if I do say so myself.

Late afternoon nap, Three peas in a pod....




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Girona

The Carrilet!

Today we finally get to ride El Carrilet, a 60 kilometer converted rail to trail route. In fact this is kind of the reason we ended up in Spain. Once April read about Majorca and this Carrilet, she decided she wanted to visit Spain. All I had to do was threw a few crumbs in the path and she followed them to her idea, and I just agreed with my wife at that point!! A pearl of wisdom for young husbands.

And we were going to meet up with Emma and Chris, and Sam and KO in Girona.

Breakfast at Mas Garganta was superb, especially the fresh fruit, and there was some freshly baked type of a sweet bread. We also made a baguette with butter and jam sandwich for the road. At breakfast, Innes told us there was going to be a walkathon on the Carrilet that day. They were expecting a few thousand walkers starting from Olot. Yikes, we got moving after that as we wanted to get ahead of the crowd.

We rode the 4K back to the trail, and got going. The first 5-10K wasn't actually on a converted railway, instead it was on dirt paths along the road. Kind of noisy, not that sweet. And there was some up and down, April had been claiming it was all downhill to Girona. And it wasn't too well marked, and kind of busy. Perhaps this Carrilet wouldn't be all it was cracked up to be?

At one very steep stretch, the path switch backed up to a road, and we were trying to pass some people who were going too slowly. April passed this young woman who then stopped right at the switchback so I couldn't make the sharp turn and pass her; I almost fell but just managed to unclip my shoe from the pedal. Then it was too steep and crowded to start up so I had to ignominiously walk my bike the last stretch. April got the biggest boot out of this.

Finally we ascended another large hill, then dropped down and got on the portion which was a converted railway. And to my wife's extreme delight it was phenomenal! The dirt was well packed, the crowds evaporated, it was slightly downhill, we had a wind at our backs, the road was far enough away so we couldn't hear it, and the scenery was nice also. Fields and forests. Some sharp cliffs off to the right. Hot day, but the path was green enough to keep us cool.

We flew down this thing! We were coasting around 20-25 k/hr. That's super fast on dirt, with full loads. In fact we couldn't even pedal much cause we would have then been going too fast for that surface. sometimes we'd hit softer sand or a rocky section, but overall it was smooth and fast. Virtually everyone else we saw riding the trail had mountain bikes with much wider tires; but ours were fine. Again, the beauty of our bikes is that they are equally at home on dirt or paved roads.

We stopped for snack, the jam sandwich, some nuts, and a kiwi fruit. Then we picked up right where we left off and were zipping down to Girona in no time. April said this was the payback for all the hills she climbed out west. Eventually the route flattened out a little, and the last 10K were busier and grittier as we got close to the city. But even in the outskirts of the city, the bike path was well marked out and even separated from the traffic almost until the center of Girona. We reached some familiar roads from our previous visit and made our way to our hotel.

I had picked this hotel the previous day based on tripadvisor reviews; not sure why I was allowed this special privilege, but I was praying it was good. I had also said I knew where it was. Well we got to the Placa Independence, where I thought it was, and it didn't seem to be there! I couldn't quite remember the full name either, Ciutat something or another.

Welcome to the doghouse!

But never fear, I got out the iPad, I had captured a screen shot of the tripadvisor page, got the full name, Ciutat de Girona, and then even asked a person for directions (you know it was getting serious then). turned out to be just two blocks away, and it was wonderful. Great reception, locked room for our bikes, modern clean room, soft smooth sheets, nice pillows, two each, great shower, wifi; and the creme de al creme - two soft cotton robes in the closet. Nothing makes April happier then a big soft robe in the room. I suggested that perhaps I should be making all the hotel selections from that point on.

We had emailed Emma and Chris and told them to come see us at the hotel when they got back into town. We showered, April got that robe on, happy as a pig in shit, we napped a little, read, then Em called us, they were downstairs. We rushed down and they had just gotten back from riding. Sam knew the hotel, in the summer he works for a company that leads bike tours around here, and the clients stay at this hotel. Good taste. They were all decked out in their riding gear. They had ridden out to some village and visited Sam's friend's parents, and had a huge three hour lunch with grilled pork, lamb, rabbit, chicken, etc.

We walked with Em and Chris back to their apt. Sam and KO had to go fix some things on their bikes. We brought all our dirty clothes to their apt because they had a washer and dryer. Our stuff was starting to smell pretty bad after three weeks of hand washing. With hand washing, your clothes get slightly better than their dirty state, but over time get gray, yellow and kind of permanently musty and smelly. We did two loads of wash. Finally real detergent, not shampoo for the clothes!

Then we went out to eat at 9:30. Sam and KO just got back before we left and would meet us at the restaurant. We didn't get seated until about 10:00. It was great to all be together for a nice meal. We finished at 11:30, then went out for a gelato. And we wonder why we're gaining weight.

As we were strolling the town at 11:30, there were still lines outside some of the restaurants. People starting their dinner at 11:30!!!

We finally headed to our hotel, and decided to take a rest day the next day.

I think it was the robe that carried the day.

PS - one more note, Chris was looking pretty tired before dinner, he sort of passed out in our room.

Mas Gaganta, the inn from 1350.





April on the Carrilet. Perhaps a Holy Light shining down upon her?






April crossing a bridge on the Carrilet.




April coming through a mini canyon




Pete on the bridge.




Chris, seems kind of tired.

Location:Carrer del Nord,Girona,Spain