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!



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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.


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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.



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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.





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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....




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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....




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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

Heading back to the coast

Heading back to the coast. Another great example of one of life's most important rules: when in doubt, listen to your wife!

We woke up and had an early breakfast as we wanted to catch the 9:30 train back down the valley to Ripoll. It was cold out! Just on the short ride to the train station we were wishing we had on our warmer gloves and hats.

Got to Ripoll and it was warmer than Ribes, so we didn't have to load on more clothes. And to April's utter joy and happiness, we got on a bike path, called the Iron and Coal route, that lead 12K to Sant Joan de les Abadesses. This path is on the old railway that used to haul coal from a small town called Ogassa, up in the hills. The railway line was closed down in 1967, now it's an awesome paved bike path. Its easy going up to Sant Joan, these converted railways have very little grade.

Here's April riding the rails.




We make it up to Sant Joan quickly. Now the observant reader will remember that upon leaving Olot, we had a little tiff, Pete wanted to take the road to Ripoll, and April had seen a sign for what she thought was a new bike path from Olot to Sant Joan and then down to Ripoll. I convinced her to take the road. But now that we were here in Sant Joan, April was hell bent on finding the other end of that so called bike path.

We stop at a hostel that was in the converted train station, but they're closed. Stuff is always freakin closed here. But we find the Tourist Info shop in town, which are usually closed too, but this one was open. The women informs us that there is no such bike path, it's just the info we have, which is the "bike route" is just the road which goes over the Coll de Santigosa at 1064M, and then it connects with our first pass, the Coll de Coubet, at 1010M. I contain my happiness at being Mr. Always Right, since we have the passes to go over.

Up we go. Into climbing mode. Turns out this road is pretty nice. Less steep than what we had come up a few days ago. And prettier. And less traffic. And to top it off sant Joan was at a higher elevation that our previous starting point, Olot. The road curved gently up, and it got downright gorgeous. Trees blooming, some flowering trees, flowers in the fields, cows with bells on. Not a single car passed us. This valley was much smaller and more intimate than our previous climbs. Mother Earth was enveloping us and shepherding us up her breasts!




Ok maybe I got a little carried away there. It was still hard, yet sort of delightful in a certain way.

Here's April feeling less than delighted. Haha!




We kept expecting the grade to worsen but it didn't and before long we were at the Coll de Santigosa, 1064M. In my delighted state I suggested that maybe we should have stayed in the mountains longer, I got the "Look". So I dropped that topic.

Now we had about 5 kilometers to the next Coll. We dropped for a few kilometers, cursing the downhill. When you know you still have to climb, you hate the short drops cause you're just going to have to pay in the future. Anyway we started climbing again, but it was short lived and soon we started downhill and arrived at Coll de Coubet at 1010M. Much better than expected. Really sweet. Now we had a 14K pure downhill to Olot!

This downhill was fairly steep. April hates this type of downhill, although not as bad as Chelsea, who usually manages to fall in this type of situation. Once in Norway we came down a hill like this and we found Chelsea in the ditch with her bike on top of her. Haha.

We keep braking along the way, I think our max speed was only about 40-45 kph. Usually I go last just to make sure everything is going fine, hovering over the queen bee to make sure she's ok. Then I passed her for fun, and she didn't even look over at me, she was concentrating so much it was like she didn't even see me. Lighten up girl!

We get to Olot and have lunch at the cafe associated with a soccer field. Kind of funny situation but the food was excellent. Three courses plus wine for €10. April had lentils, then eggs on beans and cheese (weird), and a flan for dessert. I had pasta bolognese, chicken and beans, and strawberries with whipped cream. And they give you a bottle of wine and you can just drink as much as you want. We usually have a large bottle of spring water too, as we did today.

After lunch we hook up with the Carrilet, which is the 60K converted railway line from Olot to Girona. This route is packed dirt; Aprils favorite riding situation, my nemesis.

We have a pamphlet that describes places to stay along the Carrilet, and we have our eye on a place called Mas Garganta. It's an old farmhouse, they server local organic types of food. Looks cool. We find the turnoff to it, and it's 4K off the bike path and actually kind of near where we had lunch. Shit. So we decide to call ahead to make sure they have rooms, they do, no problema, so we head over. It's through a beautiful valley. We arrive at this antique looking house. And it got older once we got inside. We walk in and there's a beautiful looking table covered with fresh herbs and veggies and fruit. April is thrilled. The house dates back to 1350!

We get a tour. It's incredibly interesting. There's an old fireplace that they still use to cook on. It reminds us of that children's book, where the farm couple get three wishes and the wife wishes the sausages are connected to the husbands nose. Haha.

We have our pick of the bedrooms. I decide which one I like. In my dreams. April makes her selection, we get settled, I shower and April wanders the house taking pictures. Dinner isn't until 9:00. Christ, dinner keeps getting later. We reserve our room for the next day in Girona, where we'll see Emma and Chris. Then we nap. We wake up around 7:30, feeling totally zonked out. It's hard to wake up from the nap then, but this schedule here is crazy. With dinner at 9:30, we won't get to bed until like 12:00 or 1:00. Hard to get riding early in the morning.

We head down to dinner and it looks great. The inn actually filled up, and they have to seat people in three different rooms. We grab a setting for two in the fireplace room where they're going to cook the sausages on the fire. The fire's going and they have some sort of poker in the fire. They let it burn down to coals, pull out the poker, it's got a small round plate at the end, and they use it to burn the top of the creme Catalan desserts. When the owner, Innes, gets ready to use the poker April heads outside with her to take some pictures. Innes let's April sear one of the creme catalans and April manages to burn it.

Then they cook the sausage on the fire. I was going to eat vegetarian but I can't resist the butifarra on the hot coals. The meal is excellent. A big bowl of olives and pickled onions, cornichons. Starter was an artichoke/corn soup. Next a salad with a big round of soft cheese on top. Quite good. Main course was the grilled butifarra with white beans, green beans, mushrooms, a green garlic aoli. April had a grilled eggplant instead of the sausage. Then the creme catalan. Wine, water, bread. And some god awful digestive at the end. We finished at 10:30. Now how the he'll are we supposed to get up early and ride after that?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:La Pinya, La Vall D'en Bas, Spain

Location:La Vall d'en Bas,Spain

Hiking in the Pyrenees

A day off from biking today. The plan is to take the cremallera, which is the cog railway, up to Nuria, then hike down.

Had a very good sleep, quiet and cool mountain air. Breakfast was pretty good, they had fried eggs which was a first. But crappy bread. They like this stale, soft white bread here, not nice crusty baguettes. When I have the bread with some red wine at dinner I feel like I'm taking communion again! My sister Diane would like that.

We had a little time before the train left for Nuria and we wanted to do a wash to let our stuff dry during the day. We asked at the front desk and there wasn't a laundromat in town. So I had the great idea to use the jetted tub as the washing machine. We loaded it with hot water, threw in some hand soap, got the jets going and put the clothes in. Skills! But the clothes were blocking the intake valve, so I had to block that with my hand, but overall better than hand washing.

We got to the train station and we were the most underdressed folks there. Some guys were going skiing, most people had parkas on, everyone seemed ready for the cold. I had shorts on and April had her biking tights, and we had our little day hiker shoes. But the sun was out and it seemed beautiful.

The train ride up took about 30 minutes. Gorgeous scenery. Super steep, rocky mtns, lots of water flowing, tops covered with snow. We got up to the Vall de Nuria, and there's a huge hotel/restaurant/ski shop complex up there.

A little history....

Around 700 AD Sant Gil came from France to live up in this mtn valley and preach the Gospel to the shepherds. Like he didnt have better things to do??? Anyway a few years later the Visigoths came to kick his ass so he fled. Before he left he buried a wooden Virgin and child carving, a cross, his cooking pot, and a bell he used to summon the shepherds. Supposedly this stuff stayed hidden for 300 years until an ox led some shepherds to the buried stash. They found the statuette carving, subsequently called the Mare de Deu de Nuria, and it became the patron of the Pyrenean shepherds. After that Nuria was on the map!

Another story we heard from a previous B and B owner we had stayed with was that women who couldn't get pregnant went up to Nuria and said a special prayer and voila they became with child. This guy said it was obviously the priest up the who was working all the ladies. Haha. I like this story better.

Enough of the history, we bought some ham and cheese sandwiches and started the hike down. The hike was great. Snowy peaks, the river Nuria running down the middle of a gorge, lots of trees. Overall a winner. We made it down in about three hours. Then caught the train from the last town, Queralbs back to Ribes.

Showered, chilled, dinner didn't start until 8:30! Planned our route back to the coast. Talked with Chris and Emma who are now in Barcelona, and we'll probably see them in Girona on Saturday.

Dinner was very good, just like our lunch yesterday. April had the Mac and cheese, then the chicken and fries. I had some raw cod in oil, and some lamb chops. I was still taking it easy because of my stomach.

No pics from today because we didn't haul the iPad on the hike.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Calle Puigmal,Ribes de Freser,Spain

The mountains.

I woke up a couple of times during the night sweating from a fever, which I took as a good sign, that being, this wasn't food poisoning and it wasn't overeating, instead it was some type of bug. In the morning I was kind of weak and had a stomach ache but nothing disastrous.

We went downstairs, which was totally dark again, our bikes were locked in another part of the ground floor, and we were hoping the proprietor was going to return so we could get them and head out. Our conversations were never too clear with this guy.

So we went out for breakfast and found a nice salon de the. The didn't have much breakfast food laid out so we asked if they had bread and jam, the guy says si, he gives us our tea and heads into the kitchen to make our breakfast. He comes out with two ham and cheese sandwiches; must have been us asking for jam which sounds like jambon. Whatever, we ate them and they were pretty good.

Upon returning, our pension was open and the bikes available. We packed up quickly and hit the road. It was hot and sunny. Our route was on a secondary road, up a col. We were hoping for very little traffic. As we rode out of town April spied a bikeway sign to Ripoll, which is where we were heading. But none of our documentation said anything about this bike route. A minor scuffle occurred, but finally I convinced her to stick to our plan; there wasn't going to be some magical, flat bike path around the mountains. The col was right there in front of us and we had to get up it.

Up we went. The road was great, good surface, no traffic, fantastic scenery, sunny and warm. What's not to like? How about being 56 and having eaten like a pig for the past two weeks. Note I'm referring to myself, not my darling wife. Also I still felt kind of weak from this stomach bug.

Anyway we got into climbing mode and away we went. We were heading up Col de Coubet at 1010 meters, then we had a second pass, the Col de Canes, at 1120 meters. Slow and steady. There wasn't much of a breeze, which is great when riding as wind is the worst, but it also meant it got super hot. We were sweating bullets. Sweat dripping in our eyes. I finally took off my shirt so it would be dry for the downhill. I wear cycling bibs which are much more comfortable on the stomach than shorts, but when I ride shirtless the kids think I look like Mc'Gilla Gorilla. Haha.

The road was uphill for 15K with nary a flat or downhill stretch in there. You like to have at least some flats to rest your legs or adjust your ass, but no, this route was all uphill. We took a few breaks, but overall we just kept at it. It wasn't super steep, mostly we were in our second lowest gear, occasionally our lowest, sometimes our third lowest. Just keep on truckin.

We saw lots of bikers heading the opposite way. None had panniers like us. Plus our bikes are a lot heavier. Our bike frames are steel, which is more comfortable for long hours, our forks are sturdier for rougher roads, the tires and wheels are much heavier with more spokes, again to handle loaded bikes on any type of surface.

All this goes through your head as you slog up the hill. When our speed dropped to 6-7 k/hr, which is like walking, I was thinking Chris would be flying up this hill; but then I think, I'm moving 200 pounds of lean muscle, haha, and 50 pounds of bike+gear, so that'd be like Chris hauling about 100 extra pounds on his bike, and then I feel better about our walking pace.

As we rose in elevation we moved "back" in the calendar. That is, near the top nothing was even blooming, no leaves, hardly any buds. Spring hadn't arrived up here yet. Finally we hit the first col. Sweet. And we could see the second col about 3K further. Not so bad. The last stretch the road was even smaller and curvier, which was cool, it felt more like a col.

We finally hit the top. Now we were hoping for the 15K downhill. We put on our coats. It was windy and actually cold up there. Down we went. This side was quite different from our uphill. We rode up mostly through forested slopes. This side was a broad farming valley. Really green, cows all over. It was like being in Switzerland. Sure enough we were coasting for at least 5K; the day riders/racers all pedal downhill but we weren't having any of that nonsense. Then we hit a stretch where we had to pedal, even some uphill, so we kind of got screwed, but this allowed us to stretch our legs a little, then another 5-8K downhill. Plus not too steep so you don't have to brake the whole time, April is not a fan of fast downhills.

We pulled into Ripoll, which is a gateway to the high Pyrenees. Here we had a choice, and in fact it was a fateful choice. We had another 15K on a busier road up to Ribes de Freser, where the road ended. From Ribes there is a cog railway up to a mountain valley called Nuria. But right in front of us in Ripoll was the train station. For $2 euro each we could catch the train to Ribes rather than ride the 15K uphill on the busy road. It left in about 20 minutes. Why not! The woman selling us the tickets told us it was very cold and snowy in Nuria. Hmmm.

Then as we sat there in the sun waiting for the train, April's thinking about the climb we just did and finally blurts out "What the hell are we doing out here climbing over cols where it's cold and snowy. I miss the poppies and the beach." Haha! Then to her surprise I totally agreed with her. What the hell were we doing out here? I had planned two more days heading west, over cols both days, out into the boonies, then we were going to turn around and ride back over a new series of cols to get back for a day or so at the beach. Yet our original plan had been to spend the last week at the beach; perhaps I got a little too excited reading about the great climbing around here.

So we get on the train, get up to Ribes de Freser, it's a cool little mountain town, you feel like you're in the Alps. We ride around and find a hotel we had looked up, this is a lot easier in the smaller towns. Just as we get into the hotel it starts to rain. And it's a really cold gray rain. We get the gold room with a jetted tub, it's only €72 (hey I just found the € sign), we shower quickly then hit the hotel restaurant for lunch. We get a window seat, we can see up to the mtns, it's raining, and we're so freakin happy. It's weird, a little shelter from the storm brings out this super strong comforting feeling.

Lunch is superb. I eat mindfully, some soup and then a chicken plate, and local yogurt and honey for dessert. April seems to eat mindlessly, she's so happy looking out at the bad weather, and knowing she's heading back to the sea; she has a huge plate of macaroni and cheese with butifarra sausage in it, then a extra large fish and potatoes dish, then a balsamic vinegar ice cream with strawberries and white chocolate. Plus we had a 1/2 bottle of white wine. We finish at 4:00. Then we hit the sack so happy with clean sheets, a nice view from our room, wifi, and April plots the route back to the sea. I take a nap.

We skip dinner cause we ate so late, instead we just go to the market across the street, buy some fruit, chips, cookies, etc. It was funny this was a tiny little market, and they had an enormous selection of hanging pork products, whole legs, maybe 20 different types of salamis. Quite the smell.
Tomorrow we plan to take the cog train up to Nuria and either hike around up there or hike back down to the hotel.

Some pics. Btw it's a hassle to open my panniers and get out the worlds larger camera, the iPad, so we only occasionally do this, hence these aren't the best pics of the trip, but they're better than nothing.

Looking back to Olot from our climb.




Success!




Nice farmhouse on the way down.




View of the higher Pyrenees from our hotel room:




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Location:Calle Puigmal,Ribes de Freser,Spain

Getting into the hills

First of all I had a terrible sleep. I felt like shit and couldn't tell if it was from being kept awake by the noisy Spanish folks outside the hotel, or it was too much rich food the night before, or maybe I was even getting sick.

We had a very nice breakfast, a little cheese omelet, fruit in oj, yogurt, some sweet little breads, a vanilla custardy thing, some toasted bread rounds from the loaf the night before (which was home-made and awesome btw, we had stuffed ourselves with that even before the four courses started coming), coffee, water. But I was still too stuffed to enjoy breakfast properly. April did fine though, considering her mindful absence of eating the night before.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we were finally getting into the hills west of Girona, these are essentially the foothills to the Pyrenees. We were also going to be on a hilly road, with some serious climbs in it. And it was going to be a good test to see if these smaller roads got any traffic.

The road was wonderful. Lots of other bikers out, we were the only ones with panniers and touring bikes. Everyone else was in racing gear and bikes. And very little traffic to start.

We had some pretty good climbs up to around 1500 feet, but we know how to manage them by this point. We passed some great medieval villages but they didn't seem to have restaurants. Finally we hit Sant Pau, and it had a bustling cafe, but we weren't hungry yet. I wasn't sure when I was going to be hungry again.

We entered Garrotxa National Park, which are a bunch of extinct volcanoes. These are mostly smaller volcanic cones, sometimes hard to even pick out, but it was beautiful country side. Very green, a mixture of hardwoods and conifer forests. Lots of farms.

Traffic started to pick up as headed downhill into Olot. The parking lots for the short hikes to volcano cones or views were packed. Seemed weird for a Tuesday. And lots of motor bikes out. These are the worst. Incredibly loud, they're always leaning into the curves and coming closer to us than cars.

We had done some tripadvisor research for hotels in Olot, and had picked one out, even got the directions for it, but as we dropped downhill into Olot, there was our targeted hotel rght on the busy road, two miles from town. What the heck? Maybe there are two Can Blancs. We get into Olot, pick our way through traffic to our supposed hotel, and there's a different hotel at the address. It seemed tripadvisor had the addresses mixed up.

Well we didn't like this other hotel, too expensive, so we aimed back into the center of town in search of a hotel agreeable to both of us. This is always a tricky proposition in a larger town. We're at a corner, should we go left or right, or straight? We both have somewhat strong opinions. I push for following some signs to another hotel, we go for few blocks but it's getting too far out of the center, and who knows when we'll get there. April starts leading to more of the old town, and we find an old town square, and there's a small pension we had read about in Lonely Planet.

It's locked and is totally dark inside. Looks like it hasn't been used for a few months. There's a door bell so we ring it. Nothing. I start to walk away and the door buzzes to let us in. Huh? We walk in, it's dark, no one is there. We sit there for about 3-4 minutes, and we're finally ready to walk out when some old guy comes out of a side door with a couple of empty plates in his hand. Seems he had been eating lunch? He only speaks Catalan, but we work out that we want a room for the night. He brings us up the elevator, it's one of those tiny Euro jobs that hold about 4 people, he's chatting away in Catalan at us, and he's got wicked garlic breath, he kind of had buggy eyes with strong glasses on, sort of weird mannerisms. Didn't feel too positive in that elevator. Haha.

He shows us the room on the third floor, actually seemed ok, small, had to take a plastic cover off the bed, but what the hell, it was either that or start looking in the town some more. So we took it. $34E for the two of us. Cheapest room yet. We passed on breakfast cause we had no idea what he'd feed us.

We were the only ones in the hotel. Three empty floors. April was a little freaked out. Haha.

We showered then went out for the late lunch, at like 3:00, right below us in the square. I was still feeling crappy, but we had a nice fixed price plate of the day. April had a garlic spaghetti, then a fish course. I had a a couscous salad and steak frites. Both had chocolate cakes for dessert.

Then I wanted to nap, but April wanted to wander. Guess which one we did? There was a cinder cone within walking distance to the hotel. We walked up there. Then we rambled around the town. Turns out it was a pseudo holiday because it was May 1st. It was like Labor Day, and they had tons of sales on products. So people came from all around to check out the sales. And there were lots of street booths to capitalize on the people traffic. Fun and interesting.

I continued to feel worse. We were too full for dinner, so we just split a falafel plate at a middle eastern takeout place. Then we hit the sack. We barricaded the door to our room. Just kidding. It was all fine. In the night we heard at least two more parties who had rooms. Or maybe that was the guy running the place wandering around at night!!

Some pics...

The lake at Banyoles.




Old village.




In the square of one of the old villages.




The Pyrenees in the distance.



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Banyoles to Olot

The Michelin meal

An entry just on the meal.

Barely awake we head down for the 9:00 pm meal. We put on our best smelly and wrinkley clothes. April wears her dress for the first time. The restaurant is beautifully decorated and we feel like posers.

A husband wife team own the hotel and restaurant. Pere is the chef, Maria is in charge of everything else and is the waitress too. They're both very nice, and they've put their heart and soul, and probably all their money, into this endeavor.

The menu is only in Catalan, and we've learned the simple Catalan words, but these are fancy food words so we don't understand anything on the menu. There's a four course meal for $45E, that seems like our safest bet.

The trouble starts with our first course. The default course was a sardine thing on garbanzo beans. Well April wasn't going to eat sardines so we managed to talk our way into a different selection. Maria offers a pigs feet option. That's a no-go. So we settled on a foie gras pate thing. I figured maybe April might eat some of it.

The chef sends out two amusee bouche (sp?). The first is a clear tomato gelatinous thing with a tiny sardine piece on top of it. Not bad. The second is like an apple fritter thing with some small pork bits on it, and sitting in olive oil. Really good.

Then the foie gras comes out, it's two rounds on each plate, dressed, each about the size of a silver dollar, and maybe half an inch in height. Very good but rich, so the perfect sized portion. April takes the tiniest bite, decided she can't eat it. So as usual I have to eat hers too. Like I said, it was rich.

Then the next course is a marinated tuna thing. April eats about half of hers, so I have to finish that for her. Sigh, this always happens to me. Once I France, with the whole family, I made everyone eat at this high end restaurant, and I had to eat all sorts of weird shit, black soggy bacon, raw strange fish, etc. Another time at a Mtn hut I had to eat like five portions of crappy risotto with mushrooms.

Ok, then Maria is talking about the third course, and we're trying to converse in French, mine is rusty, and even in the best of times is clumsy, her French seems just as bad. It seems she's saying something like "awniuon". It sounds like onion. So I say "onignion", meaning onion. We go back and forth a few more times, and we seem to agree, it's going to be stuffed onion. Seems kind of weird, but what the hell.

The third course comes out, and it's stuffed lamb!!! This is April's least favorite food, she can't even stand the smell of it. The word in French for lamb is agneau. Kind of like she was saying. Fucking A. I was so god-damned stuffed with rich food by this point, that not only could I not enjoy mine, of course I had to eat April's also. The people were so nice, we didn't want to leave untouched food on the plate. So I slogged ahead, and managed to get all of it down. By this time I had essentially eaten two full meals. And luckily we only had a half bottle of wine.

Desserts we're fine, a rich black cake covered with a cream top. Christ I felt sick. We rolled up to bed and I fell asleep immediately.

April brought up the menu to translate it, and it seem the lamb entre was actually goat. It had a mild taste, delicious actually, if only I wasn't stuffed like a Catalan pig. But April said it being goat was even worse than lamb. Haha!

I swear I'm not talking April into any more high-end places where we don't really know the food.

But then again there's some famous place in Girona that has a 23 course meal. Who knows what the future brings!


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Location:Banyoles, Spain

A lecture on mindless eating.

Another good sleep, there was a little rain last night. Standard euro breakfast. And the good news is the chocolate shop next door was open. Yesterday I had noticed that it said, "world champion..." on the front, so we looked up the proprietor, Olivier Bajard, and sure enough he was some hot shot baker/chocolatier. But the shop was closed last night. So we picked up some caramel, dark chocolate squares for today. They're fantastic.

We head over to the train station, and we have an hour to wait. You'll remember we're training back to Spain today, too much traffic in France, and too many big climbs back. As we're waiting April comes to the firm conclusion that I'm guilty of "mindless eating". This idea came to her as we split a chocolate ice cream cone yesterday. She handed it to me, and i proceeded to eat it, and continue to eat it, including the cone, until she asked for it back. Didn't seem so terrrible to me. So she gets on this rant how I should be practicing "mindful eating", how I just finish food on the plate, how she doesn't get her share, on and on. She's really liking her thinking. Then she remembers Danny O'Connor's tactic for when he can't finish the food on his plate, he just cuts it into bite size chunks, and he claims Jayne and I eventually pick at it and eventually consume the whole thing. Mindless eating!!! Haha.

Sounds like a good theory, but we'll see some mindful overeating in just a bit.

We get off the train just south of Figueres, Spain in a tiny town, and start riding towards Banyoles. Now the good thing is we don't have a super detailed map like we had in the lower Emporda, so April doesn't have the ability to direct us onto the dirt roads, cause she doesn't know where they go. But everytime we see one she slows down and says, "you think that's a bike route?" In fact she starts out so focused on the dirt roads I can tell she's not riding mindfully! She's not riding in the moment! So I give her a little lecture on enjoying the current roads, which btw are absolutely perfect. Good pavement, no cars, rolling with some short hills, beautiful scenery. It kind of looks like vermont, or brittany, or england. Everything is green. The only issue is rain is threatening but the clouds are amazing. I'm living in the moment! Check out the clouds:




After a while she starts to get into it and realizes it is superb. In fact I declare we've hit the sweet spot, low enough traffic for her, fast enough for me. She doesn't even notice that she's ignoring the dirt roads. And she's not complaining when the few cars do pass us. Progress!

Now lets see about the food thing.

We pass through a number of tiny towns that are really dead, no restaurants. Finally we hit the town of Bascara, and there's a bar on the corner. It doesn't look great but it's our only choice. And we're really hungry cause we didn't eat alot last nite for dinner. In we go, hmm, not bad, clean, the local guys are having coffee and shooting the shit, the menu is only in Catalan, and the bartender/waitress only speaks Catalan. Not even Spanish out here. We order the only things we recognize, I get a hamburger plate and April gets a butifarra plate (bratwurst). And we order cokes; the sugar and caffeine are really great for biking. The waitress brings us a big basket of bread. We devour it. Then the plates come, I have a hamburger patty, 6 double-wide strips of bacon, an egg, and fries. April has a grilled, split, extra long butifarra, fries and an egg. And we have two nice little salads. We ignore the salads and start pounding the fat, meat and fries. April eats two of my pieces of bacon. The egg and yoke is all mixed in. We get another basket of bread and we're dipping it in the grease. The cokes are perfect. We haven't touched our water, nor the salads. We clean our plates and finally take a breath.

I comment on the "mindless eating". April is at a loss for words, she can't quite figure out what came over her. It's like she came over to the dark side. She sheepishly starts on the salad and the water. Whereas I'm starting to think about dinner. I mean you have to be committed, right?

But this biking really does build the appetite. Now I can really understand how Nicky O'C was going for like 4 cheeseburgers a day on his last tour.

The riding after lunch continues to be wonderful. We can see the Pyrenees covered in white snow. No cars. Beautiful rolling fields, farms, and forests.








We hit Banyoles, our town for the night. This is where they had the rowing events for the Barcelona Olympics. It has the largest natural lake in Catalonia.

We had read about a really nice inn, Ca L'Arpa. The restaurant is supposed to be good. We eventually find it, and lo and behold the restaurant has a Michelin star!! The chef signs us in, it's a modern boutique type of hotel. Best shower on the trip so far. Dinner starts at 9:00. I'm doing everything i can to prevent April from falling asleep.





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Location:Passeig de la Indústria,Banyoles,Spain

Quintessential day in Europe

Had a great sleep after all those climbs yesterday. Went down for our petit dejeuner in the Salon de The. It seems kind of weird the Salon de The has tea/snacks and women's clothes. We saw another one with the same format.
Had cafe au lait plus a baguette and a croissant with butter and jam. Seemingly unhealthy but you really start to like this.

According to the plan we were going to take a ride north to check out the beaches and flatter stretch of coastline. But first we walked to the train station to check out the schedule for trains back into Spain. Also I had remembered that sometimes trains and bikes don't mix well in France. You often have to put the bike in this weird bag before some trains will accept the bike. The woman at the station informed us we could just load the bikes right on and keep them in the larger section between the train cars.

Jesus, April was so thrilled that I got a hug! Seemed like it was her happiest single moment of the trip. Wonder how it's going to go when we get into the Pyrenees?

There was a market in town and sure enough there was our favorite vendor: the rotisserie chicken truck; it looked so good. The best part is they have the potatoes sitting under the rotating chickens and they absorb all the fat and juices. Plus they were roasting guinea hens, and sausage, and some pork things. So the potatoes were getting all those mixed juices and fat. Phenomenal!!!

But the problem is it was too early to eat, we had just eaten breakfast and had a ride scheduled. Crestfallen, is an appropriate word for that moment.

So we went back to the hotel, got dressed, got the bikes and away we went. Had to ride past the market on the way out. Like salt in the wound. We had done some research and found a bike lane plus hiking paths to make our way north. Found the route easily enough, it got a little rough at times. But we made it over the hills down to the flats.

We came upon the petit settlement of Le Rocou. Supposedly it has declared itself independent from France, and considers itself catalan. Really just a tiny neighborhood, but a good example of the strong Catalan roots in this area.

We continued north, came upon the large boardwalk, it went on for a few miles, beautiful houses along this stretch, some dating from the late 1800s. But the wind was blowing like crazy off the shore. It was sunny but too cold for the beach because of the wind. So we decided to turn around.

I immediately starting calculating the time, the route, and the rotisserie chicken. If we hurried we just might make it back in time. I didn't want to push it, or get too excited, but the door was open just a crack.

It was still kind of early for lunch. We checked out a few restaurants on the way back but nothing looked outstanding. We didn't know if the market would still be going, or if there would be any chickens left, still we decided to go for it.

But it wasn't to be that easy...

We kind of got lost pushing our bikes up a hill heading back. On the journey out there was a fork in the dirt road/path and we went right and had to carry our bikes down a steep path. So we figured we'd try the other fork on the way back. Bad idea. We pass some guys who tell us we can't make it back this way, there are only train tracks. But hey we know better, right? We continue on, the track gets smaller and steeper and tighter. At one point going up the hill I had to push the bike on front of me cause the trail wasn't wide enough for me and the bike. Pickers again scratching us. And we have to push over this huge bees nest in a hole in the ground. Luckily no stings. I'm not making this shit up. April is like a moth to the flame for stuff like this.

And I'm seeing my chicken lunch evaporate in front of me.

Finally we hit the top of the hill, and voila, not only is there a lookout area with some signage (and another route up to it, so we were on some rogue trail) but there's the path down we were looking for. Down we go with rotisserie chicken on our minds. We pound the uphill back to town, then speed down to the market. Yikes it's closing. We rush over on the road behind the chicken truck, jump off the bikes, I dig out my wallet, April watches the bikes, and I run into the market. I see the woman cleaning the rotisserie, but there are two chickens left in the glass case!!!! YES! Maybe this is my happiest moment of the trip. Haha. And there are potatoes! Ooh-la-la. She bags everything up for us, gives me some napkins too. April runs over to find the bread stand we had seen earlier, but that was in fact packed up. Oh well we're eating too much bread anyway.

We head to the seashore, find a bench by the beach, pick up a coke and a fanta, which will cut the grease, and dig in. Sooo freakin good! There's a ton of oil, fat, and juice at the bottom of the potato container and we're dunking the chicken and the potatoes in this fat. Licking our fingers. Perfect.

We ride back to the hotel, shower, and now you're supposed to nap, right? But it had finally gotten warmer, our sunniest day of the trip, so we head out for a beer, some gelato, and some desserts and stuff. We sit in the cafe chairs by the beach. Great people watching. There's a slight cool sea breeze to balance the hot sun. Perfect weather. Finally we head back to the hotel for the nap.

Here's a picture of April chillin away the afternoon. Now you make ask, why no pictures in the blog? It's because we can't download our pictures from the camera to the stupid iPad. So I had to take this picture with the iPad, which is the worlds largest camera.




After our break we head out for dinner. I had done some research on restaurants and picked my top two. At 7:00, we head over to the best one and it's closed. Or maybe it just seems closed. There's a window open and there's a pot of stew or something cooking on the stove top. It smells great, maybe a lamb stew? I try to convince April to wait, but she's having none of it. Some early food revolt thoughts are brewing in her head. We go to my next choice and it seems too expensive. Finally April declares she only wants a salad for dinner. Huh? I've seen this before. When we were in Italy with Dan and Jayne, Danny did this food revolt thing. He in fact said he was quitting eating altogether. It seems Jayne and I had a little more passion for all things food, than old Mr. Peanut butter and banana sandwich. haha.

So now April seems to have hit her breaking point. She said we should call this trip a culinary tour not a bike tour. Not to worry, I'll get her into the Pyrenees and those hills will get her back in the food saddle!

But sure enough we went to a simple little tourist restaurant and April got her salad, which she didn't really like, and I had some mussels and frites, which I really liked. Somehow that seemed fitting to me.

Off to bed, but kind of hungry.

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Location:Rue de la République,Collioure AOC,France

Hardest day yet.

We had been hearing about this very nice town, Colliuore, just across the border in France; a few bike tour companies include it on their guided tours. And the Lebanese guy at the restaurant yesterday told us the road was good, basically one long uphill then a huge downhill. And the map showed a nice inland pass, the Col de Banyuls, which lead back into Spain for a subsequent day, so we decided to try this loop. Surprise, surprise.

First as we noted yesterday we had a 5K climb out of Cadaques. No problem, we expected it. We had a big breakfast, then hit the climb. There wasn't much traffic, we moved up pretty steadily and hit the top after about 30 minutes. Then we had about an 8K downhill, really sweet. There were tons of bikers out today cause it's a weekend, halfway down the hill April commented that everyone we're seeing is really tough cause we're all on this major climb. So she was loving the tough biker image. Didn't last long though.

After the downhill we hit the coast at El Port de la Salva. Then we started climbing again, thinking ok, this is the start of the one big climb. But we dropped into the next town, Llance, then climbed again. Whatever, we're getting good at climbing, so there's one extra hill in here, we can see up the road and imagine that high crest we see is the start of the "final" downhill. But no, we drop down to sea level again at Colera. Steep climb out of the town again. Now we're started to get pissed. This climb is pretty long and steep with switchbacks, a road branches off near the top and goes even higher but we swing around and see a tunnel. Awesome, it cuts through the top portion. We love tunnels, it means you're avoiding some killer hill. We're certain this will be the big downhill. But no again, we just drop sharply to Portbou, which is the last town at the border, and there's a huge climb past it. What the hell!!

We take a break in Portbou, and find a bakery. April has a custard filled croissant and I have a coconut muffin. The whole town was out enjoying the central square. Nice atmosphere, old guys walking while holding each other up, we see some hikers doing the GR 92, which is a long distance coastal hike, kids are running around. Of course the Greeks started all this with their central squares, or plakas. Or maybe it was the Albanians who invented it and passed it to the Greeks. Haha!

Suitably loaded up with sugar we head up the pass, it's our steepest section so far for the day, huge switchbacks. We get up to the border, and we see another big downhill into Banyols-Sur-Mer, with a monster climb after it. We're sort of just resigned about the whole thing by this point. And the truth is we're dialed in to our breathing and gears and pace. We cruise down into Banyuls and stop for lunch. We're excited to be in France because we imagine we can speak the language.

Well our French is really rusty, half of it is coming out in Spanish, si, gracias, hola, como esta, whatever. I persist in speaking as much French as I can and all the waiters are speaking in English back to me. It was like, "ok, we get it, you can speak shitty french, now lets get this order completed, i have work to do," haha!

This part of France used to be either Catalan or associated with it, so the menus are half Catalan: crema Catalan, Catalan sausage, tapas, etc. April has the fish special and I have a Catalan sausage with frites. Both excellent.

We order a tea after lunch and load it with sugar to help us get going but no such luck. With full stomachs the climb out of banyuls seemed really tough, and to make matters worse there were a lot more cars. Just north of Banyuls it's all vineyards and wineries, so there were lots of people out touring the vineyards. Sucked for us. Finally dropped into Port-Vendres, which is right south of Collioure, and we make our way through town and drop down into Collioure. And it's freakin packed! The most people we've seen since Barcelona. Traffic stopped in town cause there are so many cars and people. We didn't expect this at all.

We had scoped out a hotel on tripadvisor the night before. We found it and they had two rooms available. I send April in the check out the room selection, it would be unthinkable for me to pick the room. I chat up the guy at the hotel and i get the scoop on the people and traffic. Tuesday is the first of May which is a big French holiday. Thus people also take off Monday and make it a four day weekend. And Collioire is a very popular holiday spot so everyone is visiting. What a drag.

In fact about 1/2 way thru the day, when we had had enough of the hills, I had proprosed a new plan to April. Let's ride for 2-3 more days north along the flat coast to the nice beaches, and the let's train back into Spain, hence avoiding all these damn hills on the way back. We were all excited about this plan. But now we realize everything might be too booked and crowded in France because of the holiday. too much traffic.

So we created another plan, which is stay here in Collioire a second night, and go for a day ride north tomorrow. The we'll have time to check out the town more also. The town is really cool. Old castles and forts right on the sea, lots of restaurants and shops, even a church to visit!

We found a good tapas place for dinner. It was tiny. I was sitting against the wall facing towards the kitchen so I could watch the chef and our table had to be pushed against my belly. I think this cut down on eating capacity. We had a french paella dish made with noodles instead of rice, chickpeas with cumin, garlic chicken, oven potatoes with a garlicky aoli, baba ganouj, bread, 1/2 liter of a local red wine, and then April wanted to try a cannelloni type of spread, which ended up tasting like Mac and cheese. Weird. April talked me out of dessert because we had desserts at lunch. I agreed figuring I'd have a gelato out on the street, but all the gelato stands seemed closed. Maybe a sign??

We figured we climbed at least four thousand feet today. The climbs were about 600-1000 feet each and we did about 5-6 climbs. And the worst is you never get to pedal much on the rolling or flats, it was all uphill, then a coast downhill. So we pretty much just climbed all day. Chris Dubois would have been thrilled.



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Location:Rue de la République,Collioure AOC,France

Rest day in Cadaques.

Our town and our hotel/room are so nice we decided to take rest day in Cadaques. Actually it's not really a rest day as we planned a hike along the coast in the Cap de Creus park.

Very nice breakfast which included scrambled eggs, the first we've seen on the trip. As usual we ate like pigs: croissants, baguettes, butter, jam, yogurt, fruit, coffee, juice, ham and cheese, and now add in the eggs. Yikes. I think we're actually gaining weight. We usually end up with a big lunch too, and then the great dinners late at night. Plus we're always having dessert cause they sound so good; usually at lunch and dinner; we never do that at home.

So we came up with a plan: we decided to try to have only two big meals per day, and only one desert. Thus if we had a big breakfast, and a big lunch with dessert, then the goal is to have a very light dinner. Unfortunately we haven't actually been successful implementing this plan. I get to the dinner, and I get all excited and talk April into a few more items, while we're pounding the bread and olive oil, and before we know it it's 10:30 and we're finishing our second choc dessert of the day.

Like tonite, first I had to talk April into even going to dinner, she was laying in bed tired, and at first claimed she didn't want to eat at all. Then she wanted me to go get a pizza to-go and we'd eat in the room. But I kept working it (whining?), claimed it was my last chance for great paella, how the restaurant was #2 on tripadvisor, etc, etc. And finally she caved, she claimed she'd hear about it for the rest of the trip if we had skipped, but once we were there we split a large salad, then had a two-person bowl of zarzuela (catalan seafood stew) two baskets of bread, and then two desserts. April had a lemon curd thing with lemon ice cream, and I had this awesome plate of frozen yogurt on a bed of tomato jam and basil oil. Stunningly refreshing. Didn't seem like the flavors would merge well but they did.

And that was after a fantastic lunch at a Lebanese restaurant, where we had taboule, dolmades, baba ganouj, and a red pepper spread, and lots of Syrian bread. Didn't have dessert at lunch though. Minor victory. We ate a late lunch and we chatted with the owner for a long time, met his two little girls. He was a bit of a renaissance man, artist, composer, inventor, cook, etc. Claimed he had houses in lebanon, algeria, cyprus, france and here in cadaques. Interesting guy but talked too much about himself. Can't learn anything if you spend your whole time talking.

To build up these appetites, we had done a nice hike in the morning, not too long, maybe 4 miles total, but interesting walking along the seashore. Got lost once, had to bushwhack thru the scrub to get back on an old trail that followed along cliffs down to the village. Tried to visit Dali's house but you needed a reservation; it's so small they only allow like 12 people in every 30 minutes.

We caught up on our wash, btw, we wash all our stuff by hand. April sewed a few items. I caught up on the blog. We bought a new map, planned our next few days. We'll probably cross over into France for one day on the coast road if it's not too busy and then come back to Spain over the Col de Banyuls. And we read and had a nice easy day.

Can't wait for breakfast tomorrow! And we start out with a 5K uphill, it's going to be a killer because we won't have had any time to warmup our legs.


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Location:Carrer de Pianc,Cadaqués,Spain

Some dissension in the ranks!

Interesting day, lots of variety, with both April and Pete taking turns pouting. Haha.

We start out with April claiming there's a boardwalk on the beach all the way up to Roses. Didn't seem like that to me, but our map was crappy cause we had just crossed into a new area called the Alt d'Emborda and hadn't found a good map yet, so maybe it was true. We go about 2K and hit pure beach sand. There's a funky bridge going over a small stream, the other side looks dumpy with some trailer parks or something up ahead. But we push our bikes thru the soft beach sand and get on some crappy dirt track. Now there's nothing more hellish for bikes than beach sand. I can just feel the grit getting onto the chain and into the hubs and derallieur. Then we hit a fence enclosing a trailer park so we have to head inland, thru a bunch of junk tossed over the fence. Can't we just ride on the roads like normal bike tourists?

We finally hit a paved road, and take a fast ride on it for a few K much to april's chagrin, but wait, there's a path down towards the sea again so down we go. Now I'm pouty and april's happy. We meander north thru a bird sanctuary cum campground area. And we're blocked by a river so we have to hit the road and ride about 10K on a fairly busy road. I pass the pouty face over to April and we push forward. Going pretty fast I might add, it feels so good to be zipping along, wind at our back, going 20-30K/hr. April's hunched over like the wicked witch of the west trying to shutout the traffic. And I'm chatting away happily about how nice it is. Look at these flowers, check out the cows, what's that tree, traffic's not too bad, great to have that wind at our back. I mean I'm really working it, but April's having none of it, she's locked into Wicked Witch mode.

And on and on it goes...

We hit a town, Castello d'Empuries, and take about freakin 30 minutes trying to find some maps. We finally find a tourist info center, and the guy gives us a map and directions so we can avoid the busy road to Roses, which is just about 10K away mind you. Out we go on the small rural road, it's really nice, April is thrilled, we see some other cyclists, "see how nice this is!" We flush out some monster herons. There are birds everywhere. I'm ready to admit defeat, but not before one final pout, "yes but we could have been there by now." April's so happy she ignores me.

We go over three bridges as instructed, then have to turn right down a dirt path. It seems a little rough, and then it gets really rough. Fist sized rocks, loose gravel, some mud. Then it becomes flooded! Two women come out from the path and tell us it's too flooded to go down. Nice. We have to carefully walk our bikes on the sides of the deep pools, we're getting scratched by thorns, we almost fall in. The bikes are getting muddy again. From feast to famine just like that. I'm back in the game, I can legitimately gripe again!!! Maybe I even have the upper hand! Not sure if I should be happy or pouty. Haha.

Anyway we make it thru the "challenging" dirt road and stop in a market for some food for lunch: bread, tomato, cheese, avocado and snickers bars. We eat our lunch in an ancient olive grove next to the road. Hmm a fair number of cars heading up the road we'll soon be on. We finish up our snickers then start up the big hill towards Cadaques. This is a small seaside village where Dali lived much of his life. It's way out on a peninsula and we have to a steep 10K climb to about 1500 feet, and then we have a 10K downhill to Cadaques. April dislikes both the uphill and the downhill. But as Krisy Sims says, April is the toughest woman she knows, so I know she'll be a trooper.

We start the climb, the wind is blowing like hell, gusts to around 30 mph, sometimes behind us and often to the side, threatening to blow us into the traffic. There's no shoulder. The wind really catches us because of our bike bags. We stop a couple of times for water and pix, and eventually hit the top. I'm really happy and April is shall we say, less than happy. It's really cold on top. Maritime clouds are whipping by. We put on our coats and start the downhill, April gets into hunch formation and away we go. The first 3-4K are actually gradual, perfect coasting. Then it gets steeper but not as bad as what we came up. Overall it wasn't as bad as we expected.

We cruise into Cadaques and score a great price on the #1 hotel on Tripadvisor, plus we have a sweet room overlooking the harbor with a nice balcony, the bed is good, they have a steam room, free wifi. Life is good again!! All the days frustration evaporate, we're happy as clams. April takes a steamer, we get a great local restaurant recommendation, sure enough we have a wonderful meal, then a nice stroll thru town before we hit the sack. How sweet it is!


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Location:Carrer de Pianc,Cadaqués,Spain