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