Spirosbikespain: 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.