Riding to Barcelona on a Sunday

June 3, 2018

We were so tired and hot when we arrived at Tossa de Mar as we had been climbing for about 25km since St Feliu without a break. As luck will have it, it was humid which didn’t help.

We knew that Tossa de Mar had some well rated hotels, reasonably priced, so we rode in to town and chose Hotel Avenida, situated close to the beach. We highly recommend it. Comfortable, great staff and yummy breakfast buffet.

We are hoping to get close to Barcelona today. It will be interesting to see how it goes as we will be riding on a busy National highway (N11) all the way. It is the only route in.

Avenida Hotel -Seavo is ready to go. We know that right out of Tossa de Mar we have a major climb for about 10km. Then, the ride is pretty flat to Barcelona.

Raquel has been an amazing host at the hotel. She speaks several languages and has the knack of remembering her guests and speaks to them in their language. She extended her kindness to us by printing our ferry tickets to Italy and sharing her insights about places to visit in her country. Gracias Raquel.

A good thing about riding the highway on Sunday here is that big trucks are not allowed on the roads. Drivers were parked in groups and relaxing by the road, ready to go Monday morning.

The salads at the supermarkets are really good here. These have pasta, chicken, chunks of Parmesan and a gazpacho based dressing. Tasty.

We have stopped for a break and King Cones are just what we need.

And then the rain started. We’ll try to sit it out for a bit as the streets are filling with water from the heavy rain.

We are following N11and it has been really good. The traffic can be tiresome at times and the rain hasn’t helped, but we are pleasantly surprised that it is better than anticipated. However, if you are riding this route, avoid C32. It runs parallel and is busier.

Waiting out the rain at the Gas Station -quite a downpour.

After 60km, we decided to stop for the day in Mataro as it is only 30km to Barcelona. That should be about 90min of riding tomorrow morning and that will give us part of the day to begin exploring Barcelona. This means that when we reach Barcelona that we will have completed the first route of our journey, Koblenz Germany to Barcelona, just over 2000km. Next stop....Italy!!

Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 2,187 km (1,358 miles)

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Bennie D. BarfieldHey Guys, Looking forward to Italy after touring there several years ago..
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5 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesIt has been 3 days since you posted this entry and no new ones since. We are just wondering if things are OK ?
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5 years ago