Another short day to Girona before a break in the action … again. As I mentioned in the last post, we’re in wind down mode for this tour. Girona’s become a Mecca of sorts for roadies and we’ve had numerous friends give us recommendations on things to do and places to ride there that we decided to book ourselves into a nice centrally located apartment for three nights.
Turns out Girona has some pretty great restaurants too so we’re booked into three places that promise to continue the gorging aspect of this tour.
Our first decision today though was whether to continue with the original plan and ride Els Angels, a classic ride up to the Santuari dels Angels and then down into Girona (and a shout out to the Maher-Weary’s as we first heard of this ride from their 2022 trip through here), or a more pedestrian (read no climb) route into Girona. The only reason we were having this debate was the weather.
Yesterday was hot, and we were on the flats. Today the forecast was for 34° C at mid day, about the time we would be finishing the 400 m climb to the sanctuary.
We’ve ridden longer through hotter weather before, so we decided to go for the climb, and it worked out well. It was hot, but we managed to have a great stop in la Pera for a rest in the shade and a fill of cold water and pineapple juice (the very nice bar staff even filled our water bottles with ice and fresh water) just before the climb started.
There were a lot of roadies (as expected) and two cars and after grinding away we were soon at the sanctuary. As is the norm for us, we were the only ‘loaded’ bikers but we struck up a number of conversations with local roadies who all were genuinely respectful of our climb (some were also genuinely concerned about our sanity … but different strokes for different folks!).
A super fun run downhill brought us into Girona and it became clear that road cycle tourism and the associated infrastructure is big here. We only wished that the infrastructure thing extended to our apartment though as the only place we could store our bikes was in the apartment.
It’s right in the centre of town and very well appointed. It’s also on the second floor of the (very old) building with a narrow staircase. How narrow? Well my MTB with 760mm handlebars would definitely not fit. Our Tout’s with 590 mm wide handlebars ‘just’ fit and the 180° turn at the top of the stairs required the bikes to be held vertically and rotated on the vertical axis.
Everyone’s had this experience at some point and I guess we have to count ourselves lucky that this is the first time on this tour we had to do this. Needless to say, the Tout’s are staying in place until we bug out of town on Tuesday morning.
Anyway, another wonderful day of biking and Girona is a pretty lively and interesting town to finish the day in.
Tonight we started our first night of ‘gorging’ at Nexe …. A farm to table place (think high end farm) that’s a short stroll from the apartment.
Once again, we had their set menu, this time 9 courses, and each and every one of them was very memorable! Aunt Betty has the full ‘Instagramable’ instalment if you keep scrolling further down.
Well, because it’s my birthday! Same song as this day in 2015 on our X-Canada trip. That one was Canmore to Calgary - 9°C and pissing rain. Today was 34°C and full on sun!
Leaving L’Escala. Full sun and warming up quickly!
A nice roadie couple from Sant Feliu took this pic of us at the Sanctuary. They were about the same age as us and had a son who lived in Vancouver. It’s a small world
Kirsten KaarsooTo Scott AndersonWe made it work and the apartment is great. We are just not taking them in and out during our stay. Reply to this comment 10 months ago
View from our balcony. It’ siesta time now. By 7 pm this street was packed. Fortunately there are no bars on this section so it was very quiet at night.
A quick spin around the neighbourhood and we came across this wedding party emerging from the Girona cathedral. They probably had a couple of hundred tourists like us looking on in addition to the invited guests, but everyone was happy and having a good time.
Tonight’s dinner … English menu, and very understated. Every dish was memorable and had unique flavours and textures. Pics to follow (sorry if you’re not a foody)
Beans, ham (Iberian no less) and shrimp …… soooo much better than it sounds. Each element was a perfect example of it’s kind and they were worked together expertly.
Lyle McLeodThanks Susan, it was a great day … but we’ve had so many great days on this trip it becomes hard to differentiate between them. Something like a birthday can make the difference. Reply to this comment 10 months ago
