Barcelona to Sant Feliu de Guixols

June 29, 2016

Not quite as planned

This morning I thought I should look into where I'd stay tonight. I had read on cgoab about a nice campground at Sant Feliu de Guixols but when I searched online, it and all the other campgrounds in the area were fully booked for tonight. So I looked for a hotel and found what I have to believe was a last-minute deal: 40€ for a room at Hotel Hostal del Sol. When I saw that it is also part of the Bed and Bike network, that clinched it. Then I got my map out and realized my plan was only to go as far as Lloret del Mar today and Sant Feliu tomorrow. Oh well, it was a doable distance so time to get moving.

After breakfast, the first order of the day was to mail my bike case to my hotel in Bilbao. Thanks to fellow cgoab'r Scott Anderson, I knew I needed to wrap the case in brown paper and had bought a roll of paper and one of packing tape during my meanders that first day. The post office is almost next door to the train station where I'd arrived but this trip was easy. It was also easy to mail the parcel, thanks to the friendly guy (who spoke a little English) behind the counter. The fee was less than 30€.

Back to the B&B to check out, load my bike, and ride to the El Clot-Aragó station. I couldn't find it on my Garmin but Google Maps on my phone indicated a simple route with very few turns and an estimated biking time of 10 minutes. What it didn't tell me is that the station is almost invisible above ground: a stairwell on one side and a flight of stairs flanked by escalators on the other. No lift.

It took me some time to find the station, poorly signed as it was, with several wrong turns and circles and even a useless trip into an adjacent Metro station. A friendly man, who spoke a little English, perhaps because his son is married to a woman from Abbotsford BC, carried my panniers down the several flights of stairs while I carried my bike. He even tried to show me how the ticket machine worked; he got further than I had at the airport, but he couldn't convince it to take my money. The cashiers' jobs are pretty secure, I think.

After getting to the correct track (there were lifts once you get to the underground station), I waited less than 5 minutes for my train and easily found the carriage with the bike symbol. 75 minutes sitting and writing this journal to try and catch up.

Blanes seems only worth stopping at as the closest train station to the Costa Brava. My Garmin was very useful here in navigating out of town and on to Lloret de Mar. In Lloret, I reset it to navigate to Tossa de Mar but it wanted me to avoid highways. Normally I do want that, but here the highway has very light traffic, is beautifully paved, and has highway grades. I had to walk one steep hill coming out of Lloret because I was going very slow and wobbling, my toe caught the rubber flap on the end of my front fender and dislodged it into the tire. I stopped to reposition it and the hill was too steep to restart. Then the road turned to dirt with some sandy sections. When I came out onto the GI 682, I turned Garmin's navigation off. It's great in towns to find an address or point of interest, or to find your way out, but unnecessary on a highway.

The route is quite scenic. I'll let the photos speak.

My first view of the Costa Brava, looking down on Lloret de Mar. I'm so not a beach resort person!

Looking back on the beach strip, Tossa de Mar. It might have been nice to visit the castle, but I didn't want to add another climb, on foot or on my bike, to my day in the heat.

Looking back on Tossa de Mar. The location is really beautiful; too bad about the tacky strip on the beach.

The coast highway, GI 682, looks like this, with very little traffic.

Of course, you come around a corner and it looks like this. That switchback up to the left looks challenging.

It turned out that upper switchback just led to an "ermitage" and the highway contoured around the headland. There will be more climbs and descents, though. I think that is Sant Feliu de Guixols on the point.

There were a few of these. I like them and often wonder why we do not have such a law in British Columbia.

I ate at a restaurant on Platja de Sant Pol, Sant Feliu's "other" beach. I didn't see a "strip" like I'd seen at the other beach towns I passed through, but I I stopped at the second restaurant, as recommended by the receptionist at my hotel. Once again, the less expensive fixed-price menu provided more food then I could eat and included a small carafe of some decent wine.

Platja Sant Pol. I prefer this to the crazy strips in Lloret and Tossa.

The entrance to my hotel. I really lucked out here!

Distance 45 km (from Blanes); ascent 718 m; descent 671 m

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Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 45 km (28 miles)

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