May 28, 2022
Giro Around Girona
Today was another rest day, a time to assemble the bikes and enjoy Girona. Tomorrow we begin riding the countryside around Girona. While planning this phase of the vacation we were almost overwhelmed at the number of possibilities of routes we could explore. So we devised a plan. We would each come up with a selection of routes and then take turns presenting them as mystery tours to each other. David gets first dibs tomorrow.
The breakfast buffet at our hotel is a winner, everything is tastefully presented and with a focus on healthy eating. There are gluten free options (and specially packaged cereals for celiac guests) and 4 types of milk for those who prefer or can only have non-dairy.
We are enjoying a large glass of fresh squeezed OJ every morning and the juicing machine here is something to behold! Just flick the ON switch and it begins: two arms grab an orange from the upper hopper, draw it down across a guillotine and then each half is pressed to release the juice into a pitcher. The arms drop the de-juiced orange halves into a lower hopper, then rotate to the top and it starts again. A counter diplays the orange count and by the time I pressed STOP, it had juiced 10 oranges! Like I said, we enjoy a large glass of OJ. The coffee here is outstanding too.
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David spent the morning assembling our Bike Fridays in the open air basement courtyard of the hotel. This task usually takes place in a much more public locale and I think he appreciated having a quiet place to work without any distractions.
I made good use of this time to research and book a food tour for us with a business that's just a couple doors down from our hotel. Cooking classes are all closed down due to covid or I would have booked one. The tour sounds great, so we can look forward to doing that on Tuesday.
As he was finishing the job, a young woman came in and began working on disassembling her road bike. We got chatting with her and she was very envious that we have until June 8 to explore the region by bike. She was from Toronto and had spent a week riding with her husband and 5 other docs from Vancouver. She was packing to leave for home tomorrow but said she loves it so much she wants to buy an apartment here. I asked her for her favourite eateries before we parted ways.
It was close enough to lunchtime by then so we decided to checkout Hors Catégorie, one of her suggested spots that is only 100m from our hotel. Hors refers to the classification of steep and long climbs in the Tour de France, and now in cycling races worldwide, and it means 'beyond categorizing'. There are four other 'easier' levels in the classification system, Cat 1 being tough and Cat 4 being the easiest.
Hors Catégorie, the cafe, has craft beer, real music (please... I can't take any more Winchester Cathedral and the like), fantastic food, and a big screen showing the live feed of the Giro d'Italia. Plus all sorts of bikes and jerseys from famous pro cyclists. We ordered a chicken cesar salad and a pear, walnut and goat cheese salad.
Fully satisfied with our salads, we spent the rest of the day strolling and lazing around.
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Not much else to report on, but I don't want to disappoint those who are here for the food photos, so here is a picture of our appetizer at dinner, hummus with veggies. It was served with thin sliced grainy bread. It is such a beautiful presentation and one that I will definitely borrow. Oh, the acorn fed pork with mushrooms and roasted sweet potato and the entrecôte and roast potatoes were delicious, too. As was the gelato.
Tomorrow is David's turn to take me on a mystery ride. Then it's my turn and so on. I can't wait to hit the road!
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