Two hours since breakfast - stop for snacks!!!

Not sure why, but I was wide awake until after midnight. Partly from excitement, but also I missed the great bed and pillows from the last two nights. This is a beautiful room, but way deep down in the bed lingers the smell of cigarette smoke - hate that.

I did eventually sleep though, and we woke with the sun and got dressed and ready for our 8am breakfast and 9am gather to start the ride. Beautiful morning - Sarah and I were the only ones in shorts and light jackets, everyone else in tights. I’ll admit it was a little chilly as we descended away from Madremanya, rolling through fields of wheat and poppy - seemed like a sleepy countryside and we were the only thing moving!

Today’s ride was through the enchanting countryside, charming villages, panoramic views of the Pyrenean mountains and stunning views coastline of the Costa Brava. It seemed that the little villages were just 5km or so apart - each one with a castle or church tower. No one seemed to be out and about though, except for a few farmers on tractors. I guess it’s the Spanish way - stay up late and sleep in. Bailey would be at home here!

Just after 10am we arrived at the medieval village of Pals, dating back to the 9th century. We changed shoes and took a 30 minute break here. Jeff and I walked the cobbled streets that wove their way maze-like up to the church; everywhere you looked was a picture. We stopped at at little cafe and had a “cafe con leche” and JT ordered a hot chocolate which was more like chocolate pudding not quite set just yet - they were very yummy together.

After break, we did about a 10k climb, 5-7%. Just the right kind of challenging. Our guidebook described the next part as: “Undulating ride to the ancient pueblo of Calella de Palafrugell. Traditional fishing village perched on a rocky coastline, sprinkled with small coves, oozing old-world charm.” Perfect description. About 5k from the lunch stop, Kristin and Janet bumped and Kristin went down. It’s always scary, but she wasn’t hurt badly (kind of deep looking gouge on her palm and knee, plus a destroyed pair of Lululemon tights)! She was quite tough about the whole thing. Sarah called for Joaquin to come in the van, he bandaged her up and we toasted her “first fall from a bike” with a bottle of Cava at lunchtime.

Coming into the resort area reminded me of riding in Croatia. For the first time since arriving in Spain, we saw modern hotels and homes (well, probably from the 50’s, “modern” being a relative thing)!

It is still very early in the season, which for me is an awesome time to be here as I can only imagine the crowds in the summertime! Traffic is light and very respectful, and mostly here are families with small children. And cyclists! Many many cyclists, some tourists at “bike camps,” others on more scenic tours like ours, and others that seem to be serious racers - in large packs or riding alone or in pairs.

We had lunch at a little beach bistro called Fiego. You wouldn’t have known it was even there without walking the ancient steps down to the little beach. As we got closer to the water, the breeze became cooler (especially as we were wet with sweat from the climb), so we bundled up. I waded into the water and it felt very cold, but there were a few kids splashing around in it. As we had lunch, the sky cleared and it felt much warmer. Rather than order off the menu, we told the guides to just order tapas (but LESS FOOD than yesterday). We were all stuffed and I was getting antsy to go, when our fish arrived. So we all managed to shovel just a little more food in, and it was a very fresh and delicious sea bass, perfectly cooked.

Only Jeff and I opted for the 20 mile ride back to our hotel, so we took off with Sarah and rode at a fast pace which was really fun. We went through several little villages, but also beautiful little country lanes with rolling hills and smooth pavement, so it was easy for us to chat while we rode. Such beautiful countryside, I’m continually exclaiming “WOW, JUST WOW” out loud. With about 5k to go, Joaquin was there with the van so we stopped for a snack - unbelievable to be hungry after eating so much lunch, but we’re working hard. Joaquin went off to find a pharmacy to replenish the first aid kit, and we headed back to Madremanya where we found our cooler of cold beer and snacks waiting for us.

Up to our room for a quick shower, and then back to meet the group for an excursion to Peratallada, a small fortified medieval town with traces that date back to the Bronze Age (BC). A local historian, Nick, lead us on a walking tour and it was so fascinating. ‘Pera tallada’ means “carved stone,” and the original fortress and town was built over a quarry. The foundations of many of the buildings are literally the stone floor, and the walls were built from rock from the quarry itself. It appears to have a moat, but Nick said it was just all mined out of there, and not filled with water. You can still see the steps where some poor souls were carrying the rock up and out! The reason for building the castle and fort here is thought to be to defend the rock so someone else couldn’t use it to build another castle nearby.

Outside the walls, we toured the church, and again, it was awesome to tour with Nick who pointed out many things about how they think it had been expanded, and also that it wasn’t properly “finished,” as it was stone and brick, versus having been plastered and painted. Outside, there was a graveyard, with some bone fragments here and there since good records weren’t kept over the thousands of years, so occasionally old graves are dug up. We also learned that the tall thin cypress trees that are generally planted in cemeteries are to point the souls in the direction towards heaven.

Back into the city, we walked the old Main Street - now some nice shops and restaurants, although most were closed being a Monday in low season. It was great to have someone point out to us how the buildings have been modified over the years, arches added or reinforced, windows changes, triangle shapes added under the eaves to keep out evil spirits, etc.

After that, we walked down a set of steps carved into the original stone and ended up on a patio of an eclectic restaurant (with the toilet out back in the moat - no kidding)! There we had a great three course meal, three bottles of wine, great conversation and visits from a friendly ice-cream eating cat!

Quiet 20 minute van ride back to the hotel. Great ride and great dinner - I should sleep tonight!

We set an alarm this morning, since we had a 9:30am train to catch. Feeling more settled into the time zone we were up and easily into a cab heading to the train station by 8:30am. The good thing about the screwy time zones is my body didn’t realize it didn’t have coffee this morning! We went through security and then found a long line, so coffee wasn’t an option.

Settled into our reserved seats with plenty of time, good to get onboard early with our monster suitcases and limited space for bags. Quick 30 minute ride to Girona, arriving an hour before we were to meet our guides and fellow travelers. We were scheduled to meet at the coffee shop, so that was perfect to grab a coffee and light breakfast.

About 30 minutes later, three ladies approached us - friends from Long Island, they’re the rest of our group. First Trek Travel outing for them, and this will be a perfect introduction for them! Soon, our guides, Sarah and Joaquin came along.

We went outside and loaded our bags into a bigger bus than we seemed to need for the 5 of us. Joaquin drove the Trek van and Sarah came with us and gave us a little briefing of our day along the way.

We drove through Girona, which is said to be a hotbed of cycling! Lots of European pros spend the winter here training. Janet, one of the NY lady’s partner is currently here at “ride camp!” Sounds severe, give me Trek Travel Luxury trip instead, please!

We drove 45 minutes to Sant Martí d’Empuries, a 12th century village, where we enjoyed a lunch of tapas and had our first real views of the Mediterranean.

After lunch, we changed into our bike clothes and were fitted to our bikes - Trek Domane SL 7’s with electronic shifting and disc brakes - sweet bikes! Also some kind of new Bontrager helmets - cool thing is they are new and no one else has had their sweaty head in them yet!

After a lesson about our Garmin GPS units, we were ready to set out for our first ride through the Empordà countryside. Joaquin rode with us today, while Sarah drove along in the van. He’s from the Canary Islands, former Civil Engineer, now following his passion working as a guide. He’s a very strong and knowledgeable rider. Sarah is originally from Oregon, and is an outdoor and travel enthusiast. She’s in her 2nd year with TT. They just met each other last week, and this is the first Costa Brava trip of this season, but you wouldn’t know any of that if they hadn’t told us. They’ve got good rhythm already and it seems they’ll be a great guide team.

It was a perfect day for riding, overcast so not too warm. We rode along the coast for a bit, and then through a string of small towns, most with very old castle / church remnants. It was hard for me to suppress my desire to stop all along the route to take photos like I like to do! We passed fields of poppies, yellow fields of canola flowers, and just sprouting corn fields. In the villages, we passed charming houses with beautiful flowers, and tile and iron work. Lots of what we experienced today reminded my of what we saw when we rode along the coast from Italy to Slovenia and Croatia a few years ago.

After about 20 miles, we arrived at Madremanya and our hotel for the next two nights. Jeff and I opted to go back out with Joaquin for the 6km climb to Els Angels, a former convent that afforded us a great view of Girona. Along the way, we saw many cyclists and the road was painted encouraging the local pros who train on this climb.

Felt like a good first day, just over 30 miles with 2400 feet of climb.

Upon returning to La Placa de Madremanya, Sarah got us some cold beers from the van and took our bikes. We checked in and our bags were magically in our room. We have a beautiful two room suite with a private veranda. Great place to have my morning coffee (and maybe dry our laundry).

We had a welcome reception, should have been on the terrace but it was a bit chilly for that. Instead, we gathered in the little bar for local cava with handmade tapas. During our little party we struck up conversation with a very friendly couple from Australia - week 5 of a six week trip to Europe! Then we had a three course dinner later at the restaurant of our beautifully restored 14th century farmhouse/hotel.