Nancy and I have been trying to put together a trip to Europe for a few years now. World events have conspired twice to make it not happen - until now. Third time proved that proverbial charm.
This trip (and blog) is divided into two parts. First part is a bike trip in Spain (Pyrenees and Costa Brava). Second part is hiking around Mount Blanc (or Monte Bianco if you are Italian) utilizing part of the Tour du Mount Blanc trails.
The Mount Blanc pics and words are here. This page covers the section of our trip in Spain.
Spain/Catalonia
Our past bike trips overseas have been very DIY - which involves a whole lot of preparation. This time we decided to let Backroads handle the details. They supplied bikes, routes, guides/support, lodging, and most of the meals. Our two guides Adrien (French) and Silvia (Portugese) were excellent and did their best to make sure our experience was great. It was especially nice to have guides from Europe so that they could provide local knowledge/background/insight. Backroads trips tend to be 10-15 people. Ours was only 5 - which was perfect. Nancy and I were joined by Doug and Pam, plus Sanjeev. Doug is a very strong road rider and Pam opted for an ebike so that she could keep up with him. Sanjeev was a newer rider, but totally determined.
I'll state right from the start that the Spain part of the trip was one of my best overall culinary experiences. Every day we had excellent food with lots of local/new to me dishes. The cheesecake, that actually tasted of cheese (not the usual goopy sugar mess we get in the US) was sooooo good! On to the pics.
Good Morning Barcelona
Port Vell, Barcelona
Day 1
We started with a pickup at a train station in Barcelona. From there we were shuttled to a little village in northern Spain called Pi. We had a very nice lunch and sorted out our bikes. From here is was a little over 20 miles to our Hotel in Llivia, Spain - which is located within France. How a Spanish city managed to be inside France is an interesting story. Read about it here.
Doug and Pam - ready to ride
Narrow streets are the norm
A great lunch to get us started
And awesome local entertainment
Getting the bikes sorted
Guests don't call it "Snackroads" for nothing
Let's go!
Passing our first of many ancient Catalan villages
If you like stone buildings, you'll love this part of Spain/Catalonia
I'd really like to know why they use concrete for power line poles
Am I to yield to a cow or a donkey? Ears = donkey. Udder = cow.
Nancy, Doug and Pam navigate cows in the road. Are these Spanish cows or French cows?
Is this France or Spain? Hard to tell.
Crossing from France into the tiny island of Spain that is Llivia
Our first two nights were spent in an ancient farm building.
Our Backroads support van
Bikes resting in the stable
Really tempted to find out what's on tap here
20.5 miles, 1500 feet of climbing
Day 2
Today's longer ride option was a loop from Llivia (Spain) into France again and past Lac de Matamale. Of course we opted for this and are the happier for it. Lots of climbing, but very little traffic and very scenic.
Silvia briefing us on the day's ride
Heading through a small town
The stone work is amazing
Heading uphill again
Horses in the road
The French countryside
Fancy pants roundabout
We'll go up col del la Llose from the other direction
Lac de Matamale
Climbing on peaceful roads through a French regional park
Happy cows with plenty of grass to eat
What goes up eventually goes down. This was fun and fast.
And then back up again...
A Col just means there is downhill ahead
We did a quick detour into Mont-Louis, a fort with a village inside of it.
Layout of Mont-Louis
That fountain has been around for a few (hundred) years.
Nice doggie greeting us at our lunch stop at a historic home, now an inn
Awesome lunch!
Pam, Doug, Sanjeev, Silvia, Adrien and Nancy
Heading out of town after much food and good regional wine. Riding as it should be.
Looking back on the village where we enjoyed lunch
Llivia is down there somewhere
Enjoying eight miles of downhill back to Llivia. Wee!
As you can tell by the pics, rain was threatened all day, but it didn't actually rain until after the ride. It turned out to be a really nice day for a ride.
That night we had a local woman do a little walking tour of Llivia. The history of this Town is really quite interesting.
Our guide for the historical tour
Part of the church/fortress
Llivia coat of arms
These folks were rich so they did not have to build using stone
51.5 miles, 5100 feet of climbing
Day 3
This day saw us riding out of Llivia into France and then back into Spain for the remainder of our bicycle trip. Our challenge of the day was the climb up to Collada de Toses (labeled"Not Everest" below"). After that we'd descend to Ribes de Freser for some cortados (we did lots of coffee breaks) before finishing the day with a climb to the little village of Pardines. Here we had another huge spread for lunch. It seems like Backroads was trying to fatten us up. From there we were shuttled to Girona - which was a big city compared to where we had been.
Today's ride. Of course it ends with a climb
Up. Up. Up...
The big climb was actually pretty mellow
These signs mean "fun road"
Happy cows munching on plentiful grass = amazing cheese
Wrong side of the barrier little buddy
Almost to the top
Made it!
The view looking back down. No idea what I'm pointing at.
And look here! Adrien waiting for us with snacks.
Sweet! Local tasty bread.
Pam enjoying snack time. Adrien and Silvia kept us well fed.
Top of "Not Everest!" Now it is time to...you guessed it...descend!
The start of our half-hour descent
Down. Down. Down.
Taking a break from all the downhill. Really, our hands went numb from braking for so long.
At the bottom, the village of Ribes de Freser. That is the Freser river.
And a coffee stop. Of course
The Catalan flag. This one signals pro-separation from Spain
Back on the road. Climbing up to our next meal in the village of Pardines.
The roads are just great for cycling
There are certainly worse places to be
Just another charming ancient Spanish village
Water everywhere - many hundreds-of-year-old public fountain
And another feast!
Girona
From Pardines we were shuttled to Girona. There was much to explore here, but unfortunately we had little time to do so. We did a little running around before dinner.
You could walk along the walls of what was once the edge of town
Hotel pool
Bikes resting up for another big day tomorrow
40 miles, 3500 feet of climbing
Day 4
Time to head out of Girona to la Bisbal d'Emporda. But first we'd climb up and over the Gavarres range with an optional (who am I kidding, it had to be done) climb up to the top of Els Angels (which hurt). Then another excellent lunch before visiting Salvador Dali's wife's castle and ending the day at Castell d'Emporda. This is a castle that was converted to a hotel. Very nice.
Wheat fields on the way out of town
Which way?
This is a cork tree that has been partially harvested
A small grove of cork trees
Names of some of the best cyclists at the top of this climb
View from the top - toward the Mediterranean
Time to descend
We stopped for coffee (of course) in a little village called Monells. It had a very medieval feel to it.
Coffee break over, it was time to do some robust climbing up to the monastery at the top of El Angels. It was pretty warm and this road was good and steep.
Heading up the steep climb to Els Angels (felt more like HEls Angels)
Monastery at the top or the Els Angels climb
Stopping on the way back down to photo the flowers. Sunflowers not quite ready.
Big climb. Big feast. Starting another awesome lunch.
Back on the road
Hay!
At our destination. Post ride snacks. Are you getting the picture? Eat. Ride. Repeat.
Before dinner we had another cultural tour. This one was in the medieval village of Peratallada. As was the fashion when this was built it was a fortress/village. A local historian gave us the lowdown of the history of this particular place, then we had dinner in the village.
View from the bell tower.
48 miles, 3400 feet of climbing
Day 5
Today we rode from la Bisbal d'Emporda to the Mediterranean. We'd have some free time at the beach, then back to Bisbal.
Pre-ride power up
Sunflowers in bloom
Paved path along the Costa Brava
This beach is famous because of the big rock
A very picturesque lighthouse
View of the beach from the lighthouse
A very steep and fast (fun) descent into town
Sun and surf!
The view from above
Some pics from the castle/hotel.
View from our hotel room. Not bad.
It is always coffee time in Spain
Adrien demonstrated how to properly drink wine from this flask. It involved starting close to your mouth then extending your arm out so that a long stream of wine makes its way from the flask to your mouth. This is supposed to be done without spilling any wine. Needless to say, we all did it with water - else there would have been some very red clothes. This seemed more like a college drinking game than anything else, but when in Spain....
Then we went up in the tower to get a view of the surrounding area.
49 miles, 2700 feet of climbing
Day 6
Our last day was an easy spin through the countryside. No big climbs - just lots of scenic farmland and small villages. We mostly rode together for this day. The day ended with a shuttle back to Barcelona.
Should we do a few extra miles? Of course!
Back to Barcelona
19 miles, 750 feet of climbing
Barcelona. Still Day 6.
It turned out that all five of us were staying at the same hotel – the Seventy Barcelona (highly recommended). Backroads agreed to drop us off at the hotel rather than the train station as originally scheduled. This was super helpful! Yay Backroads, yet again.
We had a day and a half in Barcelona before heading to France to begin the Mt Blanc hike. Just enough time for Nancy to visit a few places at the top of her list.
Working out a plan
Barcelona is Gaudi. The presence of the artist is inescapable. There are stunning examples of this famous architect's work scattered across the city. There were three right near our hotel. We set out to see them. Here is the Casa Batlló.
Art and design permeate every corner of Barcelona. Nancy admired the retail displays along our walk down the Passeig de Grà cia.
After an early (for Spain) dinner of street tapas we hopped on the metro and headed to another famous Gaudi landmark - Parc Güell. The park It was built between 1900 and 1914 and today is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's a garden complex that houses a series of dynamically designed structure, including GaudÒs house. And the famous frog (actually, a salamander). Nancy has a replica given to her years ago by a client who visited Barcelona but she had never seen it for herself. So here it is!
More sights from the park. Intricate mosaic work throughout.
Barcelona. Day 7.
After a very good breakfast at our hotel we set off to visit another of Nancy's Barcelona picks - the Fundació Joan Miró (the Miro Foundation).
Besides the metro we took a Funicular Railway to reach the top of a hill above Barcelona.
View from the top.
A Miro Sculpture. His work is weird but Nancy finds it super creative.
La Boqueria Market
Nothing like viewing art for a morning to work up an appetite. Back down the hill to Barcelona's famous La Boqueria Market. Here you can find pretty much everything!
Hungry yet? We picked up a variety of tasty things for lunch.
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Barcelona also has eclectic stores. Here are a few that we passed by. This is one that features ducks. Just ducks.
And this one is just waving cats!
This cathedral is selling display ad space. Notice the banner for Samsung. Sigh.
Sagrada Familia
Last but not least on Nancy's list for the day was arguably the most famous landmark in Barcelona – the Sagrada Familia. Designed by Gaudi, it has been a work in progress for over 140 year. But it is nearing completion which is slated for 2026. I sat this one out but Nancy made the twenty minute walk from our hotel to see the cathedral.
Photos from a cell phone don't do this justice, but do hint to its grandeur. While Nancy didn't find it attractive from a distance - up close the design is a vibrant mix of traditional elements melded with contemporary lines and shapes.
This is not just a monument. It is an active church. Baptisms were taking place in the chapel below.
These sculptures dedicated to the apostles will grace the final towers.
We celebrate our last night in Spain with one last dinner at our hotel! Local beer. Grilled lettuce (it was great, really). Grilled tomatoes. And some kind of fish.
Again, we can't say enough great things about our Backroads experience and the opportunity to (at last) ride over the hills of Spain. To splash in the Mediterranean. To immerse ourselves in history, design, culture. And (as if you haven't noticed), amazing food. Lot's of it.
But wait! There's more...
