Highlands to Lowlands

    The Backroads tour has concluded, and I can’t speak highly enough about what a great experience it was. Our guides were terrific.  In addition to being charming and knowledgeable, they made all the travel logistics appear effortless, which I am sure they were not. Moreover, they ordered up perfect cycling weather which is always a chancy situation.

    After my initial fears about the long-climb routes, I came to appreciate the mix of moderate challenge, gorgeous views, and variable terrain. By day 4, after cold mornings and long climbs in the Pyrenees, we arrived at the small town of La Bisbal D’Emborda. From this home base, we cycled to the south and rode alongside the beautiful and balmy beaches of the Costa Brava.

 

    In La Bisbal D’Emporda, we settled in at Castell d’Emporda where our rooms overlooked a stunning green agricultural valley with snow-capped mountains in the distance.  This hotel was quite large and spread out with two pools and a variety of outdoor event spaces. In fact, the hotel has recently become an events-only property (i.e., weddings, conferences), although it has maintained its relationship with Backroads bike tours. It was a beautiful place to spend our last two nights.

 

    I’m now back in Girona for the duration.  The next bike tour starts from here on Monday so I’ve got a few days to chill out, except that Girona is MOBBED with tourists—even more than usual since this is Girona’s annual Flower Festival week.  There are various imaginative flower displays set up around the historical old town and a kazillion people wandering around to see them.  It’s crazy crowded. The flower displays are nice but honestly, don’t hold a candle to the floats in Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses.  The festival ends tomorrow (Sunday) so I’m hopeful the crowds will diminish and allow for some less-intense restaurant options as the week progresses. Until then, I’ve spent some time visiting the local farmer’s market and walking a path alongside the river (oh! and doing laundry at a nearby laundromat – whew!).  It’s kinda fun to work out how to accomplish day-to-day tasks when everything's unfamiliar.

 

Phew!

 

Check out these route profiles and you can see what I mean about long climbs.  The main one on day two was 8.3 miles (miles!).  Just when I was feeling proud of myself for conquering that, I discovered that day three’s main climb was around 10 miles. But it turns out that the grades are relatively mild, ranging mostly from 3% to 5% with the occasional short section of something higher.  That’s pretty low key as far bike hill-climbing goes, so you just have to hunker down for the long haul. 

    There are only six of us on this tour, and four are on e-bikes.  I confess to feeling a few moments of envy as they sailed past us regular bikers early on.  But the effort has been rewarding and has justified substantial calorie intake at lunch and dinner time.   

 After two nights in Llivia, we rode to Ribes de Freser where we had a delicious luncheon in an old Victorian church, now converted to a restaurant. From there we bussed down-elevation to Girona for one night in the bustling old town area. Today's route ended in La Bisbal D'Emporda where we are staying at a castle-turned-hotel. It's really beautiful with sweeping views. Tomorrow, we finally head toward the sea - the Costa Brava!

Here are a few photos from the past few days.

Just one of countless vistas from our bike routes

Securing bikes for overnight

Old town tourist area in Girona

We encountered lots of other cyclists.  Love the paint job on this guy's bike

View from my balcony for the nest few nights

 

Fast Forward

After a few acclimation days in Barcelona, I met up with the Backroads tour guides who promptly loaded us up and drove us 2 ½ hours to Spain’s Cerdanya region. The scenery was really beautiful, but the journey was a bit unsettling as the magnitude of the mountainous terrain we’d be riding became apparent.  What have I done? I thought as our van labored up and up into a cloud bank which dropped big raindrops onto the windshield.

Eventually, we descended into the village of Pi (Catalan for pine) where we had a lovely lunch before suiting up for our first ride.  Luckily the sun broke through and we enjoyed a short but challenging ride to the town of Llívia – our home for two nights.    Weirdly, you have to cross the Spain/French border to reach Llívia which is small Spanish enclave surrounded by France.  After post-ride beers, we got settled into our hotel and then waited it out until Spanish dinner time, which is 8pm at the earliest.  We walked to a nearby restaurant where we had the first of what will be several spectacular dinners. 

 

 

Day one riding was a success, but I’m plenty worried about upcoming days.  When you sign up for a bike tour like this, they give you an idea of the daily mileage and elevation gain for the various routes. These looked more or less do-able at the time, although a few of the elevation gains gave me pause.  Still, elevation gains are expressed in total for a specific route so, for example, an elevation gain of 2500 feet might consist of five or more climbs that add up to that. In-between, there’d be downhill and flat terrain, so each climb  is not that big a deal by itself. But if that 2500 ft of climbing comes all at once well, then, that’s going to take some serious determination.

You can see where I’m going here. About a week before a tour begins – after your money has long since been paid – the tour company sends you the actual routes that you can view on RideWithGPS or a similar app. And yeah, you guessed it, these routes have long, long climbs vs. a bunch of rollers. Erp!  Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!