Wednesday, July 28

I started rather early, around 7:30 and now a small, quiet road, one I was longing for, it was creeping uphill, leading through small towns with stone churches, castles, with the shoreline disappearing quickly. I rode through La Bisbal d'Empordà, a town with vivid history, it being rather early, was completely deserted. I had breakfast at a local bakery, the church I wanted to visit was locked shut.

Suddenly a biker overtook me, then another and yet other ones. Some riders were a lot older than me, but then they were not carrying heavy loads that I was and were on slim racing bikes. This is a good sign, I was in biker’s territory…you see, even without planning, I somehow manage to find places I really like.

A bit off the road was a sight like from a movie – a medieval village, called Madremanya, showed up a bit off the road, on a small hill.

Well, I thought it might be worth the trouble of checking it out. I felt like going back in time by hundreds of years – this small village full of stone houses, in the middle of a large church was a lovely sight, especially I was one of the very few tourists there. It was absolutely worth the detour and I was glad to have chosen this area.

Leaving the lovely village, a high hill - or a low mountain - stood in front of me, with some distant views of the coast on one side, and the higher ranges of the Pyrenees on the other. I soon reached the summit, where I made a detour to a church. Looking down, I spotted a sizable town, which I later learned was called Girona. On the descent towards the town, I noticed a restaurant with a large garden with wonderful views, called Can Pol Girona, alas, it was was closed. I did see a car pulling up, two ladies getting out, it turned out they were the owners, or at least the care-takers of this place. I launched my negotiation skills and after some haggling, they agreed to serve me a gazpacho soup, which was quite delicious. First, the dog of the owners came up to me, then a black cat, which jumped up on the table right in front of me and was enjoying the caressing, coupled with the warm sunshine.

Girona turned out to be an impressive town, with a cathedral, multiple large churches, fortifications, a meeting point of four rivers (Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell) with bridges surrounded by colorful houses – was quite amazed. It is popular not only with the tourists, but also for film productions – for example some epidoses Game of Thrones was shot there. Talking about Game of Thrones – I will be meeting more places related to this film (which I otherwise have not watched…).


At the tourist office, I got directions – explaining about a bike path going through the forest. I started following that, but was not too happy. First, it was an unpaved road, which slows you down quite a bit and also, I prefer going through the towns and villages, to see how people live – and to get some supplies. This bike path did the exact opposite, it took me around the populated places – and also I missed seeing a nice town, Banyoles. Oh well.

I rode till Anglès, where I turned north, to the road called C-63z. I rode next to, yes, extinct volcanoes till I got close to the town of Olot.

Here I was planning on retiring, the 100 kilometers I had covered, with quite a lot of elevation, were taking their toll. I was looking for a campground, when I spotted a large, but somewhat run-down farm house, being tended to by an old man. I rode up to him and explained I would put up a tent somewhere on the his property. Somewhat surprised, he agreed, not wanting anything in return. I dozed off listening to the “baa” of his sheep.

Here you can see the trip in Google Maps, it was about 100 kilometers, with roughly 1,200 meters of elevation gain and 736 meters of descent.