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Published: September 3rd 2012
The official Vuelta a Espana 12 isn’t over yet but our own little effort has just begun. We met with Bo, the Ciclo Turisme representative at 9 a.m. and were kitted up and briefed about the tour ahead - the first stage a 47 km ride from Girona to Sant Feliu de Guixols on the coast.
We made our way out of town along the river with Sinead and Damian from Ireland who are also on the tour. Then suddenly my mobile rang and it was my sister Cathie! Another heightened experience talking on the phone! I have finally made it though the audio book of the Art of Travel and Alain de Botton sums up really well the notion that small everyday features and experiences of normal life take on a new set of significance when you are travelling.
We found the turn off to the Greenway – Ruta de Carrelet that is the old railway line that has been converted to a bike path. A broad lilydale topping-like surface wound its way through a combination of factories – tyres, corks, mattresses and some kind of frozen ‘carne’ and then into maize fields and rows of small trees
laden with brown pears!
We stopped in the village of Casa de la Selva, the centre of the cork industry in the region and rode through the old town to an imposing Gothic church.
As we rode along Dave’s phone went off and this time we talked to Jed and Tess (our adult children) about life at home while sitting in a leafy park – after 20 kms it was a very welcome relief from time on the saddle!
The next village was Llagostera where we stopped for lunch in a café alongside the Ruta de Carrelet. We were totally confounded by the Catalan ‘menu del dia’ recognising only a Gazpacho and ‘something chicken’ on the menu and then a female Scottish voice asked if we need help with the menu and we discovered that angels come in all forms. Today ours came in the form of Alexis from Edinburgh who has lived in the Llagostera village for 21 years with her husband Peter who worked as a consultant technician on deep-sea oilrigs and their old black Labrador Dax! They were such generous people and we had great talk about deep-sea technology, Catalan culture and language, animal
cruelty and the significance of place. The sign on the wall in the Girona old town suddenly made sense.
With Alexis’ assistance we ordered Gazpacho for ‘primero’ (entre) and then for ‘secundo’ Dave had chicken legs and chips and I had fish. For Dessert Alexis recommended this sweet muscatel fortified wine served in little jugs accompanied by dried fruits and nuts – delicious! This with a large bottle of water, a coffee, and half a litre of rose was just 12.5 euros each!!
We sat for ages and then finally we parted ways and we rode on along a path that made a gentle descent down to the sea. At one point the smell of eucalypts was so overpowering we just had to stop and take a photo. Gum trees lined the path for a few hundred metres. Amazing how smell is so evocative!
Riding a bit pissed is quite fun – I found singing Queen’s “I want to break free” at the top of my voice enormously liberating!
We opted for the long route on the tour that took us through the port of Sant Feliu de Guixols. We got a bit lost but the
met an old local rider, tanned, fit ‘n friendly who directed us to the port where there was a latitude/longitude coordinate tower.
Made our way back up the hill to the Suermercardo where Dave had a Lo Siento (I’m sorry) moment when took his bag of nectarines to the checkout without weighing them (clearly not done at the checkout at Mercadona). I was outside watching though the window and it was a bit of a cultural train wreck as he was tersely asked why he hadn’t weighed the fruit, he gestured to indicate he didn’t know and couldn’t understand and then the assistant gestured to another employee to go and to do it for him. Lots of eye rolling and words later and he was released from his shopping faux pas hell.
We made our way back to Hotel Sant Pol and have now had, how do you say, had more than our fair share of some Gordon’s gin (7.99 euro a bottle). Dave saw a 3.99 bottle but thankfully ‘steered clear’ of that! It has occurred to me that it would be easy to stay drunk in Spain most of the time…
Our hotel is in
Sant Pol - one bay around from Sant Feliu de Guixols. It is a bay about the size of Lorne with an esplanade lined with small hotels and cafes and old style apartments. There is a smell of cooking seafood in the air and an aural cocktail of music ranging from KD Lang to flamenco coming from the number of bars around us.
As we put the bike away in the hotel garage there was poster of fish and sea creatures and a recommendation to ‘try the seafood’. So I think we will.
Tomorrow – we go from Sant Pol to Cella de Palafrugell. We will take the mountain route option that climbs around 300 metres and then has a long descent back to the coast.
Postscript: Just got back from Hotel Sant Pol razor fish and Octopus and a salad of goat’s cheese and salad greens…I am floating happily on a combination of alcohol, garlic and exhaustion! But I am very happy. Buenos noches!
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Anita Roberts
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Bruce is jealous
your bike-riding sounds fantastic! I can just see you cruising through the scenery serenading the locals with old Queen tracks... keep up the good work.