Hannibal

In typical Spanish fashion, breakfast wasn’t available until 9am so it was a late start to quite a long day.  Fortunately the weather forecast was warm rather than hot and it was a beautiful, sunny morning. The route took us downhill to the Mediterranean near L’Escala where I remember having ice cream sundaes with sparklers on a family camping holiday many years ago. Today it was a coffee stop with a gorgeous view. There was a bit of an evil head wind for the next 30km  with the mountains getting closer and closer. The scenery was beautiful and the roads quiet as we started to climb. Lunch was in the village square of Darnius with individual cardboard picnic boxes instead of a help yourself buffet picnic. The bike tour company is testing out the Covid protocol on this trip and so far it’s working really well. I really liked the prepacked bags of dried fruit and nuts, happily munching away as I go along, determined not to run out of energy. The fuel was essential as we hit the ...

Officially the tour was due to start at 2pm with a guided ride into the hills near Madremanya to make sure the bikes had survived the journey. It was a beautiful sunny morning but storms were forecast for the afternoon, so our two person ‘group’ decided to pedal off and see Girona. I found a good route on Strava/Garmin but apparently the technology thought we were on gravel bikes (nothing to do with the technology operator obviously). I also managed to miss a turn so we had to do a u-turn before we found Girona - James the guide will be in charge of navigation from tomorrow!  This was the not exactly circular ride: And this is Neil with his beautiful road bike hiking up an off-road hill - oopsies  Despite the navigational challenges, we had a great ride. Girona is very pretty and there are friendly cyclists everywhere. When we finally made it back onto a paved road, we climbed up to Els Angels, a classic cycling climb with spectacular views of the Mediterranean coast and the f...

This is the Epic cycle ride that has been epic in its uncertainty before it even begins. I am posting this now that I have arrived at the start, hoping that the trip won’t be thwarted by the resurgence of the shitty virus in France. The Tour de France also starts today so fingers crossed we will all be able to ride our bikes to the finish line. I am delighted that I have escaped from the stresses and strains of teaching at a screen, working from home for the past 6 months has definitely had its ups and downs. The legs have pedalled numerous miles as an essential sanity preserver, but Cambridgeshire miles, although lovely, are not exactly mountainous and this trip has some rather large mountains to climb. I usually hate Stansted airport with its wheelie bag obstacle course and chaotic queuing, but it was almost civilised in its pandemic sorry state. The plane was about 1/3 full and hurtled from the stand to the start of the runway instead of dawdling in a plane queue. I may have to quar...