Check in at Dublin Airport Terminal 2 . The staff were
particularly helpful with the bikes. The pannier weigh-in showed a clear
winner; Jerome at 19 kg. The other weights were around 14 kg., with Tony lightest at 12.5 kg. Jerome was
actually carrying the 2 spare tyres and a rucksack .
The reconstruction of the bikes took longer
than anticipated. We all had difficulty
putting on the attachment for the handlebar bag . Also great difficulty getting out of the
airport. We were on a busy main road and
a
motorway for a short distance. We all had an Irish tricolour on the
back of our bicycles. This was to let
the motorway traffic know that the eegits who were on the hard shoulder, or trying
to cross busy traffic lanes, were from Ireland
We did find the cycle route along by the
east side of the river Garonne , eventually, as
planned, and got to the south side of Toulouse
Just as light was fading, we reached our
destination, a small B&B on the southerly outskirts of Eaunes. After a quick wash, we got a taxi to a
Spanish restaurant, which we were led to believe was only 2 km away. But in fact it was 12 km away. The taxi driver seemed to know the landlady,
and charged 40 euro to take us there, and 45 to bring us back. The meal was
very overpriced and of the “neuvo cuisine”type ,not really what 5 very hungry
cyclist needed.
Toulouse airport - Eaunes.
Distance cycled: 32.62 km.
Elevation gain: 157 m
Stay : Hotel Particulier Belair, Eaunes.
Dinner: La
Commanderie, Saint
Sulpice-sur-Leze
Monday 17 September 2012. Day 2.
Eaunes
- Ax Les Thermes.
After breakfast served outside (chilly), we
set off southwards. Just before our stop
in Saverdun we passed an older couple on bicycles with panniers. While having coffee and chocolate croissants, (special
offer for five), we met them again: a
retired couple from Dulwich in London, who were cycling to their holiday home
in Perpignon. They travelled
impressively lightly. He had only 2 panniers, she only one. They had got a ferry to St. Malo and were on day 13,
almost finished. They spend two months
in spring and two months in the autumn in Perpignon, and he had always wanted
to cycle down through France
Lunch was at an outside table at a restaurant in the town square in Pamiers. An excellent lunch, spaghetti carbonara, with
a raw egg yolk in its shell, which one mixes with the hot spaghetti oneself. The first time I'd seen it.
After lunch, we continued south to Foix,
and then on toTarascon, all the time following the river Ariege, ( a 164 km.
long tributary of the Garonne. The river gives it’s name to this Department-
until Napoleon’s decree, it was known as the country of Foix). We continued a slow and steady ascent to Ax Les Thermes. Our
hotel was on the hill going south out of
town. In the centre of the town there
are sulphurous hot springs hot springs
Lunch:
Pamiers.
Distance cycled 113.15 km.
Elevation gain 870 m.
Morning coffee break : Saverdun.
Stay Hotel La Grande Cordee, Ax Les
Thermes.
Dinner:
in hotel, including in price, set meal.(yuck)
Ax Les
Tharmes - Alp, via Andorra.
After breakfast we set off southwards,
continuing our climb towards Andorra Col
The long climb to Andorra
Distance cycled: 76.14 km.
Elevation gain: 1604 m.
Morning coffee: L’Hospitalet-pres-l’Andorra.
Lunch: El Pas de la Casa, Andorra.
Afternoon break: Puigcerda, , just inside the Spanish border,
next to Bourg -Madame, which is on the French
( other) side of the river.
Stay:
Hotel Jaume, Alp 17538, Spain.
Dinner: restaurant on first-floor across
the road from the hotel.
Alp - Ripoll.
After breakfast we took care to find the
correct route out of town, towards the ski resort of
Super Molina , beyond La Molina. On our way a number of cyclists passed us; they
were mainly American and Canadian (approximately 14 of them) travelling with a
professional cycling holiday organiser called Backroads.com. We spoke to some of them as they passed: a
regular question was ‘are you camping’, referring to our fully laden panniers
! After coffee in La Molina, at the same
café as the Americans, Dave realised that he had
left his handlebar bag in the cafe, so he had to return for it. We waited close to some newly built very
smart apartment blocks built for the ski season.
We continued up the long drag to the Col de la Creueta (1888
m), at the top of which we met some of the backroads.com crew again. We were above the clouds, and descended
initially through heavy mist/cloud.
Lunch was in Castellar de N’Hug, in the Bar-Restaurant El Celler de Rosa
Subira, where a very friendly and helpful owner (or more correctly perhaps
owner’s husband) gives us a great meal .
He reminded me Renee in ‘Allo,
‘Allo. His wife kept a close eye on our
bicycles, while we ate lunch in the first-floor restaurant.
We had entered the small town from the bottom
rather than the top (silly), and we left the same way ( much more silly), since we ignored the directions of Renee,
and took the road to La Pobla de Lillet rather than the more easterly and
direct route via Montgrony. I blame the
excessive wine and beer that the pilot Bernard had at lunch.
This minor error meant that we had the
bonus of climbing the Coll de Merolla (1090 m), after which we passed the
road on our right that we had meant to take.
We went to Campdevenol, before we took a right and turned south onto the busy main road to
Ripoll. The way into this
town was quite bleak- disused factories on our right, with one particularly
poor-looking two-storey housing area on our left, opposite the factory.
"Rene "and his wife, the best lunch of the tour
Distance cycled : 68.2 km.
Elevation gain: 1179 m.
Morning coffee: La Molina.
Lunch:
Castellar de N’Hug
Stay:
Hotel La Trobada, Ripoll
Dinner: Pizzeria.
Ripoll -Manresa.
Just out of Ripoll Tony got a phone call to
say that his uncle had died. We
continued on very interesting countryside, (saw cows and horses with bells) through the district of Les Llosses, until
we reached the town of Borreda
On the way to Berga, where we stopped for
lunch, we passed a large reservoir at Vilada, at the River El Llobregat. Lunch
was at a restaurant on the main street, on the decking platform outside the restaurant.
Not for the first time, we had some
difficulty finding the correct minor road out of town. A man in the small van saw our prevarication;
he turned round, and pointed in the right
direction (he too does some bicycle touring, and knew how
difficult it can be). This act of
kindness was greatly appreciated. The afternoon’s
cycle was difficult; the map we had showed the minor road merge with the
motorway at many points. At one stage we cycled down into a very run down
housing estate; time for a hasty retreat! We met three other very helpful
people during our “where the hell are we “afternoon .
The first was at Navas, where an elderly
man on a quad bike guided us through the town to get out onto the right road.
The second
just South of Balsareny, a man in a 4x4 who we asked for directions led us on a dirt track, which connected
with the road that we needed.
And Finally in Berga, where we stopped at a
fire station for directions. A firemen
in a red ‘Bomber’ jeep guided us ( at speed
; he was clearly not used , or more likely resentful for being instructed, to guiding elderly gents on fully laden
touring bikes) through heavy traffic and
a maze of roads towards our hotel. Before reaching the hotel we were met by the
hotel owner on a motorbike; we followed him for the final few hundred
yards. The hotel was in an odd location
: behind large BMW car dealerships, and
was described on the Internet as a
country house, but it clearly was a country house that had long been overtaken
and surrounded by the expanding
town. But it was very difficult to find,
even for the fireman, who had to phone up the hotel to find directions. Luckily, there wasn't a fire there while we
were present! The only other occupants
were some Russians.
The Hotel we needed help to find,clearly a country house some time ago
Distance cycled:100.53 km.
Elevation gain: 1160 m.
Morning
coffee : Borreda
Lunch: Berga.
Stay : Turo de la Torre, Manresa.
Dinner in the hotel.
Friday 21, September 2012, day 6.
Manresa - Barcelona.
Given the difficulty that we had on
Thursday evening getting it to Manresa Montserrat , but we then veered east
words. At El Bures we joined the busy
road carriageway southwards. There were
two lanes in each carriageway, and we were able to cycle on the hard shoulder,
but the traffic passed us at great speed on.
We attempted to get off the dual carriageway when we had our morning coffee break at the truckers
stop. Before our break we passed a scantily clad young woman sunning herself on
the hard shoulder; we passed another such
hitchhiker after our stop. We
decided that we needed to keep heading south, rather than veering east at this point, so we returned to the busy
hard shoulder, after passing through Monistrol de Montserrat, from where we
could see the great monastery perched
high on a mountainside.
We had lunch in Abrera: a drink and a sandwich on a pavement table
next to a good fish shop. We had been
refused service at a previous restaurant, where we requested to sit inside but
we wanted to sit outside so that we could keep an eye on our bikes. The waitress chose not to serve us if we sat outside , it was too far to carry the food.
Leaving Abrera, we went through big
industrial estates, including going past the large SEAT Sport car
factory. All this was to avoid the A2,
Autovia del Nord-est, to which all the signposts kept directing us. Again, we had difficulty finding the bicycle
friendly roads. At one bus stop, outside
a large mental hospital, an elderly man guided us to an underpass. This had steps on both sides and was difficult
to negotiate. We then stopped at a petrol
station, where we were eventually given the directions to the route we wanted.
It remained very difficult to stay on
bicycle-friendly roads, and we were due to meet a truck in Barcelona 6 p.m. to load our bikes for home.
At Martorell, after cycling approximately
55 km, we passed a railway station, and someone had the bright idea to get the
train for the final 25 km into Barcelona Barcelona Ireland Barcelona
The Zona Franca in Barcelona Europe we were told).
We eventually found the Collbatalle warehouse, a big orange coloured
building, where we waited until our truck to pick up our bikes. After making sure our
beloved bikes were safe and tucked up in the back of the truck we bid them a
fond farewell we hailed two taxis who took us to the office where we collected
the keys for our pre-booked apartment ( C. Rocafort, ). After a quick wash, we had an excellent
dinner, and then to bed.
Tony relaxing on the train into Barcelona
Distance cycled: 76 km.
Elevation gain: 640 m.
Morning coffee: Castellbell.
Lunch: Abrera.
Stay: Apartment at C.
Rocafort, Barcelona ( 2 nights).
Dinner: El Rebost de Maria, Gran Via de les
Corts Catalans
Saturday 22, September 2012, day 7.
Barcelona,
Parc de Collserola
After breakfast in a smart cafe, we got 2 taxis to Terra diversions on C. Santa Tecla (www.terradiversions.com). We had pre-ordered our mountain bikes, which
were ready and waiting for us, and so
too was our guide. He took us out of Barcelona del
After a taxi ride back to the apartment, we had a
well-deserved lunch. A metro trip to
Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's Cathedral), where we had a look from the outside, and
another cafe stop, followed by a walk back in the general direction of our
hotel, via a number of tapas bars,
( restaurants Divinus on Passiege de
Gracia 28, was the best. We sat at the
counter where we could see the
behind-the-scenes preparation of the great
counter display of tapas). We
then attempted to walk back to the hotel, but got lost, and were tired, so we
resorted to two taxis. Dinner was in a nearby café/restaurant, where the main
entertainment was watching the televised
home game of Barcelona Seville
About to head off on our mountain biking experiance ,
We did'nt look so good on our return!!
Distance mountain biking: 37.67 km
Elevation gain: 977 m
Lunch : pavement table , nondescript
restaurant
Dinner :
tapas bars, and café restaurant.
My Summary ( Dave|)
A great trip and a new experience for all of us with the touring bikes and panniers .First time we had used large plastic bike bags for air transport and "Chinese " bags for our panniers , both very successful . The standard of Hotels and meals we had on this trip were not as good as on previous trips , this was because most of the really good accommodation and eating places were closed and would not be opening again until the Winter Skiing months. The weather was fantastic 27 - 32 C most days . The good will of the various Spanish people who helped us when we seemed to be a bit lost was exceptional , so much so that on our return we wrote a letter to the Spanish embassy in Dublin expressing our gratitude . One lesson we did learn was that we took far to much gear with us .Washing cycling gear each night , getting it dry overnight and then re-wearing it the next day is the only future option.
.So whats next ?? I would guess that it will be touring bikes and lighter panniers again and taking the train into very busy cities .
For those who like statistics
Barcelona 1 p.m.
A great trip and a new experience for all of us with the touring bikes and panniers .First time we had used large plastic bike bags for air transport and "Chinese " bags for our panniers , both very successful . The standard of Hotels and meals we had on this trip were not as good as on previous trips , this was because most of the really good accommodation and eating places were closed and would not be opening again until the Winter Skiing months. The weather was fantastic 27 - 32 C most days . The good will of the various Spanish people who helped us when we seemed to be a bit lost was exceptional , so much so that on our return we wrote a letter to the Spanish embassy in Dublin expressing our gratitude . One lesson we did learn was that we took far to much gear with us .Washing cycling gear each night , getting it dry overnight and then re-wearing it the next day is the only future option.
.So whats next ?? I would guess that it will be touring bikes and lighter panniers again and taking the train into very busy cities .
For those who like statistics
Distance cycled 504.38 km.
The time cycling, 31:25:13:: h:m:s
Elevation gain 6587 m.
Average speed, 16.1 km/hour
On Sunday morning, we were collected by
taxi at 8.30 to bring us to 
