I’m getting my shoes wet ….

Leaving Benicassim along the beaches, we pass a golf course hotel on our right then and see an arena on the left … it appears that the disused arena has been converted into a hotel … I found that impressive.  

Heading inland towards Castello de la Plana. An attractive city … a cathedral and octagonal bell tower stands in the square.  As always further on there were some very shady gardens.  The Spanish never cease to amaze … a lot of emphasis on gardens in this warm climate. 

Back towards the coast … my route took us towards the city centre of Borriana however I chose to go directly to the coast …WRONG!!! This way was very uninspiring we could not get close to the coast … where were the paved promenades that we are used to? 

Back on route through the green way was agricultural areas much more exciting than the coastal route.  However in front of us a possible leak in the irrigation and we were riding through water.

Only a few kms to our accommodation and onto the beach path … the paving became more colourful and inviting, a beach promenade, beachside cafes and the beach was quite popular.  That’s more like it!

The highlight of the day was meeting up with Ivan, who we had briefly met in Japan 3 years ago.  Ivan, from England has been travelling since then, now coming up to 3.5 years and he’s still bike touring.  He’s been to places far and wide through Covid times in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and more, now set homeward bound.

If you guestimate your ETA add 1- 2 hours …

Johnny had a spring in his step even before he got out of bed … Booking.com had offered some accommodation he had been looking at for 12€ a night. It was short lived; by the time we arrived in our hotel that afternoon, he had been notified there had been a mistake … round 2 … find some other accommodation.

Vinaros was very quiet as we left this morning at 9am … not far into our ride we were riding through market gardens … a field of artichokes on one side and tomatoes on the other. It wasn’t long before we were back down to the coast to Benicarlo. The beaches were lovely, walkers everywhere, great cycle paths.

A continuous beach for about 10km the hotels, apartment buildings and hotels became denser as we approached Peniscola, on the point is a castle. It’s 10am and the cafe’s are starting to do their pre clean before opening for the day. We ride part by the way along the castle wall … lovely views of the beaches and high rise accommodation.

Further around the point and more stunning views. Our route now takes us through the Serra d’Natural Parc. Wow factor in many ways … the hardened dirt road was challenging while navigating around small rocks and soft surface. It was very bumpy at times and we had to walk the bikes. Many mountain bikes we on the road, a perfect surface for wide tyres. The reward was at the crest of hills as the views along the coast were spectacular … a very rugged coastline. The park was very pretty, colours of yellow, pink and purple splatterings of flowers, the low shrubs in various shades of green. We were happy to see another tour cyclist, she was on her way to Switzerland. Further on we meet a guy from Holland who informs us there is a German couple very close. He asks how much further on this shitty road, we tell him 15km; his face fell! The German couple catch up and soon the guy from Holland takes of saying he has a long way to go today … very despondent at hearing he was only 3km into the rough road. The German couple were off to Greece eventually … away for 5 months. We all went our ways and we continued the last 3kms of rough road.

Back on the coast road again and lunch at Torriblanca; more nice coastline then back and forth on green ways. Some towns look almost forgotten … foundations of streets and cycleways little buildings, then around the next beach was Oropesa … my goodness a cut above … hotels, restaurants but where are the tourists… coming in July.

A disused rail trail lead us into Benicassim for the last 6km avoiding a decent hill. 3 cuts into the hills and 2 tunnels made the way easier to finish our 73km day with the weather heating up to around 30C.

I’m so happy, I haven’t seen an Australian for over 2 years …

No cycling required … a walk along the promenade … the beach has just had the tractor through so the sand is all smooth ready for the first sun lovers. It’s a bit hazy on the horizon, no breeze … looking good to be a perfect day if not a little warm until the breeze comes in.

The tourist office is open at 9.45am earlier than the advertised time of 10am … that suits us. The assistant was so excited that we were from Australia … ‘I haven’t seen any Australians for over 2 years’ she was very helpful and we walked away with maps of the local attractions and recommendations for the next days ahead.

Today couldn’t possibly be without the bikes all day … a short climb to a Catholic temple ‘Hermitage of Our Lady of Mercy’ notwithstanding it was sitting on the highest point of a hill A great cycle path all the way. With views of orange orchards, olive groves and market gardens. Although there was a bit of haze, the coast was visible. The return trip was a quick downhill.

Off to visit the bull ring, originally wooden … building started in 1863 and it was inaugurated in 1867; it’s last renovation was 2003 as it stands today. It is now used for events.

We have just about exhausted the tour maps of things to see, time for a swim at the beach, the water was cool, clean and refreshing.

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Sue: about the ride tomorrow … I don’t want to do those hills but Komoot says

The breakfast was buffet style and we overdid it again. Everything imaginable for breakfast.

6km into today’s ride and it was time to do a reconnaissance of the track before us … a hiking track yes but not for our tourers. The first obstacle was walking the bikes down over a crevice … John nearly lost himself and his bike. Then a rough hiking track towards a beach. Off came the panniers and we both carried the bikes over tree roots and the rough path. Panniers on and down the track to a road … there was no opportunity to take pics as we were both taken up with the lifting. The hard part is not over … a very steep hill which had to be walked up. We are happy that is over … it’s warming up today and only about 11am.

Soon were at a small fishing village … it’s a Monday there are not many people around … we are out of the tourist area and in low density housing … possibly holiday houses. Diverting away from the coast as we approach a very flat agricultural area. Phew!!!! the unforgettable smell of ‘dynamic lifter’ fills the air … sure enough there is a tractor spilling some sort of manure on a paddock. This area is known as the Ebro Delta (Ebro del Delta); we are riding through large sectioned areas some are dry some are filled with water … a bit like a rice paddy. Canals irrigate the paddocks. Closer to the coast it is a nature reserve. Given that we live in Ebro Way, we are interested in the name … Ebro is the English translation and Ebre is the Spanish … we are glad that is sorted … some confusion when searching on google.

We travel over the Rui Ebre (Ebro River) Bridge, a very narrow walking path … very tricky to navigate the fully laden bikes … we can’t look around … we may go into the side of the bridge rails..

Heading to the coast along a canal into a decent head wind … not nice. We reach the coast to find another marina, have a beer at a little beachside drink stop … the owner in his broken English gave us the impression that the beaches in Vinaros were ‘different’ … umm … had we made the right decision to stay there 2 nights?

Heading coastal: on the left beaches and on the right market gardens. An unfenced orange orchard … John is in his element taking some oranges that had fallen from the trees, the thought of getting a bargain ;). We were soon in Vinaros at our accommodation. The old town is beautiful and beaches lovely the promenade is super wide and very attractive. A G&T at a beachside bar was welcome.

A nice dinner alfresco style and walk around the attractive lit up streets.

You won’t get there if you keep taking photos ….

First up, on the road before we get to the coast, it is Sunday and the roads are quiet at 9am as we leave, in the distance we see some strange arrangements of metal structures … closer on we see it is an adventure park … it must opening soon as we see families head in that direction while we head to the beach. I take a pic of the deserted restaurants and stalls soon to be opening. An English couple tell me I’ll never get there if I keep taking photos … they are here for 3 days from London … they come a couple of times a year … it’s cheaper than going ‘down south’ why wouldn’t you.

The promenade is wide and the beaches have a scattering of beach goers baking in the morning sun. There are lots of street sellers with fully laden trolleys vying for their spot to set up their pavement stalls. From handbags, shoes, beach umbrellas to hairbraiding. We are lucky today it is early enough to avoid too many people … mainly joggers and walkers keeping to the walking path. We, on the other hand have a dedicated cycle path along side. We stop to get some air for my very very slow leak 0.50€ per tyre … tomorrow I won’t forget to check. John says it keeps getting better as we near to the mountains in the background.

1 hour on the beaches, a nice conversation with a German man also cycling it’s his place to be at least once a year. Then the road and green path along olives groves; a nice mix today, then on the road and a real miss mash of bumps and hilly … we leave the apartments for a while as a large stretch of national parks take up the coast a 2km climb (it was called a ‘Coll’ so I guess it’s classified as a mountain) then the suburbs of single storey housing. We ride through the fishing village before we are at our destination at 2.15pm … John got a good deal at a resort. Wow … I’m not sure what the reception staff thought when we rocked up looking bedraggled.

A shower then into the town a 20 min walk for lunch … tapas of grilled sardines, fried squid and patatas bravos.

The town is very quiet being a Sunday. There is more action at the resort … families and bus groups are checking in … 3 pools surrounded by sunbathers. I was determined to put my foot in the sea … so went for a swim in the hotels private beach then finished off in the pool.

A lovely relaxing afternoon … buffet dinner at the resort … we well and truly get our 17€ worth of the buffet.

It’s BINGO night 9.30pm we are in the bar area … all the oldies are grouped up at tables enjoying the commentary of the bingo caller … we were offered a ticket … he calls it out in Spanish … no chance. The crowd are going wild … heavens knows what is going on apart from number calling … haha.

Side note:

• There is no bad coffee in Spain … lovely coffee here
• The Aussie government must have done some serious work overseas; everyone we talk to know Australia is open and we were locked up for 2 and a half years …

When is lunch not lunch …

Very sad to leave Sitges this morning … it deserves more than a one night stay … breakfast at a local bakery. Leaving Sitges we head around a few hills away from the coast … garmin is talking to me today, it was a Bluetooth problem … along the back of town we see 8 paddel ball courts … it must be pennants day as all players appear to be warming up … then onto the green path; a nice break from the coast that lead us on backroads alongside vineyards and olive groves. One and a half hours later we eventually come to the beach … it is Saturday at 11.30am the beaches are filling up with sunbathers, kids playing racket ball, beach umbrellas speckled through the sand. As we get closer to the town centre the cafe’s and restaurants are getting ready for today’s trading. It’s getting busy as we weave through the walkers on the wide promenade … we get some funny looks … not sure if we are not welcome on bikes or we just look strange with our laden bike in this area.

The wide beaches are set up for beach volleyball, seniors playing bocce. It’s a family affair at the beach today.

Back on the green path and then on the main road for a while, John is getting hungry so made a quick decision and said ‘this corner’ at about 2.30pm … we saw a menu, ordered a beer each … it was going down well then we asked if we could order … ‘sorry no menu’. Ummm … off we go to somewhere else … some tapas – squid and patatas bravos … and a beer! Back on our bikes … 20km to go and hoping we didn’t fall off … some hills coming up and once again towards the coast for beautiful beaches and long promenades … I still haven’t got my feet wet. We are too far from the beach today but maybe tomorrow.

Strange what you eat on holidays … tonight a lovely pizza … the waiter was from Rome and very proud that we chose his favourite topping … also we were talked into a typical Italian dessert.

Cerveza por favor

A lovely night stay at the mountain … basic breakfast in the cafeteria included in our accommodation it opens at 8.30am. 

I was feeling a bit rubbish this morning… Johnny’s ghastly red wine he bought a bottle a few nights ago. It’s hard to get an early start; however it is fun ‘people watching’ the population has increased 10 fold in half an hour.  Crowds appearing from nowhere, individuals of all ages with walking sticks and backpacks … today’s clear skies prove a good day of hiking among the many trails the area provides. One young man had climbing ropes … eek I hope he knows what he’s doing. We took the train only 100m from our hostel (where should have finished yesterday) the views from the train were breathtaking much better than the chairlift.

We alighted at Martorell to ride to Sitges … we won’t talk about garmin. The ride was through industrial towns, however the centres were very leafy with manicured gardens and clean road … most of all very good cycleways. We were stop start as I navigated with my mobile in my handlebar bag.

We stopped for a very unhealthy lunch in Sant Boi … John order a beer, when a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice appeared his face was aghast, I on the other hand tried to hide the smile. Time to learn some Spanish … cerveza por favor (beer please) haha.

Travelling with only one water bottle which we are sharing today … John lost his … we came to the coast … lovely beaches then above us the cliffs … yes we have to go up there!

We were out of water and a beach bar insisted we couldn’t have tap water so 2€ later a 500ml of water was purchased … we pay less for a beer and bought a 1ltr from the supermarket for 0.65€ they saw us coming … I’ve been drinking tap water since I’ve been here. You have to laugh!

So up over the cliffs … it just gets better … views are breathtaking and we are able to stop intermittently to take pics and admire the views … 1.5 hrs later our hill climbing is over and we are in Sitges, the beach actually has some swimmers … our quaint hotel room is lovely small balcony overlooking the street but looking like a Chinese laundry at the moment.

Good news, John has called the bank and all is good the fraud has been stopped. It was done through Perth and other attempts had been made.

A lovely walk to the beach to see the sun setting … a beautiful evening strolling on the beachfront and to the church by the sea. It’s 9pm and the restaurant are just starting to get busy as we are looking for a place to eat. It’s Italian tonight a lovely seafood pasta.

What a lovely town this is … such a shame we leave tomorrow.

What a palava of a day!!

Well it probably started yesterday when we realised that our credit card had been compromised … thankfully we could alert the bank through their app.  However we have to contact them personally and don’t have Skype or mobile coveraage … we will work it out.

By 8.49am we were on the train to Barcelona … the train was even early. It goes through the coastal towns we rode last week. Be careful of early trains … at Arenys Mar there’s an announcement … not in English … people sigh … what I can gather is there is a 1 hour delay … we are lucky to have seats, our bikes are surrounded by young German girls in the bike area sitting between our bikes as the train is quite full. Just short of an hour and we are off. I did suggest just taking the bikes and riding for the next 40km … John was far from keen, it would have been nice.

We get to the Barcelona station and ride a short distance to Espanya station where we can catch the train to Montserrat; in the mean time we get some lunch at a place where we were last week at the Magica Fountains… the lady recognised us, the WiFi remembered me … am I a local?

On our way, accommodation is booked in Montserrat only 100m from the station. Ummm … which station … there are a few ‘Montserrat’ stations (I had previously asked John is there is anything i should to map on Komoot?) anyway we get out at the station at the start of the chairlift … no hotel in sight … up the road we ask someone ,,, he shows us on google maps a very windy road indicative of lots of climbing … shit … we are not going there!! We have to find somewhere with wifI. A small bar is nearby and we talk to some Scottish couples … we have never been so pleased when they said we could get the chairlift to the monastery and they have seen the hostel we were staying. John says he’s a life saver (more than that!!). So off we go on the chairlift with bikes …. only to find at the top . the train station … we should have gone to the next station.

We hit the road running …. went to the Basilica, caught the funicular railway went walking around and found the only place to eat was a fine dining restaurant aka pay heaps eats little …

The end of the story … John is taken back with our surrounds and having ‘a pinch yourself moment’. Haha he is gutted that his citibank card is not working or his bankwest so I am the finance officer as all my cards are working. Can he be responsible for the door key for the hotel??

What started as early only to find a 9.30am bus. We own this place now … so easy to get to the railway/bus station. There is a dual purpose cycleway under the rail line (on street level) just follow and we are there easily. The bus driver was a bit cranky as 4 bikes were coming. I hope our bikes make the trip on top of each other.

We are riding the northern section of the narrow gauge railway route 1 from the volcanic town of Olot to Girona.

Bikes made it okay and we ride to the volcano Montsacopa, apparently there are 4 volcano’s around the city. We climb on the path and end up having to walk the bikes. A young school group is there and John entertains the kids by telling them we are from Australia and talking about hopping like a kangaroo. The kids then started saying ‘hello’. The views from around the crater walking trail are spectacular. The school kids are busy running down the steps to the grassed area inside the volcano.

Back to the town to start the our return on the Green Way. The path is compacted dirt and is in very good condition. We chose to go this way as it is mainly down hill. 12km of slight uphill gradient, a few spikes then about 40km downhill. Free-wheeling for a lot. It’s 32°C and quite hot but the nature of this path delivers.

This must be one of the best rail trails I’ve ridden. We are surrounded by mountains. The trail leads us through agricultural areas but mostly we are in the shade of a canopy of trees or cliff faces as the track for the train would have cut through the hills, this is where the temperature plummets I’m sure by at least 10°C. We ride through some dense forest areas and constantly see sign posted tracks veering off for hikers. This is definitely a playground for the adventure seeker.

A little bumpy …

Very easy to get the train with the bikes today. Lifts at stations, plenty of room for the bikes and trains very clean indicative of our Spanish experience.

We are off on a route I found on the internet. Note to self … don’t expect the trains to run on time … 20 minutes late, however there were sooo many people coming off … the flower festival is the attraction no doubt, at least there was plenty of room for us.

Off the train and a ride to where we see a morning market … we see cherries … John hands over 2€ and we get a bag of cherries … the grower said that it is the first day of cherry sales … yeah!!! They are nice … his orchard is about 5km away.

The path is well sign posted however I have it mapped on my garmin. We pass through back paths and roads … at times rather rough and bumpy. ‘I hope it’s not all like this’.

We are amongst new corn crops, oats, potatoes, canola, apples probably more that I couldn’t identify. Here we are in the middle of the country, ahead we see the silhouette of the mountains … these are the Pyrennes.

Passing by a little town of Vilanova de la Muga .., don’t blink! We back tracked and found an intersection with a restaurant and Cafe. A few tables out the front some local senior gentleman having their wine and beer … about 4 ladies on bikes having coffee. John does the typical ‘bikie’ thing and moves a table under the shade. I’m sure we haven’t offended anyone. Coffee and pastry later we head back on the bumpy roads.

As we go further east the mountains become clearer, there appears to be snow on the far northern ranges. Our route is empty of other cyclists until we approach the outskirts of Roses. The hills are a mass of houses stretching to the top, how do they build them? Before we know it we come across an unexpected Citadel in Roses. The high walls attract us as we see people walking at the top. It was the home of the Greeks many years ago who founded this area. It was a relaxing stroll through the grounds; seeing the excavated areas and views from the wall were breathtaking.

The beach is only 100m away, the wide path and long beachfront is looking relaxed before a hectic peak season to come. It is easy cycling a few beach umbrellas and sunbathers. The town centre is also very quiet the odd bar is open … we have a panini at a Cafe amongst mostly closed shops … it is 2pm and shops have closed for siesta, due to open later in the afternoon.

John is taken back and claims it is his favourite place on the Costa Brava.

We leave to head back on our loop on the foreshore, some restaurants are open; a canal area called Empuriabrava looks very affluent as we cross over small bridges.

Back in to the rural area to find the medieval town of Castelló d’Empûries. We ride to the Basilica de Santa Maria high on the hill through quaint narrow alleys. It’s a short ride back through more rural areas to Figueres and onto the train.