September 5, 2022 to September 6, 2022
Travel day Montreal to Tossa
A big travel day: We left Montreal, flew to Barcelona, trained to Blanes and cycled to Tossa.
As this is a cycling blog, we'll start with the cycling portion of the day.
At long last we pulled into Blanes station, hauled the bikes down and then were presented with one more challenge: we knew enough to keep our train tickets to exit, but the one gate wide enough for loaded bicycles would not accept our tickets and open up. Try and try again, wait for the innumerable large ladies with masses of luggage going through the other way out to the train, try to catch the eye of the RENFE attendant who seems to be helping everyone else, and then, for no reason I can see, the gate suddenly accepts the ticket, turns green, opens up and Steven is out on the street. I turn around and see Ann starting the same process so I find a shady spot to wait.
To be honest, we were not looking forward to the ride to Tossa, at 32°C, all those hills, after a long flight, but in the end we were glad to have had a workout, albeit not too strenuous at only 19km and 270m of climbing. The route is quite nice with lovely coastal and mountain scenery, wide shoulders, not too much traffic and smooth pavement for most of the distance and the towns along the way busy enough with tourists to be interesting. It took much longer than we expected (we are not yet accustomed to hills and luggage) and so we will explore the town of Tossa tomorrow as tonight on arrival, we could barely focus on getting some food and settling in.
The flight over was fine, and while it is good for business that people are travelling again, we did miss the empty airports, planes and destinations that we now know were a special part of COVID times. However, we are glad to have learned about storing the bikes and gear at our last destination as travelling with only hand luggage is a breeze.
Having visited Barcelona in the Spring, we had decided to get right out of the city on the first day. Barcelona was HOT, but everything went according to plan: touchdown at 11:30am, train from airport to Sants station, find a small mobile phone shop and get our Spanish SIM cards recharged on the way to the storage locker, retrieve our bikes, change into shorts, cycle back to Sants to get the train to Blanes. We boarded at Sants at 3:30pm, only because it was close to the storage locker, but we were so glad to have started there where it was easy enough to get on with the bikes. At the next few stations, the train quickly filled and we were pressed into the back of the car by ever more people until I felt I was riding the Cairo metro! Somehow we thought the trip would take about 40 minutes, but it was almost two hours before we got to Blanes and could stretch our legs.
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| Heart | 7 | Comment | 2 | Link |
2 years ago
Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 20 km (12 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 9 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 10 |
2 years ago
2 years ago
We have not made firm plans as to our route and our final destination but will more or less follow the Eurovelo 1 initially. Sure nice to be part of this cycleblaze community to share our experiences! Safe riding!
Keith and Kathleen
2 years ago
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2 years ago
We look forward to reading your blog too, to see what routes you take. Yes having this community to share ideas and stories is great.
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2 years ago
Thanks for reading and commenting on our trip blogs. Having cycled many of the same areas, I am sure you will agree it is beautiful countryside. We too will be interested in a house exchange. Perhaps in France too or Italy. We shall see. It is a great way to make the trip interesting by spending more time in one place and more affordable.
2 years ago