Day 64 - Girona to Sant Feliu de Guixols - Gorging in France ...Then Basquing in the Pyrenees - 2023

June 20, 2023

Day 64 - Girona to Sant Feliu de Guixols

Our Friend Zeno

We are on the move again, but just. From now until we get home, this is going to feel like one Zeno’s paradoxes …. Each day will seem like we are covering half of the remaining distance to Barcelona, 44 km today, 22 km the next day, then 11, then 5.5 and so on …. the result of continuing that series mathematically is that we will never get there!

Well Zeno was a clever guy and liked to argue, but he wasn’t right . We will get there, it will just take time.

The first challenge we had today though, one that might truly have resulted in having us stuck in one place forever, was getting our Tout’s down from our first floor apartment.

We have a short picture display of what this entailed, and we were aided by the fact that we got the bikes up there, so we were able to deconstruct that process and rework it to get them down. It took some time and a few in-flight changes, but the bikes did end up on the street and no body parts, or bike parts, were damaged!

Our check out wasn’t until noon and we had a short day in front of us, so we slept in a bit and then went and had a really good, and large ‘brunch’ at a ‘bike focused cafe’, yes they have these in Girona, believe it or not!

With that out of the way we got the bikes back to ground level, packed up and we bid Girona adieu. It was a nice break and it is a pretty lively town with lots to do … recommended for anyone on a tour to spend some time here.

Our route today was pretty much on the Vias Verde 2 dedicated bike route south all the way to Sant Feliu. Most of this route is a converted rail trail with hard packed fine crushed gravel with a few sections paved and a few sections of gravel road. We had a few navigational errors where we ended up on different designated bike routes, thinking they were the Rail trail only to find out they were shoulders of busy straight highways, but these were easily corrected.

So, 44 km’s of nice easy slightly downhill but hot and humid biking with several interesting trail side works of art to keep us amused, brought us into Sant Feliu, a quite nice Costa Brava resort. We got checked into our nice small hotel, Hostal Chic, had our post ride bevy (and some sushi rolls - the hotel has a Japanese restaurant attached) and then hit the beach. K went for a swim while prairie boy sat on the beach and watched.

Dinner tonight was at a beachside Italian place. We booked a table when we were passing by to the beach, and that was a good thing. Tourist season is definitely starting to be in full swing here. It’s not super crowded, but on a Tuesday night, most restaurants were full and without a booking, you were left to wander the streets. We’ve been there, and it’s not pretty. The dinner was good, but this was one of those places that was ‘over reaching’ - trying to go for something creative / innovative but lacking the skill or vision to really pull it off (my god, I’m sounding like one of the cooking show judges so I’ll stop there). As a result, you’re saved from the ‘Instagram’ feed of our dinner.

We’re spending another day here tomorrow and then it’s on to Blanes, then Mataró where we’ll catch the train into Barcelona. A couple of more days with that Zeno fellow coming up.

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SOTD - Bad Habits, Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite.

When we pulled into Sant Feliu we saw street light banners and posters everywhere promoting the 61st Porta Ferrara, a music festival thats been running in Sant Feliu since 1958. It starts on 30th June and runs through 20th August. Many of the artists being featured we didn’t recognize but there were a few we’d like to stick around and see, one of them being Ben Harper. Unfortunately, we have to continue on our way and fly back home before the festival starts, but Ben gets SOTD today as a little thought of what could have been.

The ride started with a Tetris game. The bikes were held vertically on the tile floor just visible on the right, then pivoted 180° to face down the stairs. They then had to be dropped front tire first down the stairs to clear the ceiling on the stairwell, being held from behind by the rack.

Pure luck that our bars are only 59 cm across … the narrowest part of the stairwell was 60 cm.

But they made it down and we were on our way! So long Girona, its been fun!

One last look at Girona, the old town on the right, the newer town on the left … both full of great cafes, restaurants and roadie bike shops!

Dedicated rail trail for most of the way, and no real climbs to speak of.

Some great bike themed sculptures along the way too.

The rail trail that we were on used to be a railroad that transported cork from the Girona / Cassa de la Selva area to Sant Feliu for processing and export. Here’s a not so subtle reminder of that history

Some more of the nice easy riding we had today

Most of the riding was pretty rural and we’d pass by the outskirts of a few towns like Llagostera with this impressive church

In Sant Feliu after checking into the cute and friendly Hostal Chic. Great sushi for a late lunch!

And then a dip in the Med for half of the team

That’s a wrap for today. Two more (short) days of cycling … but several more of gorging (the food in Spain is superb). Stay tuned

Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 2,711 km (1,684 miles)

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Scott Anderson44, 22, 11. I know what you’re doing! Good plan!
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1 year ago

Lyle McLeodTo Scott AndersonAnd I know what you’re thinking. Unfortunately I’m not that clever to have figured that out before I wrote all that stuff about Zeno! It would have been perfect (Zeno wise) to go to Tossa today (~22), Loretta de Mar tomorrow (~11) and Blanes on Saturday (~7). We made and paid for bookings in Blanes today and then Marato tomorrow where we’ll end the riding part of the trip. When I saw your comment this morning the penny dropped on what we should have done but I couldn’t convince K to eat the cost of the hotel rooms and rebook as per the above to get the perfect Zeno sequence! Regardless, beautiful riding along the coast between Sant Feliu and Tossa de Mar. It got a little busy on the roads after that.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Lyle McLeodYou’re right, that’s exactly what I assumed. Just as well - Tossa is highly overrated. Just another stunning seaside castle town. You’ve seen those. Probably crazy with tourists this time of year anyway.
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1 year ago