In Roses: day 3

November 7, 2024

This wasn’t actually supposed to be another day in Roses. We had booked ourselves for a three night stay here followed by another three night stay in Figueres, but yesterday’s reading of the weather tea leaves indicated that it would rain all day today but be fair tomorrow. Given this, we decided it would be smarter to stay a fourth night here and push out our stay in Figueres. We contacted both hosts, both were agreeable, and so here we are - staying a fourth night in Roses, and biking to Figueres tomorrow instead.

And, here we are. Yesterday’s forecast proved to be too pessimistic and this afternoon looks fine now - so we’d have been OK biking to Figueres today after all. And now, it’s tomorrow that looks to be wet. So it goes.

This morning is damp though, so we sit it out until noon and then walk up the beach a ways to an Italian place that looks attractive and take our seats at a covered outdoor table facing the sea. As we walk the roughly quarter mile we’re amused by a man walking the surf line on the sand, his phone in front of his face and appearing to be taking a walking selfie of his face with the sea and hills behind him. Ten minutes later when we arrive at the restaurant he’s still at it.

It’s a brooding sky across the bay as we walk to the restaurant. Conditions are supposed to lighten up in the afternoon, but we’ll see how it goes. The ride and walk we have planned may or may not happen.

La Sicilia turns out to be a fine choice, and is definitely Sicilian. We each enjoy the entree/main combo, a bargain at €15. We each start with a generous goat cheese salad and then follow it with robust mains - sea bass for Rachael, and penne pasta with ham and artichokes for me. We like the place and its obvious Sicilian connection. Now that we’re here I wish we’d have come on one of the previous days also.

Our menu comes with a map of Sicily and a photo taken from the sea of a coastal town backed by a massive rock. I take a silly enjoyment from looking at the perhaps 20 towns named on the map and realizing we’ve biked through or stayed in every one of them, with one exception: Patti, a place we had plans to stay in two years ago also - we were going to meet up with Racpat on their tour that began in Morocco until we cut short our third tour of Sicily because of my arrhythmia issues.

When our server brings us the mains I ask him about the town in the photograph and he instantly identifies it as Cefalú, a beautiful place we know well from having stayed there twice but have never seen from the sea.

After lunch we walk back to our apartment, I splitting off to follow the waterline on the beach and Rachael staying on the sidewalk because she’s not a real fan of walking on sand. I just enjoy my surroundings and don’t bother with a walking video of my face, so you’re stuck with just a few still images.

After lunch we walked separately back to the apartment because I wanted to walk on the sand and she doesn’t really care for that so much.

I was surprised at how close this young gull let me approach him and then noticed how odd his wings look. He wasn’t able to fly off, and I think his left wing must be broken.

I think I could be pretty happy in Roses. If we lived here I’d want to have a dog too.

The afternoon turns out fine, and there’s enough daylight left that there’s time for us to get out for a few hours. We both head west of town, with Rachael climbing up to the top of the ridge that rises steeply above it. It’s quite a striking ridge, rising perhaps 500’ in a short distance, its seaward slope white with homes climbing up its side. It looks like it would be a stunning place to live with a fabulous view across the gulf, but a terrible one if you depended on your bike to get you up there.

While she’s up on top, I take the bike and ride the low road west to the end of the pavement. It’s only 5 miles each way, but it’s quite varied, colorful, and challenging enough to feel like I’ve gotten a reasonable workout. It’s rollier the further west you go, with the end of the pavement dropping 16%. Fine on the way down, but then you just have to turn back.

Actually I had a more ambitious plan than this, thinking that after the pavement I’d test out the coastal walking route that RideWithGPS lets me follow in its biking mode. I figure I’ll bike it about a mile if it’s not too bad, far enough to get me out to Falcon Point. Unfortunately when I get there though I find there’s no there there any more, with the trail past the pavement barricaded off and looking like part of it must have slumped into the sea.

The sky gradually clouds over as I bike, and by the time I make it back to the apartment about a half hour before sundown they’ve filled the western sky enough that my hopes for a colorful sunset are squashed. It’s no matter though. The waterfront is still attractive and evocative at the end of the day, and it’s a thrill when the noisy trees above me suddenly erupt and eject a million house sparrows into the sky all at once.

Looking beyond the bay we see Trinitat Castle above the end of the next point.

Once you get away from town the shoreline becomes more rugged. I like this small, secluded cove. The swimmer has it all to himself, if you don’t count the cormorant floating nearby.

This piques the imagination. I wonder what the story is.

Shags again. After not seeing any for eight months now I’ve seen them twice in three days.

Cape leadwort (Plumbago auriculata), a native of South Africa.

The Roses lighthouse is located at Punta de la Poncella, near the shore and just below Trinita Castle.

The end of the pavement brings me here, where the coastal trail rises from the shore to meet it. I had been planning to bike along the trail here for bout a mile to Falcon point when I got here.

That won’t be happening though. The end of the road is now also the end of the trail.

Must have had some success at sea today.

This was lucky. The trees around me were loud with birds and I had the camera focused on one bird to see what they are (house sparrows) when this happened.

For awhile I was hopeful there’d be a sunset but the sky started filling in first. By the time I got back to the partment it was just starting to sprinkle.

She took the high road and I took the low road and she got to the apartment before me.

Heart

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Kelly IniguezI notice the last couple of days you've upped your RWGPS map skills - putting two actual activities together on one page. I've done that with routes, but not with rides. Woohoo for you!
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1 month ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezI don’t think you can do this with rides. I’ve been creating a route from one of the rides, and then extending it by changing the color and adding the second ride.
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1 month ago

Today's ride: 10 miles (16 km)
Total: 4,670 miles (7,516 km)

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Karen Poret300! Perfect! ( score in bowling, that is..) ;)
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1 month ago