Posts

Day Four in Girona - Figueres to Torrent - Biggest Cycling Day

Image
Thursday was technically our 3rd day of riding with our Duvine guides. But since Kyle and I had ridden by ourselves in Girona on Monday, I'm counting it as Day 4. This was a transition day, so it meant leaving our beautiful hotel in Peralata and riding all the way to our next hotel in Torrent. Though the morning ride was pretty leisurely, the ride after lunch was full of fast pace-lining and a great. The morning ride was stunningly beautiful as we rode through some beautiful countryside -- and it was the first day of really warm temperatures and clear skies! The morning ride to lunch was about 40 miles and the pace was very moderate as we had to navigate through some busy highways and follow Pierre, our guide on the bike for the day. After a fantastic lunch at a cozy restaurant in a small village, four of us decided to do an additional 30 miles with our guide, Pol. Pol had warned us that there would be a decent climb of a few miles about halfway through the afternoon ride. We follo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Three in Girona - Salvador Dali Museum Tour and First day of Duvine Cycling

Image
Wednesday morning we got up and went for a walk along the castle walls in Girona's Old Town. This was the day we were to meet up with our leaders from the Duvine Cycling company and we knew we would be sitting in a van for about an hour on the way to our first trip activity -- a tour of the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres. We had a private tour of the Salvatore Dali Museum, which was excellent. I wish I could remember the name of our guide. I did not know much about this artist, so I found it to be pretty surprising and interesting. After our tour of the Dali Museum, we got back in the vans and headed to our hotel for the next two nights in Peralada at the Hotel Peralada -- a gorgeous hotel and golf resort. It was raining off and on, so we only had time for a pretty short bike ride on this day -- a little under 20 miles total . . . 
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two in Girona - Post Bike Ride Lunch and Dinner

Image
After Kyle and I returned from our fantastic two and a half our 37 mile ride, it was time for lunch! Susan and I met up and headed out of our hotel and walked directly across the street to a restaurant that looked very promising -- we had walked past it a few times the day before and it looked popular and sophisticated. The restaurant was called ' Blanc ,' and it seemed to be very popular with the locals. After a salad and some of the traditional Catalunyan Croquettes, we had a traditional dish that is well know here in this region called 'Arroz Negro' or 'Black Rice.' When the dish arrived, we couldn't believe how black it actually was and we were told this was all from squid ink. It was delicious. Here are some of the photos from Blanc: After lunch we went for another walk around the time and . . . of course . . . it wasn't long until it was dinner time! We met up with our group in the Old Town and will have to fill in the name of that place later as I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two in Girona -- Part One - The Rest of the Group Assembles and Palmer & Kyle Get in a 'Warmup Ride'

Image
On Monday, May 21st Palmer headed over to the local bike rental store to meet up with Kyle for a morning bike ride. As we walked over to the local bike store, which is appropriately called " Eat, Sleep, Cycle ," there were cyclists EVERYWHERE. Though it had rained a bit the night before, it was warm and sunny and perfect weather for a ride. We had reserved our rental bikes about 2 months ago, so all we had to do was show up, get our bikes and helmets and make sure the seats were the right height. It all went very smoothly and by 10 am we headed out of Girona for the countryside and foothills to the west. One of the smartest things this bike store did was to have a 'Wall of Routes' that we could choose from. We found a 37 mile ride and downloaded the 'Ride With GPS' mobile app and off we went. It was great to have the app giving us directions through the phone speaker for the whole ride. Though we had a little trouble finding our way out of the old town -- even...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day One in Girona - A 'Buffer Day' Before we Meet up with our Group

Image
After 3 days in Barcelona, we headed for Girona to begin the cycling portion of our trip. We left Barcelona on Sunday morning by Taxi and arrived in Girona in the early afternoon. We checked into our hotel, the Hotel Nord 1901 and took a walk around the town to get the blood flowing and shake off any remnants of jet lag. The Old Town in Girona is busy and charming. Our group began arriving later that afternoon and we all gathered at a wonderful restaurant right near our friends' hotel called SinoFos . The food and the wine at this restaurant were absolutely top notch. There were 9 of us for dinner that night and we included a friend from outside our group, the infamous 'Bruno,' who is a childhood friend of Will Fratt.
Post a Comment
Read more