Girona was home to many North American professional cyclists in the late 1990s and 2000s including Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, and Tyler Hamilton. I'm not sure why. Of course, the weather is great, but Girona barely sits at the foothills of the Pyrenees. Its a decent drive to get to the real climbs.
Girona had a very large Jewish population until the Inquisition. I rode around the Jewish Quarter (see pictures below) today, which reminded me of Jerusalem's Old City (perhaps no surprise).
As for the Costa Brava, well, its very nice. I desperately wanted to jump in for a swim, but no one was there to watch my bici.
The day turned out to be much, much longer than expected. I was counting on ~110km, but I botched Google maps in my research last night. The actual distance today was 180km. That is a big difference. I was borderline bonking in the last hour (two cans of Coke to the rescue). And I was quite worried I would miss the last train back to Barcelona (especially because my Garmin ran out of batteries - after nearly 10 hrs. I needed the Garmin to find a small town called Sils where I planned to catch the train).
Anyway, everything turned out fine (worst-case scenario: hitchhike to Barcelona). I got home at 10pm after a 90 minute train ride during which I devoured 3 bottles of chocolate milk, a huge sandwich, and a muffin. Now I am diving into the ice-cream.
Here are some pictures from Girona and Costa Brava:
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| Girona's Jewish Quarter. |
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| Girona's colourful buildings on the river. |
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| Girona's main square. Good espresso here. |
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| Madremanya: a small village(?) about 20km east of Girona. |
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| I stopped at a truckstop for lunch. |
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| Begur. Note the castle in the top right of the picture. |
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| The Costa Brava is mostly a series of small coves. People tell me the water is freezing cold, even in August. That is hard to believe. |
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| Sa Tuna. |
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| Aigua Blava |
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| Aigua Blava. |
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| Tossa de Mar. |
Wow. Wow, and wow!
ReplyDeleteHistory lesson:
http://tinyurl.com/3oo2knd