Bike Ride - Day 2
Given how thoroughly I messed up yesterday's ride, which was short and on well-marked roads, today's ride held the potential for much disaster. But it went great. I rode from downtown Girona east to the Mediterranean.

This was done on a complex network of paved roads, gravel roads and paths that criss-cross this part of Spain and have been deemed somehow to be good for, how you say, ciclotourisme. And my goal here (planned in advance) was to ride through as many medieval towns as possible. Success on all counts, given the directions the bike rental place gave me coupled with the pretty good signs throughout the network.

This was my ride.

My ride started by going up and over Els Angels, which the locals here call a "hill." A couple of things to note here - 1. Girona is where the Tour de France cyclists train, and 2. Girona is real close to the Pyrenees. So yeah, to them, it's a "hill." But after seven miles of riding up this hill, which resulted in views like this, I thought, "Hill? I think not". And once I got to the top, I still had 30 miles to go.

                                                                                This was almost at the top of the "hill": Km 10. At the very top is an old monastery that I did not take the guided tour of.

There are no guardrails on Els Angels. Good thing nothing bad happened or I would have fallen 3,800 feet down to the bottom of the hill. Not to beat a dead horse, but if you're interested you can see actual athletes do this ride here.

Once I finished riding up the hill, I did get to visit quite a few medieval towns. To tell you the truth, they all look more or less the same but it was still a really nice bike ride.

     

These are two examples of how obvious, and how subtle, the bike path signs can be. It's like a treasure hunt.

And finally, a short video of some parts of the ride. Crops are all in, so the fields look a little empty.

I ended my day in Begur, which has what the realtors call "water views" rather than waterfront. I will be at waterfront in two days (after some more biking).

And from the top of the old Begur castle, I can see in the distance (I know this because there is a guide of the view) a tiny, tiny square on top of what looked like a small mountain, which is the monastery of Els Angels, where I did not stop for a tour this morning.