A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
Beaune to Barcelona by bike
Since I was enjoying the recumbent so much I decided that cycling to Spain would be a good idea. I didn't have time to cycle all the way from England and so started at Beaune, just south of Dijon, in France. For two reasons: It was just over 1000km so I could do it in two weeks, and European Bike Express could take me and the bike there.
Date of event: 7/5/2009
On the way to Estagel
6.43am I'd just had one of those great descents over great, smooth, black tarmac - with just the right number of curves. I swear at one point the two large limos that were going in the other direction had a couple of Tour de France riders in being taken to the next stage - so if you read in the future of some top flight cyclists making the change to recumbents it won't surprise me a bit. It was fantastic.If you click on this photo you'll see a panoramic view of the valley floor as it stretched away from me.
Estagel
7.15am This was the view from the terrace of the café where I had my morning café au lait and ate the pain aux amandes that I'd bought from the boulangerie along the way.The painting on the building was still impressive and when it was done must have been more so.
Latour de France
7.42am I guess every cyclist must take this photo so that they can say they were in Latour de France.The main thing I remember about the town, other than the steep climb out, was the old guy I spoke to who was working in his field on the way into town. He spoke a happy mix of French, Catalan and Spanish - so it didn't phase him at all that I might slip in the occasional Spanish word. When I mentioned his way of talking he said: Oui, c'est tout mezclanger - even the word a mixture of the spanish mezclar and the french melanger.After 10 minutes of chat he signed off with: voy a travailler un poc; three languages in almost as many words.
Up to Bélesta
9.23am Getting to the first high point of the day's ride. In fact getting up to the high point had been a bit of a race.For day's I'd been seeing lycra clad racers flashing about, sometimes flashing past me. On this particular day I could a bright yellow jumper pedalling up the hill behind me and so I decided to just try a bit harder and make him work to overtake me.I thought the top of the hill was closer than it was and so 15 minutes later I was till managing to keep him at bay though I was tiring. Still worth the effort I thought.So I kept pedalling, trying to get a bit more space between us on the short, occasional, dips in the road. Eventually, very tired and sweaty I arrived first at the small village on the hill top where I had to stop to look at my map.A few minutes later an old guy on a beat up mountain bike cycled up the hill with his shopping... wearing a bright yellow t-shirt.