events

Thurs, 28th July.  Maçanet de Cabreny's to Roses: 54km, avg 19.8km/hr, max 58.6km/hr

After three day's of rest and food I decided to press on to Roses.  I naturally prefer to take quiet back roads but now I had another additional reason so to do: bike helmets are now compulsory in Spain and I don't have one.  I actually think they're dangerous but decide, if I'm stopped by the police to just talk in English and pretend I know nothing.

This is the reservoir just south of Darnius and just west of Boadella.  It was a nice ride, I took a few wrong turns, mainly near Roses, trying to avoid the main road and use some cycle paths that weren't that well signed.

If you're intested here is a map of the route.

I just skirted the edge of Peralada, which had far more Mercedes and BMW that would be normal, but there was a festival on with lots of very famous names performing over several nights.

Little chance of meeting any police down this road.  I had seen a couple of patrol cars, Mossos d'Esquadra I think the police are called in Catalunya but they hadn't come after me with sirens blaring.

I'd eaten in this restaurant before, it's called the Rocfort and it's one of the best places to eat in Roses, at least for a midday meal.  It's also good at night but they don't do half portions of their tapas so eating alone is more tricky, you can't have smaller portions of more things.  It's also much more full of tourists eating paella as an evening meal!  Which, you might know, just isn't the done thing.

I ordered their superb Suquet de Peix, fish stew.  I was starving but there was no way I could eat it all.  I had a couple of large bowls and still had half left, so I asked if they could keep it for me and I'd go back to finish it that evening.  Such cheek.  They were happy to do that and so that's what I did.

In fact I was in Roses for three day's, and ate at the Rocfort five times!  The missing sixth time I ate a place just around the corner from the place I stayed.  A restaurant called Antonios, and it was fantastic for evening tapas.  I could order half portions which meant I could try lots of things.  Pity I didn't find it earlier.

The place I stayed is worth mentioning too since that was also wonderful.  Cheap, very, very friendly and they garaged my bike and did my washing at no charge.  It was called the Hostal Rom.