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Our Route: Since we last checked in, we have stayed in: Toulouse |
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Toulouse We arrived at 11:30 and had a place to stay in the center of town by midnight. It´s a great city, and has the feel of Berkeley´s Telegraph Avenue during its better days. It would have been easy to hang out there for a couple of weeks.
We enjoyed a nice ride through the French farmlands, and landed in this small town. We found a campsite that turned out to be closed, and did our first "illegal" camping. We spend the evening drinking wine and watching a rugby game near the campsite. The next day, we spent 2 1/2 hours drinking coffee watching it rain, then we went next door and spent 2 1/2 hours eating lunch and watching it rain. Lunch was great, we had the famous Cassolet that originated in Castelnaudary, and bears no resemblance to the horrible concoctions adapted as casseroles in the U.S. It is a rich white bean stew with duck, sausage, and chicken. Especially good on rainy days. The other thing that we noticed was that the language changed dramatically, with the locals speaking French with a Catalonian twist. More difficult to communicate, but we found food and shelter.
French Coast At Leucate Plage, it wasn´t raining, but we encountered huge winds. The town was mostly boarded up and deserted since the tourist season hadn´t started, and the high winds and pouning surf reminded us of the newscasts that you see of towns before a hurricane hits. This is where Maria envoked her all to frequent mantra of "nice _________, (town, castle, beach, plaza, etc.) it must be beautiful when its not raining". After 2 days we left and rode all day into a headwind that didn´t blow, just sucked! This part of the coast has mile after mile of empty high rise condos waiting for the summer crowds who disco all night and sleep on the beach all day. As we approached the Spanish border, the towns got nicer and the countryside prettier. Collieure We reached Collieure just north of the Spanish border, an oasis. We stayed in a hotel right on the small town harbor looking over at the town castle. We holed up for an extra day with the biggest decision being where to read our books, on the beach or the hotel´s terrace. These are good dilemas to have. As usual when we get to a good spot Maria didn´t want to leave. Spain Crossing the border was a non event except for crossing a huge hill. We spent the first night in a hostel on the beach, and had our first Paella looking out over the beach served by snooty, wanna-be French waiters. It rained again, but is was much warmer, a definite improvement. Figueres We went inland a bit, and stayed here in the home of the great Dali museum. Great wierdness! Unbeknownst to us it was also the week of the annual festival of the sacred heart, with lots of festivities going on, including the famous human pyramids. It´s nice to be at the right place at the right time.
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Med Work After a few more days of intermitant rain, we reached sun and a great beach town Tossa de Mar at the same time. On the way there, we even had a great lunch sitting on a traffic island looking up at a castle on the hill. The passing traffic had a great time looking at us. This part of the Costa Brava is spectacular, remininescent of the northern California coast. Tossa is a resort town with mediocre food, but a great castle right on the beach. We spend lazy days on the beach, and even got sunburned. As usual, Maria didn´t want to leave.
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Barcelona We´re staying right off of the Rambles in the heart of the old town. It´s an incredibly lively city, teaming with people day and night. It seems like it never shuts down, as is true of the guy in the room next to us. We toured the city by bike, and saw the Olympic stadium, and the gaudy Gaudi´cathedral of the sacred family still under construction after 100 plus years. One of us went to a bullfight (so politically incorrect) the day we arrived. Even bloodier than expected. Had the first serious attempt at separating Jim from his bellybag. Two women approached and asked for change. As one held out a piece of cardboard the other tried to fish under it where Jim´s bag was. A few quick arm swings while shouting expletives got rid of them quickly. At least they didn´t use the "throw the baby" tactic. Great weather all week!!! Leaving for London on 5/14. Till our next update, Adios |
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