There were two routes today: a route that was 35 kilometers (21 miles) and one that was 44 km (26 miles). It was another transit day so we had to pack up all our stuff to be transported to the next hotel where it would magically appear in our rooms at the new hotel.
We started from our hotel Castell d'Emporia and rode to L'Escala, on the Costa Brava. It was not our first view of the Mediterranean, but our hotel was right on the beach.
Here's a view from our room.
We stopped at Verges for a tour of a museum unique to this village. On Holy Thursday, villagers would dress up in black with white skeletons and parade around the town at midnight to help people overcome their fear of death.
Here's Itzy and the museum guide giving an explanation. He spoke in Spanish and Itzy translated.
Here's Andrea giving more explanation while we're out in the square.
Unfortunately, this bike shop was not open while we were in town.
We had a Spanish-style lunch (translation: big!) at a restaurant called Mas Pi. The selection of this restaurant was entirely serendipitous: the tour guides happened to run into the owner some time ago and he was so welcoming that they decided to make this the lunch stop. It was a fabulous, multi-course meal and we didn't much feel like getting back on bikes when we were done.
Here's Andrea and Itzy with the owner.
One of the dishes was sardines and they were delicious, not the heavily salted and preserved variety you might expect in the states. Both Andrea and Itzy showed us how they were supposed to be eaten. I managed to get Itzy while she was demonstrating.
About half the group took the longer route from here to the new hotel. It was a scenic route with more hills than any of the previous routes but by far the most enjoyable yet. We had to strong-arm Jaime into doing it with us and we were really glad we were able to convince him because he is one strong engine on the flats.
The last 10km were along a busy road but we stayed in a line and it passed fairly quickly.
We walked to a nearby town after the ride. Mike wasn't feeling well after lunch and we are really glad he didn't get sick during the afternoon ride. We found a place to sit and Mike thought he'd have a beer while we were having dinner. Surprisingly, he felt much better after a beer so he had another. While Jaime and I had a pretty normal dinner and normal dinner time (remember that the Spanish usually eat starting around 9pm), Mike stuck to a liquid dinner and felt much better by the end of the evening.
A nice French family sat next to us for most of the evening. They thought Mike was a celebrity. We assured them he was a nobody. They were convinced they had seen him on TV.
We stayed so long, the manager brought us complimentary flutes of cava. I finished mine a got quite a buzz. Here is the evidence.
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