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Wednesday, May 1 – Barcelona to Figueres, 2853 km
There’s a Salvador Dali museum in Figueres, Dali’s hometown, which interests Mike. It is 40 km past Girona, which in itself is about 100 km away, but he wants to go for it anyway. It will be a hard day. It is also overcast and threatening rain.
We have a good start, leaving at 9:45am. We follow the main street, Gran Via, north-east out of the city. It takes quite a while to get beyond this city the size of Montreal, especially since the suburbs sprawl in the same direction along the coast. Our route soon becomes as expressway. This does nothing to improve Mike’s mood, which has been rather foul since he got up this morning. It isn’t enough that he chose this route without negotiating with me, given that he has all our money and I therefore have no choice.
I keep him in sight but let him get a bit ahead of me so he can ride on his own. Our road leaves us through a string of towns – Badalona, Manou, Premia, Villasar, Mataro, Caldes and a few more ending in “de Mar”. We achieve 43 km by noon and another 17 before we reach Malgrat de Mar and the turning point where our road heads inland towards the city of Girona. There have been a few long hills but they haven’t been that steep so far. The road to Girona climbs slowly. We hustle as fast as we can to keep ahead of the weather and to cover as much ground as we can before dark. There isn't much time we can spend on breaks or taking photos. It isn't the best day for photography anyway. It has drizzled on and off throughout the day but more frequently as the afternoon wears on. It has been cool because of the cloud and drizzle. I have been wearing my sweater since we began this morning.
We reach Girona at 3. A hard rain shower drives me to take refuge under a pedestrian underpass. I see Mike in the distance continuing on without me. I don my long cycling tights and a rain shell over my sweater before setting out to catch up with him.
The rain soon stops but the spray from passing traffic continues. Beyond Girona, the road climbs more seriously to overcome a ridge, before falling again to the plain that Figueres is on. It is as flat as a lake, but there is a headwind from the north-east. The Pyrenees must be close but they are hidden in the low clouds. I meet Mike on the outskirts of town and we ride in together. It is sometime after 5:30pm and the daylight is fading. It hasn’t been a scenic or enjoyable day of riding but we have covered 140 km, our second longest day of riding ever. Figueres is not large or beautiful. It’s first most notable feature is its horrendous traffic, which must be the result of incompetent planning as it is almost choked to a halt in spite of its size.
The first two pensions reject us because we have bikes. We find a third that is more receptive and cheaper. Sweet revenge. I am exhausted and sleep for two hours while Mike explores the town. I wake when he comes in. We eat dinner in our room from the bread and cheese in our panniers. Spartacus says there is a surprisingly popular sauna in town but it neglects to mention its name or location. It’s such a useless guide, but tonight I don’t care. I’d probably begin to molt if I got more steam at this point. I want to lay low in May and avoid gay bathhouses. I feel the need to focus on peoples’ personalities instead of their anatomies. PHOTO 1: church of Sant Pere in Mataro
PHOTO 2: Girona
PHOTO 3: Placa in Figueres
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