Biking in Girona

This morning Quinncy and I went searching for the bike rental shop in Girona.  It was hidden in the labyrinth of streets in the medieval district.  The owner met us out front and he was from the UK!! No awkward spanish/english discussions.

I have to plug this bike shop, the owner, Dave and his wife [and 4 month old daughter] were great.  They provided us with bikes, maps, helmets, repair kit, and best of all, good advice.  Here is their website: http://www.gironacyclecentre.com/

The price was pretty good as well.  15 E each for the day. [around 40.00 dollars].

Quinncy and I started off the trip excited and full of breakfast and energy.  I knew from experience that this would be short lived.

The bike path system is excellent.  Only an idiot could get lost [which I did, twice].  The paths are sandy gravel and well maintained.  It was a 40 km bike to the mediterranean sea, which was not our objective for the day. [I would love to do this again on my own and bike to the sea, swim and lunch, and bike back,  Our goal was 20 km out, lunch, and back.  The topic of lunch was raised within the first 1/2 hour; and ever 5 minutes thereafter until we found a market where we bought a baguette, cheese, Pepsi, and fruit.  Quinncy is happy again and we are off!!

We got lost for about 20 minutes, which was unfortunate, as it we went uphill needlessly.  We committed the cardinal sin of hiking/biking, backtracking downhill.

We biked for another hour and took a Pepsi break.  I had a secret weapon [note the fine print]:

Unfortunately the "extra cafiena" did not have the desired effect.  The following took place 2 minutes after our break:

Fortunately, that meltdown was short-lived and soon we were back on the trail.  We came across an odd hillside with ruins all the way up, which is a little difficult to capture with the camera:

We also came across an old abandoned house:

We hit our 20 km goal and turned around to head back to Girona.  It seemed like it was down hill all the way home.  I promised Quinncy gelato when we got back, which was a great motivator.  He did not complain once on the way home.

Quinncy took a picture of me near the end [I had a glossy sheen from 3 applications of spray on sunscreen]:

We returned the bikes and went back to the apartment to pack for Nice.  We leave in the morning.