Bonjour!

Kilometers cycled so far: 5848

You may notice that I'm sending this edition from my new email address (don't ask!), so please update your address books.

Barcelona:

Hours after sending the last email I had my biggest scare of my trip so far... A crew of us from the hostel were walking to the next pub and I had my pocket picked. Luckily, one of the guys from the hostel was more alert than me and grabbed the guy and got my wallet back. So that was my close shave for this month and hoping they won't get much closer...

The next day I went for a day trip to Figueres, about 1.5 hours by train, to visit the Dali museum. This has to be one the most unique museums I've ever visited (or will visit). Dali was certainly a strange fella, but it very enjoyable, despite being packed.

Then it was the weekend and Joerg (a German mate) who came down to join me for an alcohol fueled weekend. One memorable highlight was finding a place that served the Cava (the local equivalent of champagne) and bratwurst sangas for breakfast, great hangover food. Also, we went and saw Barcelona FC v Espanyol. This was the first soccer game I've been to and I did it in style in the biggest stadium in Europe, the Nou Camp! From here I headed in pretty much a straight line north.

Andorra:

Where Europe comes to shop (tax free)! It's difficult to get a photo in Andorra le Vella without it containing a crane or construction work. But seriously, it's a pretty cool feeling to be at 1000 meters above sea level and still be surrounded by mountains. I met a couple of English cycle tourers in the campsite, the boys also had their rock climbing gear with them (talk about keen). It rained for a couple of days, so I had no problem hanging around for some more english conversation and beer drinking.

Southern France:

The road from Andorra to France has one of the highest mountain passes in the Pyrenees (Port d'Envalira at 2408m). I decided to also have a hangover to make it interesting. And if that wasn't enough a bolt holding my seat snapped about half a k before the top! There was loads of snow at the top and the view made it all worth while.

From here I took a bit of a detour west along the Pyrenees to take on some of the famous Tour de France hill climbs: Col de Port (1250m), Col du Portet d'Aspet (1069m) and Col d'Aspin (1304m). I fortunately had fantastic spring days for all these which made them all enjoyable (Thanks Phil for the route plan).

From here it headed to north-east to Montauban where I stayed with a friend I met over the internet. Fanny was an awesome hostess and I tagged along for a family get together at an amusement park which was wicked (despite the language barrier). Then it was on to Figeac where great hospitality continued and I stayed with the Nott family. The Nott's made me feel extremely welcome and it was great to again have some english conversation. Thanks Tim, Peggy, Henry, Ella and Rosey for putting up with me (and again to the Hetherington and Kirby connection for hooking it up). Staying all these kind people has given me a renewed enthusiasm, so I can't say thanks enough.

Then I headed south east via the magnificent forests along the Lot and Tarn rivers to Nīmes. Nīmes was my chance to do the tourist thing this month with a visit to a well preserved Roman temple and arena which are the center pieces of the city. Then it was on to Marseille, but it would have been easy to spend a couple more days in the area to check out Montpellier and Avignon (but you can't do everything....).

Well, that's about it for this month. Tomorrow I'm catching a ferry to Corsica and then it's on to Sardinia, Sicily and Italy.

Cheers,
Rob.


Copyright, Robert Lowe 2002.