Day twenty six

 

Capmany campsite

I leave Capmany campsite just after 10:00. After saying how quiet it was in my last post I have to amend that comment. As is often the way when you say something positive about a place the next moment a negative experience occurs. I forgot to mention the canons firing intermittently through the night to scare away wildlife from crops. I had no problem with that as the firing was irregular and not so loud that it would wake you or make you jump. Last night however a campsite dog began howling like a wolf. Listening carefully I could hear a cacophony of dogs barking far away. It sounded like a riot in canine retreat. Meanwhile other dogs had joined in the chorus, some could be heard faintly many kilometers away and others were closer. This went on all through the night. Are they communicating with each other and if so what on earth are they saying!? Today I could even hear traffic noise which the wind must have been blowing towards us as yesterday there was complete silence.

I leave the Pyrenees and the seagulls behind me and head inland, although the mountains are still visible for most of the day. It's an up and down ride, pushing and freewheeling with speeds varying from 4kmh - 46kmh. The route to Girona is mostly on roads but a generous hard shoulder makes riding quite comfortable. Nearing Girona I search for a campsite but find nothing. Of the only two on Google one is temporarily closed and the other is closed on Saturdays. Although wild camping here would be relatively easy, I really do not feel up to the stress and opt for a cheap hotel again.

 Typical quiet country roads through Catalonia after heavy traffic on the main highways earlier in the morning. 

I find a reasonably priced hotel in the centre and eventually book it through Booking.com. I would liked to have camped south of Girona but maybe visiting the city was meant to be. I find the hotel despite Maps.me taking me on longer dirt trail route than Google map's road route, which I had been following. I changed simply because I find Maps.me easier to follow. The hotel is right in the centre so I park the bike against a lamppost on the pavement where throngs of city shoppers are walking. It's a high tech hotel and everything is done digitally by punching in numbers into a large machine that also takes credit cards and passports. It's all highly efficient. The young receptionist is unfazed by me and my bike and I wonder where to store the bike as the foyer is tiny. 

I point to the bike outside and she says it will go in the luggage room, up the lobby stairs, which are steep and narrow and then it will be taken by lift to the luggage room. I say it is really heavy. Take what you need she says and I will help. She does too! She is really hands on, ready to grab the front tyre, which is filthy after the last stretch. I say no, just push from behind and together we reach the first floor. Then the bike has to be up ended to fit into a two person lift. She must have done this before as she seems confident it can be done, unlike me. Sure enough I enter the lift with the bike's front wheel almost touching the ceiling panel. No room for the receptionist however who proceeds to operate the lift outside and we meet on the next floor where the bike is retrieved and squeezed into a tiny room where the door only just shuts behind the rear tyre. I am soon worn out climbing the stairs to retrieve stuff but finally escape to my room with it's digital entry code. Inside is all you need, aside from the usual things there is an iron with ironing board, fridge, TV with all manner of digital viewing, which I fail to master, a single bed and a safe. It is all clean, cosy, modern and a bargain being so central. I can even iron my newly washed, white shirt and venture out into Girona's nightlife, though after a shower I am more likely to crash into bed.

Maps.me chosen route to the hotel for the last 2 kilometers, it wasn't even a shortcut, it was almost 1km longer than the Google maps route.