Tour of the Pyrenees - PYT250C
A wonderful morning greets us on the coast of Spain. The temperature is pleasant and the first people are already playing volleyball on the beach. The first few minutes take us slowly out of the town, but then the road starts to wind nicely and stays that way for the rest of the day. Our first stop is the Abbey of Montserrat. We enjoy the view and look around a bit. The jagged rock formations are fascinating and reminiscent of the monasteries of Meteora in Greece. We continue on and have a wonderful descent into the hinterland, heading for Cardano and its 10th-century Gothic castle. Here we stop for lunch in the shade and enjoy the peace and quiet up here. The afternoon remains winding, but with more relaxed sweepers. A visit to the motorcycle museum in Bassella brings back memories of the first bikes. A very special place. From here, we take a very picturesque route to La Seu, where Marko welcomes us with all the latest information. A great first day!
Rest day already on day 2 of the tour - a great opportunity to explore the beautiful mountain ranges around La Seu. We left a bit later than usual, after a nice breakfast together with canoe teams from all over the world, as there is a canoe World Cup here on the weekend. But we prefer the mountains, and today we had five mountain passes on our route. Too many curves to count them - but when you add up pass roads, curves and Spanish food you end up with a magnificent day!
After two marvelous days in Spain, it was time to move on. Our first destination today was the Principality of Andorra, one of Europe's smallest countries. Twisty mountain roads led us up to about 8,000 ft before we started our descent to France, the third country on this tour. In Ax-les-Thermes we stopped for lunch. And then we rode the smallest road that we had been on so far, just wide enough for a car... Now we have reached Carcassonne, where we enjoyed our dinner with a view of La Cité, the medieval part of Carcassonne.
Today we take a short rest day ride from Carcassonne and head northeast towards the Col de Nore. Unfortunately, we can't see much as we are completely enveloped in clouds, so we decide to head straight back down and visit a small Boulangerie. After that, we head straight to Minerve, a cute little village next to one of France's many gorges. We enjoy some delicious galettes. From here, we take small roads past many vineyards back to Carcassonne, where we still have enough time to visit the old castle.
After two days in France, in the beautiful town of Carcassonne, it was time to turn back south towards Spain. The landscape is not quite as rugged as in Andorra, but it is still a motorcycle paradise, full of curves and amazing scenery. The highlights were the Gorges de Galamus and the hills around the Pic du Canigou. Climbing up to Mollo, where we will spend the night, we finally reached the 4th and 5th gears of our bikes, which we hadn't used all day:-)
A gorgeous morning greets us, fresh and clear. Finally, we can see something of the surroundings. The previous days had been somewhat cloudy, with fog in the mornings at these altitudes. We take it easy on our last day of driving, cruising leisurely to Beget and making a short photo stop. Then we continue out of the mountains and down to the coast. It becomes noticeably Mediterranean, and the color of the water leaves no doubt about that during lunch. Afterwards, we drive south along a wonderful coastal road and get the most out of our tires until we hit the highway to get past Barcelona and rush hour as quickly as possible. It was a wonderful last day!