Wednesday, April 13, 2011

#375 Alpens to L'Avenc de Tavertet

We are back in Catalunya, this time for a week. The first day I rode 120km from Sabadell (nr Barcelona) to Alpens, it took seven and a half hours (a bit more than I planned). Met up with Sally, Carrie and Tom and on Sunday we had lunch in what looked to be a tiny local bar but had a big dining room hidden at the back. It was full with locals who must have known about the huge portions they serve.
















Alpens is a bit like the Alps, quite hilly with herds of cows carrying tinkling Swiss cow bells. The local blacksmith has a passion for dragons and nearly every house in the village has a dragon door handle - no reason, he just likes dragons and so does everyone else in Alpens it appears.

































On Tuesday Tom and I rode 58km over to L'Avenc de Tavertet where we stayed for the next four days in another casa rural (or gîte). This one had an amazing 25 metre indoor swimming pool, which I used frequently.














































Each day at L'Avenc we either rode rough-stuff biking or hiked round the rocky terrain with the house dog called Toffee . We didn't have to fear getting lost 'cos being a local dog - Toffee nose!