July 20th - Boltana, Spain - Leisure Day

Today was a relaxing day for me.  A number of people booked the rafting trip today and were gone first thing to enjoy their adventure.  Some took their bikes into a town for shopping or for lunch.  I decided to take off by myself and travel for part of the day exploring.

The weather was beautiful as I headed out sightseeing on the bike.  I traveled probably 50 km one way going through the tunnels into a small village where I was able to find a bite for lunch.  I filled up the bike before returning and gave the bike a good wash at the car wash.  All the marks that I thought might not come off came off and the bike was sparkling clean.  So nice to see after so many days of dust and grime.  That is not what my bike is used to on the road as usually it gets cleaned off most days.

I then return to the hotel for a nice relaxing swim.  Well not too relaxing as I played with Anton in the pool which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The two of us at one time had about four or five people trying to keep the ball up in the air and also played monkey in the middle.

Tonight I just had supper at the hotel with a few of the group and then headed for an early to bed after so much sun.  We head off to our last stop Bilbao, Spain.  Hard to believe it is coming to an end.

July 19th - Boltana, Spain

Today was a leisure day or organized rides to enjoy the sights of Spain.

However I decided to go on the ride out today and boy what a ride it was.  Davey was our fearlous leader and we all started out great following Davey no matter where he took us.  Through some nice little villages in the mountains and then one wrong turn took us down a cow path through gravel.  Did I say gravel - what I meant was small boulders.  LOL - not quite but it seemed like it.



Some of the riders just kept going and going well
I decided at the top of this hill I was going to wait it out to see if they would head back up and so did a few others.  Marc was the sweeper in the group who turns out was a motocross biker at one time.  I told them I was going to try the hill and started out but quickly decided it was just a little too much for me - too short LOL.  So Marc came along and took my bike and did he drive it - wow!!  Then he runs back up the hill and takes two or three more down the hill and runs back up again.  It was probably close to 100 degrees out.  I had a hard time walking down the damn hill in biker boots as it was so rough.  Three of us girls helped guide Joe down with his bike as he was taking it slow as we walked beside him hoping he didn't tip it over.  Once we were all together again we had a good laugh and away we went again - memories are the best.  I won't soon forget that trek.  Davey did an amazing job guiding us back to the hotel where most of us went and changed and jumped in the pool for a relaxing swim.



Everyone had quite the adventure to tell each other that night at the party.  We took our group photo here as well.  There was free beer at supper and music playing on the rooftop of this monastery.  WOW we had fun and then we had to shut down around 10:00 as there were families staying there and we were getting rather loud.  So we played our favourite as the last song - "Alice - who the fuck is Alice".

July 18th - Carcassonne, France to Boltana, Spain - 338 km

I have decided I am going to try to finish my blog!!  Not sure if I remember everything as this is one of the reasons why I try to do it on the road each night so I don't forget.  I have my 2018 EPR Tour Book and my pictures to try to remember everything.






Interesting route as we headed out as we passed through a place called Montreal!!  Yes you saw correctly.  On the road we could see the medieval Castle of Foix that dominates the roofs of the old town.





We travelled through the middle of the Pyrenees mountains criss-crossing the French and Spanish border.  The roads were amazing as we drove the tree lined roads in the middle of sunflower fields.  The shade was much appreciated as it was starting to get hot as the day went on.  I also really appreciated riding in front of Corina as her bike was so loud.  Such an awesome bike but really loud.  We passed a sign for a golf course and I thought of Paul back home probably enjoying all the golfing he was doing while I am away.





Some of the small towns that we travelled through had nice colourful window boxes and vines growing on the sides of their homes.  Very old and quaint.  On the way to Boltana one of the bikes broke down and we waited on the side of the road for quite awhile and had to find some shade as it was starting to get very hot.

Once back on the road we headed into the mountains and travelled through a number of tunnels.  It was so amazing at how cool the tunnels were - almost too cold but very refreshing for sure.





We arrived to our beautiful hotel which used to be a monastery.  WOW is all I can say!  It was called Monasterio de Boltana and if you ever even get a chance to stop and see it please do so.  It is worth the look.  Our meal was as usual amazing.  Once our bellies were full it did not take long to head to bed for to await another amazing day tomorrow of more riding around the area and perhaps some down time by the pool.