A BIKE RIDE THROUGH SPAIN; MY FIRST DAYS

Travelling is to be enjoyed and not endured. I am now with my cycling friend, Dagmar, from Germany who I meet up each year for a 2 week journey to somewhere new. This year we are on a tour cycling from Perpignan on the Mediterranean Sea to Hendaye on the Atlantic. We always try to find quiet roads away from traffic and don't mind dirt roads. These are easy to find with Dagmar.

We are now in Figueres, a delightful ancient town in Catalonia and birthplace of Salvador Dali, the artist.
I have cycled just 97 miles and the rest was by ferry and train. Here is a quick guide for making an otherwise dull journey from England to Spain both interesting and cheap.
An overnight ferry from Plymouth sailed to Roscoff in Brittany arriving at 09.30. This allowed enough time for a mini cycling tour of Brittany to Morlaix where a TGV train whisked me to Paris on the same evening. A 3 mile bike ride along a segregated bus/bike lane took me from Gare Mont-parnasse to Gare d'Austerlitz where I boarded a night sleeper train to Perpignan. The cost was £110 including the sleeper birth on the train. My arrival found me invigorated and ready to go. When Dagmar joined me 6 hours later, I had made a mini tour of Perpignan.
Having devoured a delicious sandwich each, we made an afternoon trip along some of coastal scenery beside the Med.

It was easy to see why the Med is so popular. The beaches stretch for miles, it is warm and cafes abound.  Our first night was at Collioure, noted for its scenic qualities at the foot of Pyrenees, castles, artists and possibly because 39" of snow fell on 21 January 1870.

Today was our first full day and we made tourist's progress so went very slow stopping to take in the views and climb some hills. Dagmar's blog can be seen here.

These are more images from today