I had a good sleep and left the former convent early and headed towards Andorra. I had no expectations of this country, had heard both good and bad. The road was scenic all along the way and I was enjoying myself even if I did feel very tired still. I contemplated all the beauty I had seen as I rode yet another stretch of mountain road. The weather was perfect, cloudy with sprinkles of rain that kept the temperature down comfortably but without letting the road get wet and slippery.
Just after finishing a thought about getting tired of beautiful landscape I entered Andorra, and what I saw was ugliness. It passed quickly though. The architecture of Andorra and also the Spanish part of the Pyrinees is distinctive from what I had seen before and it appeals to me in a modern but picturesque way.
I stayed in La Massana which is a mountain village and arrived at the hotel utterly tired but managed to go for a scenic walk and have dinner before hitting bed and sleeping for 12 hours. I did notice a few things about Andorra. First, petrol is very cheap, at least compared to France, and there were petrol stations everywhere – even on top of the mountain pass. Second, it is the place for all kinds of adventure stuff: climbing, downhill mountain biking etc. And third, it is a paradise for shopping.
The day that was to be my last I woke up tired but that was sorted with breakfast and the purchase of a new helmet roughly 40% cheaper than in Madrid. Then I headed out for another 200 kilometres Pyrinean mountain road riding. When, at 2’o clock, I still felt perky and relaxed I decided to give Zaragoza a miss and just head home. I felt that I had done my travelling for this time and that it would be nice to just get home to my fiancé and relax.
The ride was slightly longer than I thought but I managed to push on quite well when I left the mountains and I arrived in Madrid in the evening. I had done 670 kilometres and every bit of me ached. That is as much of an iron butt ride as I’m willing to do. I have no aspiration of taking on that challenge.
Now I’m going to rest, wash the bike and leave it at the garage for the scheduled service. I will be back with reflections of the ride, the bike and the rest.
5540 km quite impressive on 20 days?, if not ironbutt at least iron lady.
Thank you, it was 21 days, but 4 of them non riding 🙂
I do like to think of myself as an iron lady though 😀