July 24 Olot SPAIN to Girona SPAIN 62 K / 38 Miles

Today was, you guessed it, another beautiful day. Perfectly blue skies and warm. Today I was rewarded for all my climbing efforts the past 3 days with a mostly downhill run to Girona. I am approaching the Mediterranean Sea from the high mountains so it should be down, right? I´ve planted myself at the International Youth Hostel in the Old Town part of Girona. Tomorrow I´ll be like any other tourist and stroll the famous old streets, and walk the old town wall. It just happens that tomorrow, Friday July 25 (one month since I cycled away from London), is a big holiday in Spain. It is Saint James Day and everything is closed. I hope Bocatto is open. Spains version of Burger King. But I doubt it. Oh, by the way, there has been another sighting of Inspector Couseau. In his search for the slippery Pink Panther, he has disquised his car!!!

July 25 Girona SPAIN Rest Day

Actually I haven´t rested at all yet. I´ve been up until 4:00 A.M. updating this here blog for your viewing and reading pleasure. It is not often I have access to a computer that is friendly to my camera and basically free. The hostel I´m staying at has 2 computers and I´m free to stay up and use one of them. Hey, you all gotta go back as far as July 15th and catch all the photos I´ve added, including the Col du Tourmalet. I think I added about 40 photos. Tomorrow I will update July 14th, the day of the Tour de France on Hautacam. And please, please, email me at cyclingsimmons@gmail.com . I´d love to hear from you. PART 2: I did the walking tour of Girona´s Old Town including the Wall around half the old town : ) , the Jewish Quarter, the Arab Section, and the Cathedral where I think I walked into an ordination service. Very few people were out this morning because of the holiday of St James. Most everything was closed. While blogging I met Catherine and Andrea from Montreal (photo). How nice to have a conversation in English. God really knew what he was doing back at Babel when he wanted to confuse the languages. So it was nice to have a conversation. Don´t get me wrong, I do often speak with people, but it´s hardly a conversation. It´s phrases with sign-language and a little, what do you call that game, you know....

July 26 Girona Spain to St Cyprien-Plage France 126 K

Day No. 32 since I began cycling toward France and I'm heading there again. I will spend a big chunk of my tour on the roads of France and it has proven to be a cyclists dream. But that doesn't mean every part of France is a cyclists dream. I decided to bike to the coast today and see the Mediterranean Sea for the first time ever, which was cool, but cycling the coast meant what all coastlines mean to a biker, tourist traffic. Tons of cars who aren't local and they are just screaming around. I did enjoy seeing the beaches and the coastal hilltop towns. But sand can be a rear derailleurs worst enemy.I had a climb to the French border, the Col de Baynuls. Shortly before that climb I met Ed Duggan, a young English (Brighton area) cyclo-tourist and we had a great time swapping stories.