The final day!!
A nice slow start today after our late arrival last night! Managed to get the blog up to date before ambling to our local cafe for a delicious Tortilla breakfast! So good to have a savoury option after far too many sweet pastries in Italy: Italian breakfasts really are miserable affairs!!
Last year, we cycled this last leg from Barcelona to Collioure over two days…but rather than repeating the ride, we opted go take the slow train up to Portbou, the last stop before the French border, and cycle from there!
Our apartment was only a five minute dash away from Saints station…..which was heaving. Today – Saturday – is really the beginning of the high holiday season, here…and indeed everywhere in Europe! So the station was mobbed!
As was the train!
Stopping at every small village en route…it was standing-room-only until after the Figueras stop…about two hours up the line! Musical entertainment for a while….
A quick coffee in Portbou…
….before setting off up the hill to the border.
Portbou annd Cerbere, the first town in France…used to be hugely important railway towns on the only railway link. Track gauges are different in the two countries, so all trains had to stop…in one town or the other…whilst all passengers – and all freight – were shifted onto new rolling stock! Hence the huge marshalling yards in both places.
Looking down on Cerbere…
…and the road on to Banyuls..
Interesting…I have cycled this road so often (usually for cheap cigarettes from Spain!)…but have not stopped to take photos before…! All quite pretty really!!
Banyuls…..
On past Paulilles, long-closed site of one of Nobel’s gunpowder factories…
….and up and down into Port Vendres, still an important port, dealing exclusively with the import of fruit and veg from North Africa.
I was unaware of the time, but when I asked Alan…we were now in a mad hurry for one last assignment!!
Rushing through Collioure….
…and up to the railway station…where a train had just arrived!!
Voila…! Liz, arriving from Marseilles (where she had spent a few days after her Madeira jaunt with Jude).
And so on to Bar St Elme…our official finishing post!!
Vincent was there to greet us…
Plenty of beers to celebrate…of course!!
Made it!!!
Reflections and final stats in the Epilogue to follow.
