Day 7 - Saturday 1st September

Jaca - Puigcerda

Distance – 353km

Overview.  The ‘backbone’ of the trip . . . high mountain passes, twisty roads, stunning scenery and a revisit to the spot where we made a promise in 2007!

Puigcerda Snapshot

History – Puigcerdà was incorporated into Roman territory and known as Julia Libyca.  The modern city was founded in 1178 by King Alfonso I of Aragon, Count of Barcelona and replaced Hix as the capital of Cerdanya and became a popular place for Barcelonans to enjoy cooler temperatures.  Puigcerdà was unique during the Spanish Civil War in having a democratically elected Anarchist council.

Elevation – 1202m

Population – 9,000

Core Sector . . .  

Today was always going to be the 'backbone' of the trip - the main ride up into the Pyrenees.  It was on this N-260 with John and Liz in 2007 that we all said wouldn't it be wonderful to do this road on motor bikes, and now are!

We took a little walk around the centre of old Jaca looking for a place to have croissants and coffee, but it seems 8:45am is a little early for most.  But we eventually found one just near the hotel and confirmed out plans for the day - the N-260 from Jaca to Puigcerda.  We also bought our lunch - four mini jamon rolls, as has been our practice for the last few days.

Yielding to the call of the mountains

Picture post card stuff

It was about 10:00am once we had collected the bikes from the parking spot across the road and got everything ready to go and fuelled up the bikes.  We headed off east on the N-240 (which becomes the N-260) at about 10:30am.

Getting Under Way . . .  

The first part was positioning for the 'main course' of high mountain passes as we made our way west then north for our first turning point at Sabinanigo (B) - and then things became both vertical and horizontal as we climbed and twisted our way to our first stop at Broto (C), a picturesque village on a mountain river.  Naturally, things became a little cooler as we climbed, but for the most part we were in bright sunshine.

Unfortunately Chris was not feeling too well and considered taking a detour to boring roads to simply transit the sector, but he was pleased that he persisted.

Revisiting 2007 . . .   

Next we headed south through Saavise and turned east again towards Boitaria and Ainsa (D) - where (I think) we had our lunch . . . which was the same spot we had our lunch in 2007!

The road then climbs its way up through Arro, Samper and then north through Campo - and continues climbing to Castejon de Sos (E) - and then gets seriously twisty through Laspaules and down to Pont de Suert (F).  It was about here that we passed the highest spot on the ride so far (I think), some 1,470m at Castejon de Sos and Pont de Suert.

High plains of Spain sans rain

The straight road

Where we were in 2007

Have the Power Rangers crashed?

Yet Another Helpful Local . . .  

We came across this little dog when we stopped for lunch and he (or she) was the most friendly and welcoming ‘person’ on the entire trip.  He immediately adopted us by giving a big wag of the tail and a lovely smile – right up until he found something more interesting to do and he ran off across the road looking for his next friend.

Can’t you take me with you?

Even More Climbing . . . 

Then just for something the same - we then headed up and over another serious climb towards Sarcoca de Bellera, through Senterada and down to Salas de Pallars before turning north for a coffee stop at Sort (G).  We were all falling a bit sore - especially Lorraine, who took about a minute to get off the bike and could barely walk for a couple of minutes more!

There was yet another serious climb ahead - up through Pallerois del Cento.  It was here that we 'lost' Chris and headed back to look for him, only to find that he had mistakenly thought he had passed us at a turn off and turned around himself and had to go all the way down to the bottom of the hill!  It all worked out - and we stopped a couple of times for a 'rest' and photos of the stunning valleys and mountains.

Where have Chris and his friend Garmin gone?

Don’t you love places like this!

And then we went down there

Don’t forget us!

 Too Much Fun . . . !  

The ride down to Adrall and Sue d’Urgell (H) was just sensational - John and I went ahead and 'hammered' it down the hill!  It was probably the best part of the trip so far for me.  Once we fuelled up we headed east towards Puigcerda, which was a lovely road but with a ridiculous speed limit of 70 - 80kph!  And it was getting very cold for the last little bit as we were mostly in the shade of a bloody great nearby mountain!

Change of Accommodation . . .

And then the fun started - we eventually found the 'hotel' . . . or at least we asked a nice woman and she kindly said 'follow me' (even though it was out of her way).  The hotel was pretty bad - sort of like a university camp, located much further out of town than stated and had no secure parking for the bikes.  After a bit of argy bargy I negotiated getting a full refund and we set off on about three laps of the town trying to find another place - and got lucky at the Hotel del Largo, a bit of an upmarket place but very nice, good parking and conveniently located near the centre.

Once in 'human clothes' we headed off in search of food and drink and had a good dinner just off the town square - and told stories about the day's riding!

Bed was the most welcome it has been - even though Chris and I did some preliminary exploration of hotels on the Mediterranean coast for tomorrow night.

Puigcerda Lake

Hotel del Lago in Puigcerda