Avignon Holiday - Day 7 - Rhone River Cruise

A river cruise on the Rhone today. Arrival in the boat at midday. Departure at 12.30. Three course meal and music. The weather was a bit rubbish throughout and apart from around Avignon the views were pretty poor with not much around the banks of the very wide river. Got back around 4 pm. 

Avignon Holiday - Day 6 - Nimes

Bargains on the trains today with 3 return tickets to Nimes for €6. We wandered in Nimes to Les Jardin de La Fontaine and climbed to the top of Tour Magne for views over the city. The water gardens which dated in some form to Roman times were great as was the short hill walk through gardens to the tower.

We visited the Maison Carree - the Roman Temple on the middle of the former Forum.

Dinner back in Avignon at Pomelo where the wine was very nice but the food a bit disappointing.

Avignon Holiday - Day 5 - Arles

A short train ride of about 20 minutes to Arles and a nice wander around the lovely town. We visited the Roman Arena and the Theatre plus the L'Espace Van Gogh and the Van Gogh Foundation. Lots of lovely old buildings everywhere. 

An excellent pizza or salad at Colloseo.

Avignon Holiday - Day 4 - Avignon

A day for exploring Avignon. A lovely town which is very quiet at this time of year. Visited the Bridge, Musee Angladon and the Musee Lapidaire but otherwise just wander the lovely streets of the city.

Lunch at La Civette Bar Brasserie.

   

Avignon Holiday - Day 3 - Avignon arrival

An unrushed start to the day and a wander to the Gare de Lyon to catch the TGV to Avignon. Taxi to the apartment. Shopping. Cheese, ham, eggs and bread for dinner. 

Avignon Holiday - Day 2 - Paris

The morning Eurostar to Paris and then a walk to the hotel. We stayed at Le Boudoir des Muses which was very nice especially with our upgraded room. Recommended if we are in Paris again as a very nice central area.

We walked from the hotel to Notre Dame and quickly got inside with our free reserved tickets although queues were pretty small.

Then onwards to Shakespeare & Company English bookshop for a browse and a sit in the upstairs reading room.

Then a Kir or coffee or tea.

And dinner at Le Petit Chatelet next door to the bookshop. An old fashioned crowded restaurant with steaks cooking on the open fire. The food wasn't that great though.

And a wander back to our hotel.

Avignon Holiday - Day 1 - London

The first day of a holiday in Avignon with Colin, Cherry & Hannah with eco travel by rail. Colin & Cherry travelled first class LNER from Edinburgh to London whilst Hannah took the train from Manchester. We all arrived just after 3 pm and checked into the Pullman Hotel.

Dinner at the Brasserie Zedel with its fabulous 1930's era decor. Nice food and good service.

Then just across the road to the Piccadily Theatre for Moulin Rouge which we all enjoyed.

We said hello to Caitlin on the walk back to the hotel.

 

Circuit Walk from Gracemount

What felt like the first sunny day of the year and went out for a walk round the planned sponsored walk route for TES at the end of March. Start and finish in Gracemount Walled Garden. Very nice route especially on such a sunny day. Lunch at Bridgend Farmhouse. Around 11 miles over 4 hours. 

New Oven + New Security Light

A long overdue refresh of the oven with a similar model of AEG oven and a new Collingwood Security Lamp for the front garden which seems to be working well.

 

Christmas & New Year 2025/6

Oops no photos this year. Hannah visited us from 21 to 28 Decembers sleeping over at Max and Kasia's place. Max and Kasia were away for Christmas in Poland returning for the New Year.

On Christmas Day we were Colin, Cherry, Hannah and Les. Les is much deteriorated now with very little mental or physical capability remaining. Just getting as far as the car is a struggle for him. After previous years organic turkeys arriving with a little bit too much still attached we went for a pre-prepared 5 person chicken with stuffing from Sainsbury which proved to be very nice and just the right size. 

Colin had a cold from Christmas Eve for about a week and Cherry picked it up after Christmas and through the New Year. 

Overall a quiet period and Colin had to drop out of any running events due to his cold.

Estepona with Hannah

A late year escape for a relaxing time in the south of Spain with Hannah. I hired a bike for the week and did some cycles along the coast and one big mountain climb up to Penas Blancas. Generally a lazy time with short walks and meals out in the evenings.

Estepona was very nice and relatively lively with most places open. Stayed at an AirBNB fairly centrally.

 

Push The Boat Out 2025

We booked two evening shows at the poetry festival this year. The first evening was at The Pleasance Theatre and featured a series of short work in progress style plays or as the brochure says:

Join us for performances of a series of newly commissioned theatre shorts written by playwrights Hannah Lavery, Zinnie Harris and William Letford, which offer an urgent response to the geopolitical cultural moment we’re living through. With spoken word from Anthony Anaxagorou and music by Carla J. Easton.

The short plays were very good. The spoken word by Anthony Anaxagorou was not for us. The music by Carla J Easton was very good.

Evening 2 was at Potter Row and was a game of two halves:

Push the Boat Out’s Saturday night gig is back! Be transported into a sublime soundscape, as headliners Edinburgh DJ, producer and sound designer Lord Of The Isles and poet Ellen Renton combine poetry, pedals and synths. They’ll be supported by Acolyte, an Edinburgh-based poetic and psychedelic ensemble. Expect storytelling and synths, hypnotic loops and harmonic depth.

Acolyte on first were excellent. Very creative and with real presence. Part 2 was very poor with dull music, dull visuals and poor spoken delivery with the music dominating and not given any space for the poetry. We left early.

 

Ruta del Ter - Day 9 - Parador Vic Sau to Girona

Another nice ride on tired legs back to Girona. Rough to start then very smooth in the latter part.

Bike returned to Eat, Sleep, Cycle and another night in the Hotel Carlemany.

Cycle Time: 4 hrs 4 min; 38.8 miles ; 427 m climb

The following day I took the slow train from Girona to Barcelona and a walk around Montjuic before getting the Ryanair flight back to Edinburgh. 

Ruta del Ter - Day 8 - Ripoll to Parador Vic Sau

As the route has some pretty unpleasant sections on the outward journey I took the train to Manlieu and cycled a shortened route back to the Parador.

Stopped in Manlieu for a coffee and short stroll around.

The section of the route that remained was pretty nice.

I got back to the Parador before check in time so did a hike out and back to the Monestir Sant Pere de Casserres.

Cycle Time: 1 hrs 40 min; 11.3 miles; +360 m

Hike Time: 1 hr 44 mins; 5.4 miles; + 290 m

 

Ruta del Ter - Day 7 - Camprodon to Ripoll

A very easy day back to Ripoll from Camprodon on easy paths.

Cycle Time:1 hr 35 mins ; 16.7 miles ; +166 m climb

Ruta del Ter - Day 6 - Camprodon to Vallter2000

Big climbing day from Camprodon to the ski centre at Vallter 2000. Wasn't too sure what to expect when planning the trip in terms of snow and accessibility but it was all good on the day with a clear road to the top and just a little bit of snow in the centre car parks at the top. There was snow on the ski slopes but not enough to ski on. There were maybe a dozen cars at the top and the cafe was open and served me sandwich and coffee which was a bonus.

It was a hard climb and my form wasn't great requiring a fair bit of walking on steeper sections.

A second night at the Hotel Cims.

Cycle Time: 4 hrs 30 mins ; 29.5 miles ; + 1198 m climb

Ruta del Ter - Day 5 - Ripoll to Camprodon

An easy day with a very nice bike path to follow from Ripoll to Camprodon. Camprodon was very busy on the Sunday morning when I arrived and a pretty little location that warranted a good what around.

Did get a bit lost on one section. 

Stayed at the cycle friendly Hotel Cims.

Cycle Time: 1 hr 52 mins; 16.3 miles; +462 m climb. 

Ruta del Ter - Day 4 - Parador Vic Sau to Ripoll

Day 4 was quite a challenging day with a fair bit of quite rough trail and some unpleasant sections in the latter parts just before Ripoll. There were a few places where the route seemed to go onto fast roads and in other places needed to take a very convoluted route to avoid the motorway which dominated the valley.

Stayed at the Hotel Trobada Sport which was very basic but fine and offered a bike garage.

Cycle Time: 5 hrs 20 mins; 39 miles ; 1159 m climb

 

Ruta del Ter - Day 3 - Girona to Parador Vic Sau

The ride today started in very nice flat allotment style agriculture landscape in the outskirts of Girona. A small steady climb followed along cycle path at the edge of roads and then onto only railway line cycle path. 

The next phase moved to a quiet road heading into the wilds following a river towards much rougher paths along major lakes. It felt like a long and fairly hilly journey on these rougher tracks before finally getting to the Parador with stunning views from my room over the lakes.

A nice dinner at the Parador.

Cycle Time: 4 hrs 55 mins; 38.6 miles ; + 940 m climb

 

Ruta del Ter - Day 2 - L'Estartit to Girona

Today was meant to be a simple reversal of Day 1 - quite easy with a little bit more net climb. There was however a severe weather warning of flooding delivered late on the Wednesday night. I got up early for a quick breakfast and with the sky still clear and the weather looking fine headed off at my top speed to see how if I could complete the day before the rains came.

The first hour was good rapid progress with no rain. The second hour saw the rain start and ominous thunder and clouds in the distance. After around 2 hours the downpour finally came. I took shelter at a bus stop in Cervia del Ter and waited in the hope that a bus would take me and bike back to Girona. After a long wait and the bus not arriving on time decided to plough on with the cycle but that didn't work out as the path had disappeared under water as soon as I moved off the main road. Headed back to the village and stopped for a couple of coffees to warm up. Back to the bus stop and thankfully was able to take the bus back to Girona and another night at the Carlemany Hotel.

Cycle Time 2 hrs 4 mins; 24.66 miles; 175 m climb. 

Ruta del Ter - Day 1 - Girona to L'Estartit

Collected my hire bike in the morning from Eat, Sleep, Cycle. A Wilier gravel bike. Looked very well worn but happy with it.

The first section of the route out of Girona was very nice sandy/gravel cycle path along the edge of the river.

There following some suburban industrial sections to navigate before heading to a rural landscape with slightly rougher ground and small tree plantations.

A very nice lunch at the central square in Verges before completing the route to the mouth of the Ter.

From the official route it was a short flat ride to L'Estartit and a stay at the Medes II hotel which was very nice. The town was almost totally dead but did manage to find somewhere to eat.

Overall a very nice route today in fine weather. Very flat, almost totally traffic free and trail surfaces mostly very good with some sections slightly more bumpy but never a problem for the gravel bike.

3 hrs 28 min cycle time; 35 miles; 250 m climb

Ruta del Ter - overview

I first came across this long distance route at the mouth of the River Ter on our January 2025 holiday to L'Estartit. It seemed an interesting route from the Mediterranean to the Vallter 2000 in the Pyrenees. Duly noted a plan eventually came to fruition for November 2025 to do a solo light packing journey on hired bike there and back.

The official route is 220 km and is planned from summit to sea over 4 days. My plan was for both directions over 9 days of cycling. For practical reasons this would mean starting in Girona cycling to the sea, then reversing back to the summit and then back again to finish in Girona.

https://www.rutadelter.cat/ruta-en-bicicleta

I wasn't sure whether the mountain stage would be clear at this time of year or not. Conditions were actually pretty good in first half of November with no snow or ice on the road but some snow but not enough for skiing at the ski centre. The ski centre was open for coffee and snacks and there were some visitors in cars. Conditions later in the year and early new year probably more problematic.

For the most part the official route was really good with just one day that was much less pleasant and where there probably aren't too many alternative options. More on that on the daily reports that follow.

I used a gravel bike which was fine. I would have preferred mountain bike given the roughness of a number of sections of the route. A road or touring bike wouldn't work.