Making Circles

Yesterday morning I headed to Girona. Since I had a little time before picking up my rental car, I wandered around town a bit.
Lo and behold, more awesome architecture:

I love the mix of old and modern with these two structures!

and check out this pattern:

love the color and design of this door:

Some construction work brought some really cool color and lines to these buildings:

some children’s clothing laid out to dry on this roof:

some views from the cathedral:

and from belowl:

After I picked up my car, I drove east to a very small village called Madremanya, where we’ll be taking our guests next week, for the first 2 nights of their trip. From there, I drove our Day-3 route, which heads south-west to the next hotel in S’Agaro, a beach town on the Mediterranean. Sorry I don’t have pictures of any of this, as I was driving for the first time in the region, holding both a route guide and a map in my hands…

Today, I drove up to San Marti d’Empuries, a tiny village on the sea where our trip will begin next week. I love that this parking lot is totally integrated with some ruins:

After about 20 km, I arrived at Ullastret, where there are Iberian ruins. (The Iberians settled in the region by 800 BC.) At the Archeology museum, I found this:

All the description said was that there seemingly was some sort of cult of the skull in the Iberian culture. It had to do with their spirituality, but no more details…

What I found especially interesting was their alphabet:

Apparently these symbols represent both letters and syllables, and the Iberians wrote both left to right, and right to left. How freeing is that? Perfect for art and craft-making.

In the bathroom, I found the most ingenious hook for holding purses:
Open:

Closed!

my lunch spot among the ruins and Cypress trees:

After finishing this route, I met with one of our hotels, and then hopped on my bike to learn another route. At the same time, I threw in some training to the mix, working on VO2 Max intervals in between riding through tiny cobbled streets…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 12:29 pm and is filed under , guiding.