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Tossa De Mar
About 100km south from the French border, Tossa is a great little laid back coastal town sitting on the Med, just off the motorway about 103 kilometres north of Barcelona and its the perfect place to base yourself for exploring the roads of northern Spain.
Tosssa De Mar
Tossa was once a thriving fishing village so naturally, fish and seafood features highly on the menus of the majority of restaurants, but that’s not all that’s on the menus as the veal from nearby Gerona is renowned, and equally popular is rabbit, lamb and of course, one of the most celebrated meats of Spain, pork.
Tossa De Mar
A visit to the region of Catalonia wouldn’t be complete without trying the array of sausages: Butifarra, Chorizo, Fuet and Salchichon to which the local bars, for 6 Euros, serve a mixed selection which goes down real well with a few beers. The spit-roast chicken is mouth-watering, oozing the essence of thyme, parsley and garlic that has been baked into its skin. Stroll past one of the restaurants in early evening and the wonderful aroma billowing from the outdoor spits will have you licking your lips!
Tossa De Mar
Sod it! I’m making myself hungry, suffice to say that Tossa has a number of good value hotels, some with secure parking, has a great beach to relax and plenty of really good restaurants and a couple of excellent bars to wash off the road dust and the perfect spot to base yourself for touring the area.
Now to the biking stuff, there is a really magic coastal road (GI-682) running north and south to Barcelona. At the weekends Tossa and the coastal road is taken over by bikers blasting their stress away, many of which have crossed the border from France.
Saint Feliu
Just north along the coast road is the little town of Sant Feliu, not too much to write about here, but the GI-682 there from Tossa along the cliffs is simply stunning, perfect surface and incredible views.
If you head inland on the C-65 out of Sant Feliu, mostly along good roads you pass through Gerona which is well worth a visit in itself and a good stop for lunch, joining the C-66 the other side of Gerona winds through farmland and low hills best traveled in Spring or Autumn on the way to one of Spain’s amazing fortress or walled towns (“conjunt històric-artístic”).
Besalu
In medieval times Besalu was the capital of a country of the same name. The town has a stunning 12th-century Romanesque bridge over the Fluvià river. The beautiful church of Sant Pere was consecrated in 1003 and the town is full of arcaded streets and squares and also a restored Mikva, a ritual Jewish bath dating from the eleventh or twelfth century, as well as the remains of a medieval synagogue, located in the lower town near the river.
Besalu
Tossa De Mar
The full route from Tossa to Besalu is only about 120km but allow yourself a full day to enjoy the ride and the sights.
Besalu
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Note: You will be asked to log in or register with RoadTrooper.com to gain access to downloadable .KML (Google Earth), .GDB (Garmin), .GPX (Generic) files.
Tossa to Besalu GE map
If you haven’t yet used/installed Google Earth I’d strongly suggest doing so, as a landscape photographer and motorbike touring enthusiast I find it an invaluable tool for planning my trips. GE is also incorporated into the Garmin Map Source software. If you create your route or upload one of mine, either a gpx or gdb file in Map Source go to the View menu and choose load map in Google Earth. In the left hand menu of GE at the bottom of the Places Tab you will find the Play Tour icon which will virtually fly you over your chosen route giving you an amazing view of the topography to expect. You can stop the tour at any time and then choose Street View from the navigation menu, top right of the GE screen, drag and drop the orange man icon to anywhere along the route to see a high res 360 degree photo of the route to see the road surface, surrounding area etc.
