oday we opened our bike account with a coastal ride to the town of Blanes (pronounced ‘Bla - ness’) at the southern end of the Costa Brava (which extends from here to the French border). It was a smooth run out of the city this morning, with the Sunday traffic virtually nil at our start time of 0800. The traffic did steadily build up, but, being Sunday, there were lots of riders hitting the coastal road, and we were just two more. The drivers were considerate and while at times the cars were incessant, it never felt overwhelming. The most annoying thing was the red lights in Barcelona - these appear to operate on timers - that is, not traffic related, and there are an awful lot of them - on every corner in the city centre, and more, if pedestrian crossings are counted. It got a bit much having to stop when there was not cross traffic, so we ended up doing what the local pedestrian and cyclists do, and just have a good look, and carry on regardless. The cars did stop, but did not seem surprised or particularly exercised if bikes did not. I had planned out the route out of Barcelona way back in November - actually, I used a program that calculated the route for me, as how would I have a clue??. One part of the route took us down a one-way street - the wrong way (of course!). Many ‘on road’ bike paths here are 2 way, even if the road is one way - but not on this particular stretch (went for about 1 km). What you notice immediately is that all the stop lights are facing the ‘wrong’ way. Lucky that it was a Sunday, early, no traffic, and no cops!! The day turned out amazing clear and warm, and when we finally got to the coast, quite pretty. The only blight is the rail line that runs along the coast about 200 m from the beach, cutting off the towns and hinterland from the coast. That, and the resorts that occur every 20 or so km along our route today. Blanes is lovely, a smaller town that has a magnificent botanical garden, and a few lovely old buildings amongst the new holiday homes. A great beach, though the sand is coarse, but the water is clear with amazing rock features and a huge marina at the north end. My GPS managed to get us to within spitting distance of the accommodation, but as there are roadworks being done in the very narrow and very steep street, with earthmoving equipment parked in the road, taking up just about the full width (can just squeeze past walking the bikes through on the gravel), we had to do a bit of last minute detouring to get to the right place. After arriving and being welcomed to our apartment for the night by Anna, a very talkative host, Penny got out the map to plan our walking tour. Over the next three hours we walked to the beach, went to the rocky peninsular, walked up the hill to the botanic gardens and checked out the amazing cliff top viewing areas, as well as the plants, then went back to see the highlights of the old town, did a bit of shopping, then came back to have a shower and get some tea!