Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Retirement trip - Day 28

 Left my hotel this morning and made my way to the Andorran town of Canillo for a trip to the motorcycle museum there. Website It was a bit hard to find as it is housed withing the building of a gondola/ski lift and not visible from the street. I parked where my sat nav said it was and had to go up a moving staircase to find it. I had to wait about 10 minutes for it to open, which meant I was the only customer there.













































 
Only Harley Davidson I've ever liked and, ironically, one of their poorest sellers. the late 70s XLCR 'Cafe Racer'.

I left Andorra and crossed the border into France, this time it was unstaffed and the barriers left open so you could just ride through. I carried on through rather pleasant countryside for a couple of hours, then could see low cloud on the mountain tops and the temperature noticeably dropped. As the road I was on was climbing, I was soon riding through the cloud which turned to heavy rain.  It was so heavy and the visibilty so poor that I seriously considered my plans, but carried on and the rain stopped. A bit further on and it started again, but I was too close to my destination to turn back. I climbed through the mountains to the legendary Col du Tourmalet, one of the 'big climbs' of the Tour de France. I had been there before about 20 years ago and rode past a 'closed' barrier and was helped by a council team who were clearing snow from the road. I couldn't continue past the summit due to snow drift and had to return the way I'd come. I'd always planned on returning to complete the crossing.

When I got to the summit there was a lot of work being done on the buildings and road surface, but I managed to get a photo at the famous sculpture (thanks to a Swiss rider who took the photo).


I also took a photo of the road I was about to ride.


It was a great ride down as the rain had stopped and the road wasn't too wet. I rode on a short distance to the small town of Pierrefitte-Nestalas where I had booked a hotel. My plans for tomorrow aren't certain and will depend of the weather. Currently it's raining outside, I'll see what it's like in the morning.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing again Norman, you are really having a great holiday!

    ReplyDelete