Spain - Costa Verde

The coast south of Montpellier treats us well. The weather is great and we manage to swim in the Mediterranean almost every day and camp somewhere close to the ocean. The countryside is flat like a pancake but a strong headwind is blowing as if it was trying to prevent us from leaving France and cycling along the coast into Spain.
At the French/Spanish border the pyrenees take a steep dive into the sea. Even though the road follows the very coast it is extremely hilly here! We welcome the change of atmosphere and crouch up and whizz down the hills. Time and again we see large writing on the tarmac, remnants of the "Tour de France 2009" that had just past a couple of days before us along the same route.



On the Spanish side we visit Cadaques, a pitoresque whitewashed town where Salvador Dali used to live. Smart guy. The place is really neat. We camp in a public park (olive green tents are best!) and discover that the little hut next to the tent belonged to one of his "Muses" (as they called it on the signpost at the door). Unfortunately, a municipal officer discovers us the next morning and we receive a lecture that setting up a tent is forbidden. Alright. We sleep there another night - under the stars - who needs a tent when the weather is so brilliant?
From Cadaques we keep following the "Costa Brava" and eventually end up in Barcelona after riding our bikes through milles and miles of european coastal summer tourist playground.