Tuesday, September 28, 2021
La Ponla de Lillet: Hostal Fonda Cerdanya, https://www.fondacerdanya.com/
Bike Route: Ripoll to La Pobla de Lillet, 17 miles, 2400 feet of climb
This day was all about biking to La Pobla de Lillet to visit the Jardins d'Artigas, designed by Antoni Gaudi. Because...well, why not?
In 1902, Gaudi was commissioned to design the Chalet de Catilaras to house the engineers and technicians for a coal mine that fed a Portland cement company owned by Eusebi Guell. While Gaudi was working on the design, he stayed at the home of the Artigas family. As a gift in return for the family's hospitality, he designed a garden for their home.
We wanted to visit the chalet as well, but it was over 5 miles up a steep gravel road, and we weren't up for the 11-mile round trip by bike or foot. (We could have taken a taxi, but we never think of that!)
Anyway, the ride to La Pobla from Ripoll was almost completely uphill, a steady climb for several hours. The road was beautiful. We stopped outside Gombren on the way, and had coffee at a restauranat overlooking the valley. We also stopped in Gombren itself, rode around the narrow medieval streets, and got water from the public spigot.
We made it to La Pobla just in time for lunch. Then we found our hotel, checked in, dropped our bags, put on our sandals, and rode a mile south of town to the tourist information office, which opened at 3:30. Through a little research on the website for the garden, I had found that the site has limited hours, but when it is not open to the public, you can get a key from the tourist office--which also has limited hours. The tourist office website said it would be open from 3:30 to 5:00.
We made it to the tourist office about 2 minutes before the officer, and followed her into the building. She was extremely friendly and helpful, giving us a paper guide to the garden in English. We purchased our tickets, took the key, and biked back through town and another mile and a half to the garden. We were the only visitors. It was magical. We followed the guide and walked through the entire garden, marveling at the complex and detailed artistry.
We finished our tour at 4:30 and rode back to the tourist office along the little track for the Cement Train. (The Asland cement company had a small-gauge train. Today, the town has restored part of the track and runs a little train between the tourist office and the garden. The train was not operating because the parking area was under construction, so the track was open for biking or walking.) We made it to the tourist office just in time to turn the key in before the office closed.
Back in town, we left the bikes in our room and explored the narrow streets and medieval buildings until we were tired.
Our hotel was very simple and dated, but clean and quiet. We were the only people there. The owner, a young woman from Senegal, said she had just bought it four months ago, had been booked up through the summer, and was still booked solid from Thursday through Saturday for the fall months. Good for her! She has lived in Spain for four years, working in the hotel industry in a larger city (I think she said Madrid). She loved this area and was very happy to own her own business. It was wonderful to see her pride and sense of hope for the future.
It's hard to capture the magic of the gardens in photos, but we tried.
