The tourguides got everything ready and were just waiting for the group to arrive. One by one dropped in and finally we could get started with the Welcome Briefing and the handover of the motorcycles. And there is always a reason for a celebration - this time it was Marco's birthday - what a great start for a tour!

In a short briefing presented by Markus we learned about todays ride. Pretty soon after Castelldefels we switched to smaller roads to get around the crowded area South of Barcelona and took the fast road getting away from the coast. The first highlight we hit was the Monestary of Montserrat, founded in the 11th century and famous for the "Black Madonna".

After some good riding and having a partly "misorientation" of some group members we reached and climbed the fortress of Cardona befor we headed for lunch to Solsona. Our last stop of the day happened to be near Basella, where a small but fine museum has classic bikes on display. And finally we reached Can Boix, a fabulous hotel sorrounded by nature.

The Tourbook promised: Curves, curves & curves. And what did we get? Exactly the thing! It was amazing: the roads where winding through the gorgous landscape like cooked Spaghetti! Tarmac was good, weather dry - so really nice conditions for a good ride. We left Can Boix, headed up to the summit Col de Boixols and further via Tremp and Sort to another highlight: the Col de Canto. The road brought us down to the small village of Adrall and via Col de Nargo back to the natures Paradise Can Boix. This day was great fun!

The weatherforecast for this riding day was a bit like ... However: we left Can Bix ind some drizzling rain and reached La Seu d'Urgell with its astonishing romanic Cathedral. When you enter this huge church you get really impressed und you also get an impression, of what the visitors of the ancient times felt while entering the church. Rain stopped - perhaps baecause we visited the holy place? – we went off direction Andorra, got wet again had a nice warm coffee already in France and left the place for the famous Col de Pailheres - a challenging Mountain Pass 2.000 m in elevation, often used as a stage at the Tour de France. It was quite windy, but when just got over the summit, a storm hit us with its full power and we had to wait several hours until the howling storm became weaker and we could leave the mountain on our bikes. Finally we arrived our next station, the wonderful city of Carcassonne in the late evening, had a nice Dinner and many stories to tell!

Windy Corner: The wind was so strong, you could not stand upright. Just crawling on all 4s was possible! 

Beautyful Carcassone by night: Gate to the medevial part of the town called "La Cité".

And this is what the whole thing looks like by night - simply mindblowing!