Breakfast in the hotel. It was still cool in Andorra at 9am. I spent 30min at a big bike shop trying (and eventually succeeding) to get rid of a thump, thump noise that came on when braking. As there was a lot more downhill to go I thought I'd better get it sorted. Turns out the headset was little bit loose. It's interesting that, when touring abroad, cycle shops always seem to be able to fix the bike there and then. Back home you'll be lucky to get it done t...

Today started with a beautiful ride from Bolquere to Llivia - a bit of Spain entirely inside France. I nearly got wiped out on the approach to Llivia by an idiot white van man overtaking on a bend. So I was glad to stop at a cafe in Llivia to calm down a bit. Then there was a 2km wide bit of France to cross to get back into Spain - the town of Puigcerda - then into France again to head along the N20 up the valley leading to Andorra. I had a very nice plat du jour...

I set off from Catllar 10am. Dry, sunny & warm. At Serdinya I realised I had left my sunscreen behind. I bought some at Olette, where I also had a croque monsieur & a coffee. Just as well as the next meal opportunity was not till Bolquere which I reached at 5pm. (Jennifer had forewarned me that in France one has to stop for lunch before 1330 at the latest, otherwise expect to go hungry. In Spain the eating hours are much more relaxed, and generally much...

After breakfast Dirck and Jennifer helped me to fix my new headcam onto my helmet, so that it wasn't pointing at the ground or the sky! This was my first trip using a headcam, so mistakes were to be expected. I eventually produced a 17 min video of the whole trip which can be seen on my YouTube channel tra6fom. Dirck and Jennifer were busy with a potential house buyer, so they gave me directions for a really nice walk round the neighbourhood (see pics) ending ...

Once I had tightened the handlebars and secured the panniers, my first thought was to get some breakfast. Luckily there were quite a few places to choose from nearby as the drop-off point was just outside the toll booths at junction 41 of the A9 motorway, and in France such places are magnets for budget hotels, cafes etc. My route from there (and all subsequent routes) are on MapmyRide. At the time I didn't have a GPS, but was using a paper map. Unfortunately ...