Casa Vicens and Abric de la Serra de la mussara

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Casa Vicens

   Casa Vicens is where Gaudí began, and you can see him working out his ideas. He was in his early thirties when he took on the commission, between 1883 and 1888, for Manuel Vicens i Montaner, a stockbroker and ceramics manufacturer who wanted a summer house in what was then the separate town of Gràcia. The result is a small, colourful building with a Moorish air, built of rough stone and brick, striped with glazed tiles in green and white, and covered in tiles painted with marigolds, a flower that grew on the site.

   Read the complete Casa Vicens write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Casa Vicens is where the day begins. Next is Roca Roja.

2. 2. Roca Roja

   Roca Roja, the red rock, is a fitting name for this corner of inland Catalonia, where sandstone and conglomerate cliffs glow rust-coloured in the evening light above pine forest and small terraced fields. The point lies in the hills between Querol and Mediona, where the comarques of Alt Camp, Alt Penedès and Anoia meet, a rugged, thinly populated upland that most people speed past on the motorway between Barcelona and Lleida without realising it exists.

   Read the complete Roca Roja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Roca Roja comes up about 84 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric de la Serra de la mussara.

3. 3. Abric de la Serra de la mussara

   Climb out of Reus on a clear morning and the Serra de la Mussara rises ahead like a wall, a limestone escarpment that holds up the edge of the Prades plateau and drops steeply to the plain of the Camp de Tarragona. The rock shelters along this cliff line, close to the village of Vilaplana, are part of the prehistoric painted landscape of eastern Spain. The best reason to stop, though, is the view: on a good day you look straight down over hazelnut orchards and olive groves to Reus, Tarragona and the sea.

   Read the complete Abric de la Serra de la mussara write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 149 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric de la Serra de la mussara. Next is back through Roca Roja.

4. 4. back through Roca Roja

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Roca Roja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Roca Roja, late in the day. Next is Casa Vicens.

5. 5. Casa Vicens

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Casa Vicens write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Casa Vicens. That is the ride.