Hospital de Sant Pau and Abric de la Serra de la mussara

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Hospital de Sant Pau

   There is a hill in Barcelona that most visitors reach by accident, on the walk from the Sagrada Família down a long avenue named after Gaudí. At the end of it stands the Hospital de Sant Pau, one of the greatest works of Catalan Modernisme, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built between 1902 and 1930 with money left by a banker called Pau Gil. The architect rejected the idea of a single block. Instead he built a garden city of pavilions, joined by underground tunnels, each with brick walls, tiled roofs and mosaics, so that patients could look out on trees and sky. It worked as a hospital until 2009, and has since been restored as a museum and cultural centre. UNESCO listed it in 1997 together with the Palau de la Música Catalana, also by Domènech.

   Read the complete Hospital de Sant Pau write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Hospital de Sant Pau 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 87 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 152 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 Hospital de Sant Pau.

5. 5. Hospital de Sant Pau

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Hospital de Sant Pau write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Hospital de Sant Pau. That is the ride.