Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica and Abric de la Serra de la mussara

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica

   Gaudí took forty-three years of his life on the Sagrada Família and still did not see it finished. He began work in 1883, soon after taking over from another architect, and from the 1890s onward he devoted himself to it almost completely, living in a workshop on site in his last years. The Nativity Façade, on the east side, is the part that he built the most of, and it was the only one to be substantially completed in his lifetime. Its carved portals teem with plants, animals and figures, tortoises at the foot of its columns included, and the effect is like a cliff of stone coral.

   Read the complete Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica 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 83 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 148 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 Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica.

5. 5. Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Nativity Façade and Crypt of the Basílica. That is the ride.