And so, in view of the catastrophic digital pact renovation situation with early morning core drilling and constant construction site trouble, we decided: We won't stay here! - I can go to work there too.

And so we decided to go south - Kotza Brava, roughly where we were with the Saarbocks two years ago, Platja d'Aro, Saarbrücken 7!

Checked AirBNB, found one or two apartments, decided, booked! E-bikes are coming along, let’s see what happens. Relaxation has priority over everything, including geocaching, we're both exhausted and drained.

And because recovery comes first, we drive with a stopover, about halfway along the route, about five hours, especially important on the return journey. And so we start on the last day of April, directly after 'El trabajo' towards Spain, unfortunately it currently looks like more (nightmare) weather!

It's relatively late afternoon, the car is packed, it was clear that we wouldn't get away on time as planned, with about an hour off we set off, Lyon is calling, the 'B&B Hotel Lyon Ouest Tassin' is waiting for our arrival. What B&B already says, the demands weren't that high, but we had already had good experiences with the chain at the concert in Frankfurt, so there you go.

Everything was great, the room was great, the whole house smelled of new paint, only the parking lot became a problem, not because of the hotel, but rather because of the bike rack with the two e-bikes on the back - that doesn't fit in the parking garage! But at reception we were told of a free parking space nearby, just under 200m as the crow flies, everything was fine.

We slept well, the breakfast was plentiful and not typically French, more to my taste, I think we could stop here on the way back.

Night!

Waking up early without an alarm clock, the first thing we did was go to the breakfast room, nicely furnished with psychedelic 1960s wall paneling. Wow, that really works in the morning.

The breakfast is a buffet, all-you-can-eat, but we still have a few hours ahead of us, so we won't be able to eat that much, which tends to cause problems on the way. Valence - Orange - Montpellier - La Jonquera - the places just flew past us, our electronic toll payer also did its job, even if the barrier was only released at the very last second.

At around 3 p.m. we drove into Platja d'Aro, went to the apartment, less than 400m from the city center, absolutely quiet, nice apartment, enough space, what more could you want.

Oh yes, now the 'Petit Dejeuner' came forward and said it was quite small, HUNGRY!!!!

And of course, when things are going so well, something has to go wrong - we definitely got the wrong restaurant, but there wasn't much choice at that time and so we ended up in 'Llevant'. Find out more at Tripadvisor.

No matter, belly full, a little flattened -

Night!

Lucky again, an AirBNB apartment that fully met our expectations, even if we were really unsure whether it would go smoothly due to technical communication problems on the day of departure. Regardless, everything worked.

A leisurely breakfast, then the question of all questions - what to do?

First thought: work through legacy issues, sort out some DNFs from last time, check out the solved mysteries, scout out your favorite restaurant of 2022 - is that still there or not? And of course the first purchase.

The first impression was that although there are excellent cyclists here in Spain, the average everyday cyclist is more of an obstacle that needs to be removed. Our cycle path infrastructure is terrible, but here? A touch of nothing!

No matter, cheated through and took the few caches in the area with me. There are two DNFs again, both of which were not found two years ago, there is simply no maintenance, but they are logged diligently. No matter, you're not above a DNF and an NM. Requests to carry out maintenance are often not answered - it's your own fault, then nothing is serviced.

Speaking of which! I imagine the outcry in the German caching scene if 80% of the hidden caches were scraps of paper in small plastic bags - the world would be too small. And so we rode our bikes through Platja d'Aro, past 'La Brochette' - it's still there, still open, we're going there this evening!

A little more shopping for the day, parking the bikes, getting ready, dinner!

And it's as if we had never been away, we were recognized again, despite being away for 1 1/2 years, the food was excellent, as it was then, the Veterano was well sized, also as it was then, an all-round beautiful day is coming to an end .

Night!

Well, not really, I don't really have anything to do with cinemas here in Spain, but our plan - VERY BIG CINEMA!

If you remember the report from 2022, there were these challenge caches on September 22nd that annoyed us so much. Today they should have their last chance!

In the morning I put together the route. We wanted to start at the furthest point and then work our way down towards the sea. That's the plan, so overlooked that we won't see part of the route again once we're through it and so we'll also miss the first two caches, unfortunately the ones in one of the steepest parts of the route. Stupid, what to do? Go back, collect and then go back up? No, not with me, we'll catch up later by car, otherwise it won't work today, after all, one task is:

25 challenge caches in one day!

And what a run we had!

All caches were precise, it went uphill, downhill, always with the next point in sight. Even the caches that we didn't find back then sometimes jumped out at us from afar. At the top the question is, do we also take the ones that are a little out of the way with us or will they also be car caches?

We took her with us, had to climb steep inclines again and then rolled almost comfortably back into the valley to the sea. OK, the brakes overheated here in places but in the end we completed the entire series including some bycatch, a logistical masterpiece on my part.

What else is there to say about the caches? Some were in a deplorable condition, defective plastic bags with soaking wet, some moldy pieces of paper, some Ü-eggs in which the water was knee-deep and then again really good cans of dry lobuchets, pretty mixed, the whole thing. Actually almost all of them need to be serviced, we have written a log for some of the really bad ones, but we also know from our own experience how difficult such maintenance rounds are to carry out. You can admire the crowning glory of the salad in the picture above, once again a cache that would hardly be approved by us, a can hidden in an active water slide - you wouldn't believe it.

Be that as it may, what is done is done, in total we have a little more than 18 km on the clock, were on the road for about 5 hours and ended the day with one or several beers and a delicious Gorgonzola schnitzel. Rather by chance we ended up in the 'Victòria Restaurante', one of the few restaurants that are open in the early afternoon. Keeping an eye on the e-bikes, we were able to eat delicious food with attentive staff and relax just 5 minutes from 'home'.

Night!

Today was more of a quiet (cache) day, a little documentation, a little shopping, i.e. groceries, short buxes, we somehow left them at home and two folding chairs and a small table for the balcony, somehow we felt like it missed when booking that there was no furniture on the balcony, annoying but no drama.

I could have asked, but I didn't, I was stupid. And by the way, we grabbed a few Tradis, an out-of-the-way challenge cache and a few puzzles, we released two for shooting, they weren't there two years ago, nothing happened except that one was definitely a construction site has given way, so off to the crypt, to put it virtually, 2 'needs archived' in one day.

It's annoying when caches are logged again and again even though there's obviously no one left and the owners don't do anything, don't even react.

In the afternoon we adjusted the bikes again and walked through the town, along the beach promenade, always with a view of an attractive restaurant - which we then found in 'La Tagliatelle'. We actually wanted to go to 'Sant Lluis' directly opposite, but it was closed for the second time. If you didn't want to, you wanted to, our goal turned out to be a stroke of luck.

As a starter, the three of us shared bruschetta with onions, olives and cocktail tomatoes as well as fried tortellini with a delicious dip. Then I had a calzone arrabiata, in which the calzone was probably lost, the arrabiata came as a normal pizza - that really didn't matter whether folded or open.

At first glance I thought 'Gosh, everything I don't like!'. Wide, unlined edge, airy, flaky, almost like matzo, wafer-thin dough and rocket vitamins on top. How should I survive that?

But an order is ordered and it will definitely be eaten. What a taste surprise, I've stuffed myself with a lot of pizzas, this one is definitely in the top ten thousand.

Loose, airy, just the right amount of spiciness, I'm still blown away.

Night!

Today is Sunday, finally sleep in! No, nonsense, we took it easy every day, but especially today. Whether it was the snoring at night, the total exhaustion or just the desire to rag today, I have no idea, but the day only started at 10 today!

Do a bit of website paperwork, relax a bit, inaugurate our new balcony furniture, wait for 3 p.m.

But at some point we couldn't take it anymore, we now go to WhereIgo around the corner and pass the time until we go to 'La Brochette', where we had reserved a table for this time. Actually, we would have preferred later, but it's still the same as it was in 2022, on Sundays the kitchen is closed in the afternoon, the employees have time for their families and now, in the low season, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are completely closed .

Speaking of WhereIgo, that was a failure. First we couldn't find a parking space in the huge parking lot, then the cartridge didn't work properly, the sun was blazing and the language problems when translating meant that we gave up for the day in frustration. OK, let's take the Tradis on the bike path!

Who would have thought, unsuccessful here too, task, regardless of whether it's only 2:30 p.m. or not, we're going to the restaurant now.

Oh lucky luck, not that we could sit down straight away, the outside terrace on the traffic island was also set up, we had the choice, inside or outside - outside of course!

Night!

Today we had a big plan! Late in the morning the plan was clear, today we'll take care of the LAB caches in Girona. The day of wrong decisions:

• We don't take bikes with us, some of them are so close together that getting on and off becomes a hassle
• We are looking for a parking space in the center (see above).
• We wander through the center with our car upright on two wheels (no, I'm kidding, but it was really tight) and we're stared at fiercely.
• After the demolition we drive towards Palafrugell, collect the LABs there and take a look on the way
• We stop at a few simple Tradis along the way
• We walk through Callela de Palafrugell

Done, covered in shit, off to home.

But from the beginning. In Girona, on the one hand, it turned out that it wasn't that easy with the designated parking spaces because they were all full. That's where our first bad decision came into play. If we had had the bikes with us, we could have parked a little outside and cycled into Girona. So the second wrong decision inevitably bothers us. How often have we gone wrong?

One of these round trips took us to the old city center, all one-way streets, just one car wide, more than once we looked ahead and in the rearview mirror to see if we were the only ones caught in the labyrinth - no, we were not, so there must be a way out.

That's enough, we could have saved ourselves the kilometers. What now? Just go back or what?

No, we'll look towards Bisbal and Palafrugell, other towns also have nice caches. One would think so.

Next frustration: CELRA - we were impressed by the LAB there. Also several Tradis - of which we only found one. The usual problems with LAB: Spanish, Calalan, English. My suspicion is always that Catalan is the original language, then the translator is turned on and the geocacher translates the translation of the translation - errors are inevitable, the gamble of finding the correct original language begins.

That was also the problem:

'Compte el nombre d'annels metàl-lics de la ......' Here we found at least 4 different translations, depending on the above and translation app, duration approx. 20 minutes for the first question: Count the iron rings on the tower and multiply them by the yellow tiles in the cross!

Ha, ha, ha, counting rings was still possible, but neither a cross nor yellow tiles could be discovered straight away. It was only minutes later that we were able to guess the correct translation after we happened to look at the roof of the building - five yellow tiles arranged in a cross shape. Ohh!

At the second station, after almost an hour and questioning the postwoman and passers-by - one of them then begged us for money - we gave up, which was impossible for us as non-Catalans with numerous translation options - our necks were already hanging pretty low!

Over, off, to the sea, Calella de Palafrugell, two LABs! Or not, overlooked that there was a 'Cami de Ronda', not feasible today, and that was in town.

Contour lines? We don't have to pay attention, we'll notice it later in our legs. Wow, that was steep, but we managed it - and missed two earth/virtual caches and a webcam cache - it was sickening.

Now it's over - IGNORE!

Off to Platja d'Aro, that's it for today. We then grabbed the bikes, went into the village 😂 😂 😂 😂 and then discovered the 'Enjoy It', where you can sit well and also eat well. That was the end of the day, hopefully it won't happen again this holiday.

Night!

What can I say, 'Heartfelt condolences on the loss of a year of life. 😢' or 'Life is like a portion of goulash: hot, delicious and with lots of tender beef', as well as today is always the day when you inevitably ask yourself the question: 'Isn't life a funny old bucket full of stinking water?'.

Mine thought of a particular meanness, as she gave me a nice, easy hike along the coast, 'Look, just a short stretch, 2, 3 km, easy to do and there are also 6 caches or something like that !'

Like it's her first time doing a 'cami'. But no, that's easy, it says here at Komoot! And so we went - almost lunchtime - to the start in Sant Feliu.

First challenge:

From sea level there is a rise of almost 50m over a length of 120m. Your untrained thighs cheer - or you get back in the car and drive to the parking lot 50m higher.

But then it actually started, the 'Cami de Ronda de Sant Feliu a Sant Pol' was in front of us, with numerous meters of altitude and depth as well. The path was partly really good, then again it went up and down along the coast on unpaved, root-soaked paths.

After almost 3 km and two hours we reached Sant Pol. Due to the approaching weather over the mountains at just under 2 km we decided that we would take the steep climb to Stasee, one would then walk back to the car while the other would do the circuit comes to an end.

In hindsight it was the right decision, we had barely met in Sant Pol when it started to rain - what a loss we would have been!

That's it for the day, the forecast is for 7 p.m. until it stops again. Nevertheless, we still went to Platja, even found a free parking space and, since the 'La Tagliatelle' was no longer offering anything to eat at that time, we went back to 'Enjoy It', where we once again had a great time under the waterproof roof in the pouring rain have eaten.

Then we went home in the evening, turned on the Fire TV stick and celebrated BVB's triumph against PSG and the start of the new year.

Night!

No, that has nothing to do with the film or the series, a visit was announced this morning. Nothing known, the landlord asked yesterday if he could show the apartment, he wants to sell it and has interested parties.

Briefly thought about why not, we don't care. I've never experienced such a quick inspection by a prospective buyer; they got through it in 5 minutes and apologized a thousand times - I personally think it won't work.

In addition, we did holiday documentation in the morning, Silvi has reserved the accommodation for the return journey, the bikes are still to go, the weather is simply fantastic after yesterday's rain. At some point it actually started, the plan was in place, Gockel Satellite shows mobile forest paths, let's see if we can do the 'Negre-Mega 2014' today.

And then expectations and reality met! While the image was initially characterized by easy-to-drive, wide paths with solid ground, this changed dramatically over the course of the route. But from the beginning.

We found the first cache quite quickly, today a relatively good container with a dry logbook, but that was just the incentive to continue the tour. What followed were wet pieces of paper in unsealed, partly destroyed cans lying somewhere in the landscape. Sometimes we had to look longer, sometimes they caught our eye straight away. Speaking of falling - sometimes you just fall over on your bike!

Lucky, nothing happened.

At some point we turned left, the caches became rarer (due to being archived), and the paths became worse. Sloping to the right or left, sometimes deep ruts washed out by the rain, sandy pieces, everything that you don't necessarily need as a cyclist. And then these cute little hills, behind which the path then dropped steeply. Some things were impossible to drive, so we had to push, luckily it went downhill. It's flat up there, so we'll stop there for a moment and take a breather.

Stupidity comes before a fall, or something like that, but anyone who tries to get off the bike on a sideways slope is responsible for the consequences. And so what had to happen came, legs up to get off over the saddle, as a man you don't allow yourself a low entry, it has to be a MEN'S BIKE, lost balance, pushed off at the last moment, "Badaufdich", made the eagle in the dirt, flat on the floor, stretching out all fours, listening to the inner voice - is something broken now? So not on the bike!

Yep, everything sorted, the back of the right thigh is aching, the left thigh or groin is pinching a lot, the left calf could have a strain or a torn fiber based on the pain, ouch!

It's still possible to get up, just don't complain and stand still, no one will find us here in a hundred years, it's clear that the caching is over for today, we just have to get out of here, somewhere where there is life.

There's something about good maps, just under a kilometer to asphalted civilization, we'll manage that somehow, then we'll see what happens next.

Driving was out of the question here, maybe it was my luck, my legs had to be moved, no protection, no protection, I'm an idiot, get me out of here.

One last little climb, ouch, the road! To the apartment it's about 13 km on the left, no less on the right, but it would be considerably shorter back on the forest path. No, not an option, that doesn't work. Ultimately the decision was made for 'right', simply because of the slight gradient. Now climb up without falling or further injury, good decision, it's almost a constant descent, so no additional strain on the damaged muscles.

The first Farmacia was given to us, IBU was taken care of, Fisiocrem cannabis was recommended, despite everyone we now have to get something between the gills, so off to 'Enjoy It', something to eat and then to the apartment, nursing care. Shitty day!

Night!

Good morning and OUCH!

Yes, it still hurts, the IBUs help and so does the cannabis lubricant. One thing is clear, there will be no cycling today, either it will be a lazy day or it will be a lazy day.

But even that was over by midday, we have to do something, you can't stay indoors in this weather, no matter how much you suffer! Nonsense, everything is fine, nothing is really broken, not even today and the strains or whatever they are are subsiding - or I don't feel them, thanks to IBU.

There was still this supplied LAB in Celra that we canceled! And there are enough caches there and if things go well, we'll also do one or two LABs in the edge.

But the thing about 'running well' is such a thing. Things can go really well with the Spaniards or Catalans, but with and things went a little less well.

But luckily we have a new best friend, at least when it comes to questions about LABs and caches. And so we moved from question to question, kept up a lively conversation about the above and got annoyed again when the Booger T1.5/D1.5 simply couldn't be found.

Of course, all of this kept us much longer than planned and later in the afternoon we gave up in Celra in exasperation. There was supposed to be another LAB, 'Dalí a Púbol' near La Pera. That looked good, short distances and Dalí is for Silvi anyway.

Things didn't go quite so smoothly, and the new best friend had to take over, he was already here and solved it. He couldn't really help, he didn't know the solution to the one station that we were missing, and we also asked in vain for information about the museum, but he was at least able to send us a blurry picture of the approximate location. Even if everything looks completely different today, Silvi was able to find the detail described and photograph it, but what do we do with it now.

And then I had a flash of inspiration, who else! Quickly registered, calculated the bonus and collected it, now it's time to go back - hungry!

Yes, I know, going out to eat again, but the thought of 'La Broschette' couldn't let us go. Ate great food, had a table dog, got through the day well.

You'd think so, but during the day some honk didn't like where our bikes were parked and thought he had to cover them with barrier tape and sticky tape and hang a stupid piece of paper on them after they've been sitting there for nine days. Total honk!!

Night!

No, not that place, we discovered a few caches that are still open and accessible, so we hope. And so we set out later in the morning to get Silvi a quick ride and to indulge our passion.

Everything wasn't so easy here, everything was full of one-way streets, everything was pretty hilly, not to say mountainous, so the whole thing ended up taking longer than planned - as it always did. And we left some caches alone; we won't start these experiments on the penultimate day, especially since the after-effects of falling over are still affecting me.

In the early afternoon we went to Sant Feliu to refresh a few memories, we collected and looked at a lot here in 2022. So off to the town, looking for a cozy café and just relaxing.

A table has been reserved for this evening at 'La Brochette', where else, before going to the apartment, do a little pre-packing so that the stress tomorrow morning is kept to a minimum.

Shortly before seven we started, the island terrace was set up, the table dog had already made itself comfortable, the food was once again excellent, one last veterano, one last 'goodbye', who knows when we'll be here again - caching can do it for us no longer provide a reason, it's pretty empty here.

On the way back we still had a full tank, we're starting tomorrow, the first stage to Crêches sur Saone.

Night!

9:00 a.m., we're awake, showered, the car is packed, we have another coffee, but not with Jogi, and we're waiting for our landlord to hand over the keys, all on schedule.

Looking back, the apartment was a good decision, even if there was this stress with some neighbor who had decorated our bikes, but that is completely independent of the booking. We can definitely recommend 'Andrey', I'll write that on AirBNB too, although I'm assuming that if it works, he'll sell the hut.

Everything was there, we could relax easily, everything was fine. Half past ten in the morning in Spain - departure!

But you shouldn't praise the day before the evening or the journey home before you're actually there.

North-northeast to the stage destination Crêches sur Saone, around 630 km, we should arrive there between 5 and 6 p.m., that's what we announced.

Platja d'Aro, Girona, Figueres, La Jonquera flew past us, end, end, nothing more, accident ahead, half an hour already lost before we are in France.

And the nightmare continued! Montpellier, Nimes and Bezier rushed past us again when the navigation system came back:

Traffic jam ahead - 34 minutes near Avignon, then 58 minutes, then 1:43 hours, no chance of getting around it. Our timing is no longer right, we will let you know by email. Shortly before Valence the navigation system reports that we can save almost 40 minutes of driving time for 60 km more, alternative route towards Grnoble and then to Lyon. That's not a rage, that's what we do.

And then, after a nine-hour drive, we actually arrived at the destination 'Kyriad Direct' Hotel, a quick pizza à apporter, one or two beers and the rest of the 'Veterano' we had brought with us, the nightmare is over - or is it?

Night!

Aaaargh! Ohhh! What? In the middle of the night, a body appeared from the bog right next to me after I had just saved myself from the bear. I was almost scared to death. No, it was not Silvia, she was just as scared when I woke up screaming loudly from my nightmare. My goodness, I haven't dreamed something like this in ages.

I was able to spend the rest of the night quietly, woke up shortly before eight in the morning, got ready, went to breakfast, which turned out to be more French, no matter, at least there was cheese and a pretty good coffee, let's go!

From now on everything went smoothly, no traffic jams, no disasters, no nightmares, we arrived in Dillingen as punctually as the wall, where Kira and the two tomcats were already waiting for us.

A little early at 'night! to say, see you soon!