Sweets Bea

Celrà is the first village down the Ter from Girona, eight flat kilometres on the road that half the catalogue uses to get out of the city. Sweets Bea sits on a quiet street there and is the reason to stop instead of rolling through: part pâtisserie, part brunch counter, with a case of cakes made in the back and a menu of bagels, pancakes and eggs if you want a plate rather than a pastry.

It is also the rare stop that will build what you ask for. The reviews are full of people who were given an alternative rather than an apology, pancakes made with oat milk, portions adjusted, and the owners are the kind who come out and talk to you. Four point nine across ninety-odd reviews in a village of five thousand people.

For a rider, it works twice: as a first stop fifteen minutes into a flat morning, or as the place to kill an ice-cream milkshake on the way home from something long, as long as you are back by one, when the shutters come down. Just not on a Sunday, see below.