We last left you in France and oh boy what a ride it's been. Here are some highlights:
We left our campsite after a beautiful sunny day off and it started raining moments into our day. Until yesterday we hadn't seen the sun for three days. Not to complain a lack of sun isn't bad, however for three days almost non stop it rained and we rode through it all. This rain was no light drizzle it dumped buckets of water on us day and night. It made riding on the busy highway we are riding on scary as heck, exactly like riding down hill blinded by the heavy drops of rain and mist flying off the tractor trailers that are whizing by at break neck speeds feet from you, while you struggle to stay in the few inches of non existent shoulder and trying not to fly off course as the sucking affect of the tractor trailers tempt to pull you sideways then forward and in the end trying not to hydroplane, since the road is really just a small river.
The sun finally showed it's self while we enjoyed a day of in Barcelona. Georgia was able to catch up with a good friend. We got to eat at a vegan (as per Gen) restaurant which was really good. I was able to find the ortlieb parts I needed from when I hit the cement car block in France. The Spanish ortlieb distributers luckily are in Barcelona, definitely check out Bike Tech http://www.bike-tech.net if you happen to need some bike help in Barcelona or looking for some ortlieb parts while on a tour in Spain.
I got sick, sick to my stomach. We don't know what it was/is but something was not happy in my stomach. I can only imagine it was either the cattle truck that passed us with spray flying off the back into my mouth, or some sort of food parasite type thing. My appetite is back and that's all I care about, biking 50mi on crackers and bananas just doesn't cut it.
We rode in the sun today, what a great feeling it was, it made riding so enjoyable. We now all have a healthy sun kissed glow and are well on our way to some pretty impressive bike short tans. We found the hills south of Barcelona, which were a pleasant change to the cold flat semi hilly terrain we had been traveling trough.
The most random thing happened today. While tierdly sitting outisde a gas station just outside of the never ending city of Barcelona, a man appeared.
"hola" I whispered. He was riding a hybrid bike and by the looks of it it was new. On the back there was a lumpy duffle and a backpack awkwardly strapped on. The top bar had a classy black umbrella nicely strapped in place. He was in his late fifties early sixties dressed in khakis, a short sleve button down and a fishermens hat. This was an odd sight.
"do you speak enlgish," he half gasped in a British accent we nodded "oh thank god. How do you get out of here?" we were all confused. He kick stood his bike and got off.
"we are trying to figure that out as well," I offered.
"I am heading to Saratoga" we had no idea where that was. We nodded and agreed.
"do you mean Santiago," I said.
"yes eventually I am heading there." hmm a pilgrim perhaps. he ment Zaragoza, a city many miles away. "I just bought this bike." he adjusted the suitcase which was simply held on by looping the handle of the bag over the saddle. Emma offered her map, even though it wasn't much help even to us. He pulled out his map, crisp and clean he unfolded a map of Europe. No wonder he couldn't find his way. This was way odd. Georgia and I gave each other confused looks.
"we are heading to Madrid, but south first." Now that it was clear we weren't much help he got back on his bike. Em asked the question we had all been wondering.
"so what the deal? are you just going for it?" he was clealy not prepared for any type of bicycle tour.
"yep pretty much," was his reponse.
"that's pretty exciting," Em said.
"actually it is pretty annoying," the man said, which confused us most of all. Then he was gone as quickly has he had arrived. At the end of the day were still not sure if it actually happened, was it our first group hallucination?
Oh right we are in Spain!
Enjoy!
Photos (top to bottom): welcome to Spain, in the rain; Gen and Em hit their 4,000km in the rain(ish); sight seeing in Barcelona, the famous Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudà ; we all got flip flops, Em shows hers off along with her strengthening calf muscles, painted toe nails, and sock tan; a quick snap shot of the sea from the hills south of Barcelona.
