May 28, 2008. We woke up to a sunny day, which is not what the forecasts say, calling for rain (60 % chance). Of course, for once the forecasts were wrong. I attended a soccer practice, as usual, on Wednesday and took some near end of season photos including my conversation partner, Jose.
Jose admitted to me today that he was in the Communist party in Spain when it was very dangerous during the 1960s. He even trained on how to set up meetings and organize in Checoslovakia. Meetings were held in churches, where they were somewhat protected, but you had to be careful since there were spies and only some churches were left-leaning — some were with the Fascists and Franco. It was a dangerous time, he said.
Anne witnessed a dog fight in the park where a non-Spanish person escalated it to a human fight (well — name calling with lots of bad Spanish words thrown in). Unfortunately, I was not there to witness or learn from the vocabulary lesson.
May 29, 2008. I drove over to Girona, about an hour, this morning to go riding with a guide I hired there. I told him we had to speak Spanish, so I got that out of it too. The drive was interesting since it was rush hour and traffic was slow but motorcycles and scooters were riding down the lanes between the cars a full speed. It was just insane. Anywho, I managed to get there in about an hour and a half, find the meeting place, change to cycling clothes, meet the guide I found on the Internet (easier to have a guide for one day than try to figure out where the best riding is). The guide Jaume is a chemical engineer by training but likes bikes so he guides bike trips (seems like the two interests could be combined).
Off we went and rode some very good roads with mild climbing and descending, for the most part. Some of the descents were very technical with turns that are hidden, narrow roads, rocks, etc… We ran into a bike tour put on by Marty Jemison, a former 7-11 team rider with 22 riders. That didn’t look like I would have enjoyed it — too much waiting. But I did see a nice selection of rear-view mirrors hooked to helmets and glasses. Marty was very nice — I chatted with him — “Hey, where are you from.” “Colorado, we have some people here from Colorado”, etc…
A nice lunch was had in a Catalan town, who knows where but it was mildly charming with lots of stray cats walking around. It was sort of deserted, actually. Good sandwich, though. Sandwich is entrepan in Catalan, bocadillo in Castillano, and sandwich in English.
Toward the end of the ride, which ended up being about 130 kilometers, we caught up with a girl who passed us and who Jaume, my guide, thought was a pro. So did I and there are a lot of them in this area, which is why there are bike tours around. The roads are relatively empty of cars, and have a variety of climbing and descending, including some super technical descents where you can’t see the end of the turns. Anywho, we caught the girl after I gave Jaume one of those “let’s chase” signals and went up a hill managing not to be dropped (me) as she chatted with Jaume in Catalan like she was out for an easy ride. She turned out to be a Mosses, which are the cops. Photos are here.
On the home front, the boys’ school is infested with head lice. Today a number of kids were sent home from each class the basically the entire second grade was sent home. It is still light here really late, I’m writing this at 9:00 and it’s light like late afternoon.
May 30, 2008. Head lice have taken over the school, it seems. Another three kids were sent home today (they were three of the four that were sent home yesterday — apparently their parents didn’t git the critters).
May 31, 2008. Ellen and Matt, Anne’s sister and her husband, arrived today to a ticker tape parade and laudable press. Well, we picked them up at the airport. They were just in Portugal riding a motorcycle through the country and reported a good trip, having taken a lot of photos. The place looks pretty backwards, more than Spain, with mountains and nice roads but a poorer population. There isn’t the ubiquitous trash that you find on the side Spanish roads. The mountains don’t seem as high, and the landscape seems more arid when compared to the Pyrenees. They had a nice trip.
June 1, 2008. It rained most of the day today. Anne and I had a lunch at one of the BFIS people’s houses that lives here; Ellen and Matt went sightseeing. Then, in the evening (late!), we all went to the fountains of Mont Juic, which are the thing to see for every tourist (music and water show).
June 2, 2008. We went to Montserrat today with Ellen and Matt, thinking at the last minute. It was warm in Barcelona so we went to the mountains (Montserrat) which is about 45 minutes away. Of course, no jackets and we’d just hike. As we approached the range, there were clouds hanging over them and we realized forgetting our jackets was probably a mistake. We hiked anyway, unprepared, hoping we would not need jackets. Three hours or so later, we emerged from the hike, having gone up the mountain in hot, humid conditions, then eaten lunches and descended in fog and humidity. Here are photos (lots) and a movie.
June 3, 2008. Ellen and Matt got another chance to visit Barcelona’s many sights. They reported lots of interesting stuff and at the end of the day, when Matt had enough, Anne, Ellen and Joshua went to Segrada Familia, the church-like structure that is Barcelona’s icon. Ellen and Matt also joined us for what is perhaps the penultimate lunch with Dan and Amy here in Barcelona; we were all just a hooting and a hollering while reviewing all the good times.