The Rain in Spain stays mainly on the Plain....

Eventful day! Capped off by Barcelona failing to advance in the Euro champions league semi-finals. They tied Chelsea, from England, 2-2, disaster for all the Catalonians.

We decided to stay another night at our inn, Can Masa, in La Pera, so we can ride today without our gear. The bikes feel so light, which is great cause we're heading up a famous mtn called Els Angels. Lance Armstrong used to ride this road regularly when he trained out of Girona. We were ascending from the east side, shorter and steeper, a 6K climb. The road starts out fine, steep but not insane, we go about 1K and psst, I get another flat! Three flats in two days, this isn't good. As I change it about 20 riders come racing down and they're all pedaling down the hill, serious shit. We get going again and I'm on pins and needles trying to avoid rocks, gravel, etc. The road is marked every kilometer, we break at the 2k mark and the 4k mark for water, but we're doing pretty well. We just take our time, aprils knee is fine, and sure enough make it to the top with no drama. Great view. We can see back to Girona, where we started and east to the sea, where we've been for the past few days. The climb gives us a lot of confidence for tackling the Pyrenees later in our trip.

We head on down, and it so happens that April brakes almost the entire way, and never changes her legs position, so her knee cramps up. Really??

We head over to Monells, another beautiful medieval town, and stop for lunch. April had the Butifarra, which is like a Spanish bratwurst, with white beans, and I had a rabbit souvlaki type of thing with fries. Awesome. The regular food here is very good. We've determined the standard fare is about 80% as good as the expensive food, yet it's about half the price. As we eat rain is threatening but not actually falling. So we continue on in a big loop to check out some more villages.

We head down a dirt road, it becomes a dirt path, then it gets very rough, sort of like a Mtn bike path. I'm leading and trying to keep on pedaling rather than walk the bikes, the trail gets soft with some deep ruts, I try to push thru a deep rut, hit a rock then start to fall to my right. Nothing worse than falling while clipped in. You're madly trying to twist your cleated shoe out of the pedal clip but invariably it stays locked in. So I tumble to my right and fall right into a patch of stinging nettles and this other plant that sticks all over you.

Now this is a special moment. You can tell a lot about your relationship in these types of situations. Concern? Empathy? Love? How about just a little help? Not a chance. Instead April is behind me laughing like there's no tomorrow! She got the biggest freakin kick out of me falling and trying to unclip, then standing up with that stupid sticky vine all over me. That's 30 years of marriage for you.

So we keep going and finally the rain starts. And then it begins to really pour. We take shelter in a covered bus stop. Wait about 20 minutes and then we get frustrated waiting, so we head out as it lightens up a little. Remember we were just day-riding so we didn't have our rain coats or neoprene booties, or warmer gloves etc. Well the rains didn't let up, and we get soaked, and worse we're on a dirt path which is now a muddy path, so the bikes are a mess. It sucks to suck.

The rain stops, the sun sort of comes out, but we're pretty cold, so we take a short cut back to the inn, and April remembers she wants to see the house Salvador Dali bought for his crazy wife named Gala. Damn it. Of course we stop. It's this old castle like structure. Dali was crazy and his wife, Gala was even crazier. She only accepted the house, if Dali agreed to the clause that he could only visit her when she invited him. I hope April doesn't get that idea for me and Bainbridge, haha. Dali liked this situation cause it inflamed his passion for her. The house was really weird. Very sparse. Weird shit in it. Bizarre in many ways. Supposedly Gala used to call up the young local boys for some action even into her later years. And the story also goes that after she died Dali drove her around for a day in their big blue cadillac. I think Dali was a bit of a poser. Very creative but I've never seen any amazing art that he did.

Finally we get back to the inn, still chilled. I clean off the bikes, put on a new back tire, we shower, then we hit the local cafe for dinner and the soccer game. I must have been channeling Nicky O'Connor cause I got a cheeseburger and beer for dinner. Haha. The cafe got packed. Barca went up 2-0, and the locals were going crazy. We left at half time with Barca up 2-1. Seemed like everything was under control, but Chelsea eventually tied the game, and moved on to the finals based on points from earlier games. The Catalonians will be depressed for days.

Back over to the coast tomorrow.


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Location:Camí dels Enamorats,Escala,Spain