Barcelona: Day 2

March 18, 2022

The main event for today is a visit to the Sagrada Familia, of which more later. Surrounding it, I awoke after another difficult night’s sleep at 6:30 to the jarring sound of the alarm on Rachael’s phone, after which I quickly went out to the pastry cafe Rachael found for me yesterday for a few rounds of cafe con leche with pastries. We left a bit after 8 and walked the two miles to the Sagrada Familia, took the English-speaking tour Rachael had booked us for, and walked back to our room. We hustled on the way over but slowed down for at least a few photos on the way back. We were happy to have had an unexpectedly dry morning but by the time we got home at 11 we were both leg and foot weary and ready for a break.

La Monumental, Barcelona’s last bullfighting ring.

The Arc de Triomf, built as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World’s Fair.

After regrouping for about an hour we left our room with two suitcases in tow for the main errand of the day - an easy 350 meter walk past the cathedral to the nearest UPS service outlet, Mail Boxes etc, to ship them to our hotel in Nice where if all goes to plan they will be stored for us for nearly 9 months until we arrive there in late November.

This is the third time we’ve gone to a Mail Box outlet, always in Spain, to ship our suitcases forward. When it’s an option we still find it the best solution: super-simple (you can just wheel your suitcases in the front door and hand them over) and reasonably priced. Today’s shipment cost us 97 euros, which feels very fair.

Ready for shipment, and due to arrive Tuesday. We’ll have to let our hotel in Nice know they’re on their way.

The cathedral, and another street demonstration. These Catalonians are so demonstrative!

Tower and remnants of the Roman walls that surrounded Barinco two millennia ago.

After looking around for a better option we end up in Benedict’s for lunch again, and then lazily walk back to the room where we both quickly crash into a nap. We had planned to take the bikes out for a test ride but a nap feels much more to the point.

We don’t wake again about 4:30. There is still time to take the bikes for a test ride but it is easier to just give them a once over in the room. With Rachael helping by serving as an ad hoc bike stand we test the essentials - gears, brakes, trued wheels. We’re feeling upbeat when mine passes with flying colors and are nearly done with Rachael’s when we find one slight problem: a complete lack of function on her front brake. Not the best - Spain isn’t a great landscape for riding a loaded bike with only a rear brake.

A closer inspection quickly revealed the problem - no brake pads! Now that’s a puzzler. We’ve never unpacked our bikes to find this problem before. It’s at least suspicious that on Rachael’s last minute trip to the bike shop before departure they replaced the pads; and we can’t remember if we did any sort of test ride before packing the bikes away. Maybe they left one out, or installed a pair backwards like happened to us twice(!) at a bike store in San Diego a few years back?

Fortunately there’s still recovery time. Rachael quickly finds a well-reviewed LBS just a seven minute walk away, and they’re open until 8. I hustle over there with the bike and spare pads that I had fortunately packed along, and receive the good news that they can take the work and have it ready by 11 in the morning.

Since I’m out with a bike even if only on foot, I take the opportunity to take a day-late snap for the Cycle365 Saint Patrick’s Day challenge.

Walking back, relieved to have a solution to our problem hopefully in hand, I take my time walking past the Roman walls one last time and then come to the plaza in front of the cathedral. A large audience is assembled watching a troupe of street performers - still there from when I walked through the other way a half hour earlier.

I stopped to watch a charming drama as members of the troupe solicited a group of young women to volunteer to be props for the crowning act of the night. There was a lot of buildup and excitement as the women were arranged into the best and safest pose, the crowd was beckoned to come in close for a better look, and hats were passed to fund the project.

And then? We’ll, you should watch the video. It was well worth the wait.

If those walls could talk, such history they’ve seen.

On the plaza. The volunteers are a mix of excited and anxious.

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Andrea BrownWhat a beautiful and interesting city. And acrobatic, too!
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2 years ago

Bruce LellmanA day or so before you left on your trip I watched a Ryan Van Duzer video on YouTube - his suggestions on how to pack a bike for travel. He takes a little three inch square piece of cardboard and inserts it between his brake pads and the disc. He says that it prevents the pads from shifting around and/or rubbing on anything in transit. I was going to tell you about this trick but you had already packed your bikes.
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2 years ago

Jen RahnLove that Alley oop video!

Oh, to be young and have still have bounce and spring in one's joints!!
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jen RahnIsn’t that great? It was really a delight to stand there and watch the pageant unfold.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Andrea BrownI was surprised by how much I enjoyed Barcelona. You could stay ere pretty happily for a long time, but we’d never get to England that way.
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2 years ago