In Barcelona: day 2

November 15, 2024

We’re getting an early start this morning because we’re having lunch today and need to be back in time for it. It was just too tight yesterday trying to fit in a ride after lunch, and neither one of us wants to wait around for the infamously late start of dinner services in spain. It’s a couple of degrees warmer today but it’s overcast and still pretty chilly at the start of my ride.

My plan this morning is to ride west out to the El Llobregat delta to see if there are any birds hanging around, essentially the ride I intended to take yesterday. It begins with a six mile traverse west through the heart of the city, which is - interesting. I’m a pretty seasoned cyclist by now with a lot of urban cycling experience under my spandex shorts, so I’m not intimidated by city riding. And actually Barcelona is surprisingly biker friendly, much more so than when we first biked into it 27 years ago. The city has invested in some significant cycling infrastructure, enough so that you can rely on its connectivity - if you’re paying attention anyway you won’t just get dumped at a dead-ended cycling path dropping you on a hair-raising shoulderless arterial. Still though it really demands your attention so you won’t miss a turn or an oncoming or overtaking bike or scooter on a narrow two-directional bike lane or a taxi turning across before you at the intersection ahead or knock over some poor old lady with a cane in one hand and a shopping bag in the other when you’re navigating your way through a crowded mob of pedestrians. It’s not easy .

But it is invigorating, exciting, engaging, and somewhat intimidating all at the same time. It reminds me of biking in Paris, and even just a bit of biking in Taiwan without the bazillion scooters to contend with. I don’t interrupt the flow to stop for any photos, but I think I’ll take the GoPro with me tomorrow to give you a sense of it.

So the visual part of today’s ride comes after I cross the El Llubregat and join the confusing set of trails out to the delta.

The El Llobregat delta is an interesting attractive area, one that from what I see today attracts many bikers and walkers. It’s quite flat, and has a mixed character - near the sea it is a protected natural reserve, but a few miles inland it is agricultural. In some ways it reminds me of biking on Sauvie Island, and other than for its remoteness from central Barcelona it looks like a place I might bike through frequently.

It is also a confusing area though, with multiple paved and unpaved paths and trails cutting through it that generally lead to the sea if they lead anywhere. It looks like there’s a lot to be explored here if I gave it more time than I have today.

And it’s also a frustrating area, because you can’t rely on its marked trails being fully accessible. More than one of them leads me to a fenced barricade; and not having brought my wire cutters with me there is no choice but to backtrack. As happenes with the route I had mapped to the sea, which gets me only about two thirds of the way there before forcing me back to find an alternate route.

Frustrating, but actually this first dead-end is my favorite part of the ride. Very quiet (perhaps because it’s a dead end at the moment), but a great place for enjoying interesting gardens and birds. It ends up being the best birding spot of the day.

Did I mention that this area is directly under the flight path of the airport right next store?

I love this style of cultivating tomatoes. I remember first seeing it west of Granada years ago.

Interesting hanging that huge squash in front of the tomatoes. Is it another form of scarecrow, making them fear they’ll be clubbed to death?

Eurasian blue tit, probably the best look I’ve gotten of one.

So I backtrack, stare at the map a bit and eventually find my way to the sea. Except for a spot where it was slow going making my way across a highway it is very nice cycling the whole way. No birds of note though.

Once you’re inside the natural park much of it looks like this. We’re following a small channel but because of the giant reeds we never see it except when coming to a bridge across it or to the sea itself.

When we do see the channel it looks like this. And there are birds, but you don’t see them often because they’re hiding in the reeds. I had my second sighting of a kingfisher here, but as is typical he was just a turquoise flash that quickly disappeared.

The end of the channel. Its an interesting sky - overcast here, clear out at sea. By the end of the day it will be clear everywhere.

Finally, the sea. There’s a viewing platform at the end of the trail which is really nice if you’re out here for the views. Maybe not so much if you’re here for the birds though.

So I turn back, mindful of the time I have left and not wishing to be Rockydarted again if it can be avoided. Unfortunately it’s just as slow going on the way back as the way out. For one thing, in my effort to shorten the return route I find myself on a different dead-end path, so I make the ride longer.

And for another we’re right by the runway for the international airport, and jets are flying in at a rate of one every few minutes. I get stuck when I see one ahead casting its reflection in the channel and decide to wait for the next one to see if I can get a picture of it. And I do, sort of - if all you’re after is the tail section. Five tries later I finally get the timing down nd capture the shot I want, but there goes a quarter hour I can’t really afford.

Success at last, after about five attempts to get the timing right.

And, once I reenter the agricultural zone there are a last few irresistable reasons to stop. After that it’s full speed for home, until I realize my left brake is almost completely nonfunctional. Not good, because my right one is too (I really need to get the bike in for its annual overhaul!). I really do need at least one functioning brake biking through a congested city so I stop, pull out the Allen wrenches, and in a minor miracle get it well adjusted in no time at all.

They grow a lot of these here. It’s probably the predominant crop on the delta.

Shack, artichokes, bridge. Not my bridge though, because I couldn’t figure out how to get to it.

So finally I’m back in town, biking as fast as I can across six miles of a dense, huge, crowded city. Rachael called about a mile back and asked how soon I’d arrive and I optimistically say 45 minutes but it’s close pr to an hour. Close enough though, and the restaurant we’ve chosen still has tables available.

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While I’ve been doing that Rachael’s been making a second foray into the hills north of town. She comes back without any particularly good stories or things to rave about - if she had it to do over, she’d have hpbeen better off and taken my advice to hike up to Montjuic; but there’s still tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon Rachael has the excellent suggestion to walk over to the Sagrada Familia, since it’s only five blocks away and we can’t see it from our fifth floor window because there’s a brick wall in the way. It’s easy to find once we set out, because we just fall in with the nearly unbroken river of other folks with the same brilliant idea.

And it is brilliant. There’s a good reason that there’s such a big crowd on all sides gazing up with their cameras out just like us. It’s a great time to see its western face - it’s a clear evening and the sun is low, perfect for viewing and admiring all the wonderful details. It’s only been a few years since we saw it last but there’s really been a lot of progress since then. It’s easy to believe that it will be finally done in a few years, something that seemed incomprehensible when we first saw it 27 years ago.

Eventually we break off and move to the northeast corner because I have a second goal for this evening - to see the full moon rise above the Sagrada Familia. Conditions are perfect - it’s a clear evening, there’s a large open quadrant to the north-northeast where it’s due to rise, it’s the last super moon of the year, and it really will be full tonight - 99.8% full at moonrise, according to Weather.com.

On the way we come up to a young couple staring up into the trees with their binoculars, so I ask if they’re birding. Yes, they reply in English, because they’re from Oxford. They’re not seeing any birds tonight though, and sadly they’re not seeing the inside of the Sagrada Familia either because they haven’t booked in advance. We have a very nice chat though, and they talk up what a good spot Oxford is for cycling (it’s flat!). Noted.

We wait maybe fifteen minutes past the reported time for moonrise, but it hasn’t made it above the apartments to the east when we decide to call it a day. It’s getting chilly and windy, we didn’t bring coats, and didn’t I just post a pretty good moonshot yesterday anyway?

Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 4,821 miles (7,759 km)

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