2018 Europe: Scootering Spain

We spent four days a Barcelona catching up with old friends and walking and walking and walking and sweating and sweating. It was hot! Took a walking tour of the old town with a irreverent tour guy, just my style. There were five of us, me, Vicki, a couple from NY and a college student from Belgium. All went great until we started talking football, the real football. The one where you run the whole time and don't take coffee breaks in a huddle or have these things called "timeouts". When I stated my opinion that "real" football was much more physically challenging than American football the NY acted like a NY'er and wanted to get in my face over that statement. I did not think that a Gothic tour was the place to argue football, I took a pass on his challenge. Sometimes, I do show a little tact.

So, what is the elevator for?

The tour group

The big news in town was the anticipation of "National Day" on 11 Sept. The eastern part of Spain was a separate country in the 1700's but in 1714 was conquered and brought into what is now Spain.
Catalonians where forbidden from using their on language, which is different than Spanish and could not practice their old customs and ways until the mid-70's when Franco died.The Catalonia area, as it is now called, has had a separatist movement for a long time but in recent years, since the crash of 2008, has been very strong. There former leaders are now in jail. Large demonstrations are planned in town for the 11th to free the "political prisoners" and "National Day" . Flags for and against separation are all over town. We say the non-separatist movement parade on Sunday. Lots of dancing and music and long speech giving are associated with these events.

Barcelona, like many other places, is reaching it's limit with tourist's and has begun to limit the number that are welcome. This was brought on by many things, not the least being AirBnB type operations. They have priced many locals out of the housing market except houses far out of town.
Also the many number of cruise ships takes it toll on infrastructure and the nerves of the locals. Many places are now limiting the number of ships that can just stop for the day and thus bringing little to the cities other than large hordes of people following a umbrella or little flags carried by their guides. Dubrovnik in Croatia, had over 530 cruises ship visits and it's old town and the main area visited has seen over 731,000 cruise ship passengers, plus the normal land tourists. This like bringing all those people a town the size of St. Augustine. Cities are now limiting the number cruise ships and their length of stay.

Los Rambles, where all the Barcelonain's used to stroll.
Now, it is overrun by us tourist.

I have not been feeding my travelers very well this trip. I apologize Frank. Food has been just average until we found the Dona Rosa. One problem is the hotel has a huge breakfast buffet with every imaginable item for a international hotel. The on the street food has been just average but the atmosphere triple A plus. Sitting on the sidewalk taking all the the time in the world watching the world go by was great. The last day we set out with the Driggers to find a small bite as that evening we were having our welcoming dinner. We walk lots of streets looking for the just right spot. We came to a place that looked acceptable and took a out door table. I could tell Walt was not quite right with the choice and myself I found it just "acceptable". Walt was frigidity and mentioned the hummus available next door, so I stood up and said lets move. Just a few feet away we set down at another outside table, but there were smokers all around. Hellen had not seen a comfortable table inside but I went for a re-inspection and found in the very back a small sitting area and we relocated once again.
The best decision's all around that we had made this trip as we where treated to the best food we had had on the whole trip so far. We met the whole staff. The Filipino cook/washer, the Israeli chef, the Argentinean waitress and her boyfriend bartender. The food was tapas which is small items. Each one was a culinary masterpiece with mixture of tastes that was fantastic!

This is a pincho bar. Each item is served on a small piece of bread.

everything from hamburgers to shrimp to vegan to dessert

Usually there are two prices depending on the item. Price is indicated by the type of tooth pick. You save the toothpick and the waiter adds it up at the end. Don' worry, they keep an eye on you.

The Dona Rosa Staff....

cook

bar tender

waiteress

food

Chef. Someone had to much cava

Day 1 Barcelona to Girona

A lots of worry had gone into getting out of town as Barcelona is a very busy town. However, thanks to good planning and it being a holiday it all went smooth. We left in a pack of 21 scooters with me in the back to round up anybody that went astray. The attitude here about driving is much different in my home country. The was light traffic but when the 21 scooters changed lanes other cars gave way. Taxi's actually slowed to let us in. There was a road closure on the way out of town that threw us a curve, but the leader rerouted with a lot of zigging and zagging. One inattentive went astray and I ran off to round him up. By the time I caught him the rest of the group was gone and due to the detour I did not know what route they went, so I headed for our first meet up point out of town. Walt, who is always, always in my rear view mirror, was behind me and the wandering duckling following him. I asked Walt to drop back behind the wayward one and bring up the rear. He did and later told me he told the other rider, "if Ken goes through a red light, you go through the red light and no matter what I will be in Ken's rear view mirror and you are on your own.

Once we were all safely out of town Walt, Bill, Shara and I took off on our own. We stopped for "National Day" event and a coffee and arrived in Girona just a little behind the rest of the group.

leaving Barcelona

Connie, a happy rider

Warren, a organizer and herder of cats

We stopped in a small village for national day

with flowers

and protesters

and OS

Day 2 Sep 12

Scooters scattered in every direction and our group caught the train to Fiqueres to visit the Dali Museum. They were disappointed that on the train it never stopped at Couche despite the sign showed that all the time. Vicki and I had seen the museum and since the second largest Dali collection is in our home town we did not see a need see more. We stayed in town and bought future train tickets, did laundry and walked the old town. That night we all got together at a restaurant on a large square and watched the people and eat pincho’s

20 artist from england practicing their craft

Day 3

Scooters scattered across the country. Our gang headed of the Dali Castle in the country. Not really a castle but a large home. From there we meandered over to Cadaquiz on the coast and had a great lunch and the headed home.

a very cool dyson sink in Dali house. it is all automatic. wash your hands, move them under the wings and they blow dry with the usual dyson force

I thought I had the DT's as I kept feeling a bug crawling around in my helmet and then my shirt. Glad I found as the others thought I was crazy

Every picture tells a story

Day 4 Girona to Comprodon

We said goodbye to Vicki and Hellen and headed up into the hills to Comprodon, a hill town. The hotel was from the 50’s or older with large ballroom, dinning, reading room and bar with large wooden staircase.

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We rode the scooters up the mountain this hardy international group rode bicycles. Not without injury

Day 6

We road over the mountain to Nuira. To get there I found a concrete goat path over the mountains. Considering the road, it was kind of busy which means we saw a few cars. Europeans are out door people and some came to hike and some came to hunt mushrooms. At the summit we were stopped by the officials. There was a mountain marathon of 400 runners. They had started in the valley, ran up the mountain and where now running the ridge. A water station was right on the road in the middle of our route. I politely waited for a while then saddled up and went up and stopped right by the “road guard”. He let me and Walt through, but not Warren and Oliver, so we sat on the other side for about 15 minutes until they came through. At Nuira we caught the cog train up the mountain to a large ski resort, had a cup of a coffee and then headed back down. Lunch was at a rural café on the side of the road.

post ride happy hour at the hotel

the back side of the hotel with the little bridge

Day 7 Camprodon to Puillans

There are not a lot of choices of where to ride in this part of Spain as there are very few roads. The mountains are steep and no one lives in them. To move to our next location the only choices were two roads and they lived right next to each other. A old road and a new road. We choice the old road and had a nice little ride and total riding time was about 3 hours.

Once in the open valley we stopped at the small airport I had researched that did glider flying. In fact, it seemed that is all they did in a very nice airport, complete with non-working tower and a little restaurant, that was closed today. We were looking for arranging a glider ride the next day for Walt and they said let’s do it today. We went to lunch in the town of Alp, a completely new town created for the ski crowd. There are ski resorts all over this place. Lunch was at a vegetarian restaurant about as wide as my butt. With my broken Spanish we worked through the menu and everyone making a choice with most going for the bean/mushroom burgers sans bun and I had a salad and soup. All were satisfied.

Back at the airport we launched Walt in the first ride. It was supposed to be 25 minutes for 95eur but Walt was gone for a long time. Next up was Sarah, who was not up as long. I think Walt and the glider driver where talking flying and thereby staying up longer.

We rolled into the hotel about 5. It too is a ski resort that caters to bikers in the summer. They had a welcoming drink and we added a few more, then off to dinner. Since we were near nothing and having had consumed a few drinks we all headed for the dinning room that opened at 8 and only served a buffet. It was excellent but I think everyone swore off it. Too much temptation.

coffee stop

lunch in ale

Day 8

In our adventures Vicki and I have spent a few nights in Foix, France while transiting from the Mediterranean coast to the Atlantic coast. Last time through there was a new restaurant opened with a husband and wife owners. She from Italy and he from Argentina. The food was excellent. So, that is where we went to lunch today. It was a two and a half hour ride over the mountains passing along the border of Andorra. We topped out at over 6,000 feet and bypassed the long $12 tunnel. The ride over the top was fantastic with great vista’s. Traffic on the Spanish side was pretty light but from Andorra into Foix the traffic was pretty steady.

I did not recall the name of the restaurant and with almost no internet in my room at the hotel I could not comb the old blog to find the name. Fortunately, my internal GPS was working great and we walked right to it. The owners did not remember me but they are still lovely but more importantly still have great food. It was declared the best of the trip.

Back on the scooters we headed home. The weather for riding still remains excellent.

the restaurant

the excellent food!!!

the owner

the chef

the guy still in the rear view mirror

Day 9 A local ride solo

lunch at chez kenny. everything chez vicki has but wine

Day 10 Prullans to Solsona

Off we go with some new tag alongs. Ken and Diane, formerly of NY city, now retired in Saratoga. He was the head of the Homicide division in the prosecutor’s office.

There is one rider that I know of that has been on almost all of these rides, Connie. Connie rides her own rides. Yesterday she had headed out over the mountain land through the dale until it starting getting dark and getting low on fuel. She found a bar in a small mountain town and via sign language to her story. They had diesel but not gas. So plan B, and an friendly gent took her down the road to a lovely B&B in a rural area to spend the night.

As we are riding along we came upon this place with her and her rescuers having coffee. We joined in.

Bill, Sara, Walt,Diane, and Ken

cConnie's rescue party

The chef

Not a bad place to get stuck over night

That guy is still in the mirror

That white road down the mountain is where we came from

Lunch

Day 11 Solsona West

A group of us rode out to a motorcycle museum in the middle of nowhere. It was a great little museum. From there, Walt and I headed out. About lunch time I pulled over to discuss our future. The road was nice but nothing to ride home on. So, we headed into the little village to have lunch. At was a great decision. There appeared to be a couple of very small bars and we chose one at random. There three people total in the plaza. We made a great choice. There was only on choice in the restaurant, the menu of the day. It had to items from starter, entry, and desert. We had that, water, coffee and a bottle of wine all for 10 eur. We never found the name of the restaurant. We left the plaza and turned in the opposite direction than we entered. It was a great choice. There was no traffic and it was a nice mountain road with mostly gentle curves and gradual grades. We arrived back at the hotel just in time for happy hour, a great ending to a great trip.