Three days in Barcelona

We have been in Barcelona since Sunday afternoon. After the quiet of Mallorca, the big city bustle takes some adjustment. It has rained steadily for two days, but we still have managed to walk around Barcelona to observe the architecture. Almost every apartment has a balcony of some sort to look out on the street or interior courtyard. It is also the city of modernism, and has many houses and buildings designed by the famous architect Antonio Gaudi. Below is a pic of La Pedrara Caixa de Catalunya, an apartment house designed by Gaudi.









And we have walked, and walked, and walked again, seeing incredibly detailed buildings and tapas bars everywhere. It seems that all of Barcelona eats tapas. Tapas are “small snacks”. Some might seem like an hor d’oerve with bread and/or cheese and some meat or olives. Others could be a pudding or yogurt with some fruit. And others could only be considered a dessert, made with ice cream, chocolate or cheesecake. We sampled them all! Here we are the first nite waiting for our tapas.






Not everyone in Barcelona eats out all the time. We visited two markets with an abundance of fresh foods of every description. The few pics below can't describe all the fresh items available.

Barcelona is also a city of motor scooters and bikes. The city has a network of bikes to borrow at various locations. Using a card, a bike is unlocked from a rack and then locked into another rack near your destination. We saw a maintenance truck today taking some of these bikes on a trailer. We imagine from time to time they have to rebalance the system to get more bikes to the places of high demand.

We head home tomorrow (Wednesday, 5th May). Hope you enjoyed our biking and cultural adventures!

Ken and Kathie

The rain in Spain falls…also in Mallorca

We had a deadline today (Saturday) to get our bikes ready to turn in by 4:30. We also awoke to a threatening sky. Considering this is our ninth day here, this is the only hint of rain we’ve had. We opted to stay close to Alcudia with a plan for a quick return in the event of heavy rain. Familiar roads were our choice. We rode up the coast to Porto Pollentia and turned inland towards Pollenca (Po yent sa). There are three ways out of Pollenca and we chose the one to the sea, to Cala Sant Vincenc. We encountered a few sprinkles on the way up the coast and a few more near Pollenca, but decided to press on. And it was worth the trip.

Cala Sant Vincenc sits in a cove on the north shore of Mallorca and is a very quiet community, without the kitsch of shops hawking beach wear, as on the main strip in Alcudia. It's very quiet, just a few hotels, cafes and an incredibly beautiful bay set deep between two cliffs. We saw a few snorkelers coming out of the blue water as we rode in. It would be perfect place to do………….nothing.
As soon as we began to soak up the view, the sun pushed away the fog and rain and we got a clear view of the bay. Our coffee con leche and tea helped us prolong the stay to enjoy the view. We are soaking up the sunshine below (Ken took the pic)






After refreshments we just headed back to Alcudia and met another party from our group on the road out to this beautiful spot. Not too many miles today, but a perfect way to remember the beauty of the sea which also makes up so much of the character of this island.

On to Barcelona tomorrow - check back for more updates.

Stats for today: 29 miles and 388 feet of climbing