May 25, Granada

The drive from Castillo de Baños to Granada was very short. I found the campgound in Peligros easily and set up camp. It´s a beautiful little place built into a hill. First thing I did was book my entry to La Alhambra for today.

In the morning I took a bus into Granada and another little bus up to La Alhambra. Once there, I spent the next four hours just wandering around. It is far more incedible than I had ever thought. It feels almost like the Moors abandoned the site when it was conquered by Ferdinand and Isabel and it has sat there ever since just as they left it. It seems that Isabel wanted to keep the Moorish atmosphere and tried to restore the palaces to what they had been. La Alhambra was the last holdout of the Moors in Spain. I think it took ten years before it was actually taken, so the last sultan had let it run down quite a bit because he knew he was going to loose it.

May 23, Alpujarras

The Alpujarras are a range of mountain just behind the campground that I am staying at. They have many little towns that used to be Arabic and are noted for their white color and many flower baskets in the windows. I drove up into the mountains on little back roads and spent several hours just wandering around (Lost).

May 22, Castillo de Baños

Yesterday I left Valencia and drove along the coast this time passing by Cartegena, which was as far as I got last year. So now I´m into new country. I was going to camp out along the coast, but the campground that I stopped at was too fancy. This whole coastal area has been way overdeveloped and it is not what I have in mind for Spain. I kept going and ended up staying at a hotel in Torrevieja.

Today I left Torrevieja early and drove farther than ever before on this trip. Still not a great distance, but I made it to a place called Castillo de Baños. I think it´s called that because there were some arabian baths here. The whole coast is lined with old watch towers that were put up for protection against attack. The campground that I am stayin in is really nice. It´s simple, but with all the necessities to make it agreeable. My tent is about ten meters from the ocean, so I can hear the waves all night.

May 20, Valencia

Today was a beautiful sunny day. I rode into Valencia and spent several hours at the Bellas Artes museum , before walking around the old part of the city. Although touristic, this city feels a lot more authentic than Barcelona. There are all kinds of tours everywhere, but there are also a lot of Valencianos doing their thing.

May 18 Valencia

I sat out a few days in the rain and then decided to move on as soon as possible. Today it was clear so I packed up my bike and headed for Valencia. It´s not a very long drive, but I got lost trying to find the campground which is just South of Valencia on another lagoon (so of course there are the sounds of explosions all night). This lagoon is called La Albufera, and again it is very threatened ecologically. But there is a tremendous bird population here, both migratory and permanent. After I got my tent set up it had clouded over again, and then it began to pour, with thunder and lightening like you get in Ontario in the summer. So, I stayed in my tent again. In the restaurant they were having comuñones for all kinds of little girls all dressed up in white and very proud of themselves. So here I was in my motorcycle road clothes trying to look inconspicous.

May 15, Delta de L'Ebre

Well I finally got moving. Monica left in the morning and I packed up my bike and took off towards the South. I only planned a short trip to the Delta de L'Ebre. This is a huge delta area almost totally devoted to rice production. I found the campground out at the end of the Delta and right on the beach. It´s a great spot, mainly because there are not too many people camping at this time of the year. In the summer it must be packed. It is a nature preserve, but there is still a lot of hunting and fishing. In fact they were crop dusting from the air which must be great for the wildlife. But in spite of it there are a lot of birds around.

At night I was kept awake by explosions that kept occuring. Apparently it's something they have installed to scare off the ducks so they don't eat the rice. It goes on all night and is very loud.

That bull at the top was one of a herd that was in the fields around the camp. They looked like bullfighting bulls to me.

Sitges May 12

Here´s a photo of Monica and Jaume when we went out for lunch in Barcelona last week.

My motorcycle was ready last Friday, but it was pouring rain so I came to Sitges by train. I´m going to go back and pick it up on Tuesday. The weather has been unbelievable. I haven´t seen it rain so hard here. The ocean in front of the apartment in Sitges looked like the Pacific Ocean off Vancouver island. By today (Monday) it had returned to normal and the weather is supposed to get sunny in the next few days.

Yesterday, for my birthday, Monica, Jaume and Jaume´s Dad took me out for lunch at a fantastic seafood restaurant here in Sitges. I don´t know why, but the seafood here is way better than in Vancouver. Maybe it´s more variety and a different way of preparing it.

I´m beginning to have doubts about going to Cadeques again. I´m becoming impatient and feel like going someplace that I haven´t been to before.

Barcelona May 8 (Thursday)

Since my bike tuneup won´t be ready until Friday, and the hotel in Badalona was booked up I had to move to Barcelona. That was my whole days activity. I took the train in and checked into the Hotel Rembrant. Which is a two star hostal type place just off the plaza catalunya. It´s actually quite nice, but pretty basic.

Badalon May 7

In the morning I went into Barcelona and just acted the tourist. Although in a very relaxed way. I sat around watching people go by rather than hurrying from one touristic site to the other. After having a great lunch in Barceloneta I came back to Badalona to take my bike into the motorcycle shop for service.

Then in the evening I went back into Barcelona to meet up with Monica. We went to a little local that specializes only in beers. I think it was called La Cerveceta. From there we found a really unusual little tapas bar and had tapas: octopus, shrimp, mushrooms and potatoes (bravas). Then we went to the Harlem Jazz club for a show. But, it was soooo bad we couldn´t stay.

Badalona May 6

Because it´s going to take some time to get the service done on my bike I needed to find another hotel. There was nothing here in Badalona so I went into Barcelona and found a room in a hotel we stayed in previously. Then I met Monica at her work and we had lunch together. From there we went to the catalan museum and hung out for awhile.

It´s strange being back in Barcelona. It´s still full of tourists, but not as much as it will be in a short time. At first I didn´t like it, but maybe that was because I was tired from the trip. Now it seems a lot more interesting to see people being just tourists at all hours of the day or night.

Badalona May 5

The BIG DAY!! I went first thing to see my bike. When I turned the ignition on it looked pretty good. The lights were bright. It took several attempts fo get it going, but the engine started up okay. I checked out of the storage and drove it back to my hotel. Monica came to meet me for lunch and afterwards we walked around looking for a place to get a tuneup done. When we found the HONDA dealership they at first said they were booking for next week, but I think the mechanic took it as a challenge to take care of me and we ended up agreeing to bring it in on Wednesday and he would have it ready for Friday.

Vancouver to Barcelona May 3 and 4

The flight from Vancouver to Barcelona was not as bad as I thought it would be. For one, I had some nice people sitting beside me and the cabin crew was very relaxed and friendly. It was still long, the food was minimal and there´s not that much more space between the seats. When we arrived in Frankfurt it turned out the connecting flight check in was right where I came out so it only took a few minutes to get checked in. Soon I was on the flight to Barcelona, then in Barcelona, and then there was Monica and Jaume waiting for me. They drove me to Badalona and we had some tapas and beer before I crashed. The hotel that I´m staying in is great, the room is terribly small but the price is right. It´s on the beach, although across the railroad tracks. When the first morning train came by I thought I was in an earthquake.