Wednesday,May 20,2015

I have arrived safely in Girona, Spain, after about 26 hours of traveling -- three planes, two trains, a taxi, and a couple of shuttles along the way. It almost started disastrously when I got a four am phone call from American Airlines informing me (by recorded message) that my first flight would be delayed about eight hours, forcing me to miss all of my connections. The next message offered me alternative routing through Los Angeles and London to Paris but that would still get me to Paris too late for my connection to Barcelona. When I got to talk to a real person, she was able book me on an earlier first flight (fortunately I was staying in a hotel near the San Jose airport) and all the other connections fell into place. The last train ride was about 90 minutes, and I experienced a little panic since I had anticipated a forty minute ride, but it got me here just fine.

We are having some intermittent rain today, but the weather forecast looks good for the next several days. Upon arrival at the hotel I met three other riders from our group (Amy, Sybil and Gary, all from Colorado) and also ran into our three guides, Joan (Catalan for John or Juan), Montse, and Rick. (I have ridden with Rick before, in Andalucia.) I will meet the others tomorrow (including 3 that I rode with in Croatia). I did a little exploring today, and will do more tomorrow morning before we get the bikes set up in the afternoon. I was immediately struck by the large number of Catalonian flags that one sees (and the complete absence of the flag of Spain). The Catalonian separatist sentiment is strong. I only took a few pictures today, primarily because of the weather. When I arrived, I noticed that the Cathedral steps were covered by sod, although I don't know why. When I went out walking, I could see that they were removing the sod. Along the Rambla, I watched two men putting up a mannequin gymnast, controlled by a wheel on the adjacent balcony. Notice again the Catalan flag. WiFi in the hotel seems pretty good, although this computer is incredibly slow. I shall persevere and try to keep posting updates.