Trip report from Spain

[eleeski]

Trip report from Spain!

 

First, I’m totally stoked to have made it here. It’s a real honor to be able to represent the USA in the Senior World Waterski championships.

 

It has been a difficult path to get here. Competing as a senior is quite different from my younger days. Managing the body’s decay and optimizing what is left is a challenge – both physically and mentally. I had a few good tournaments to get here, now we’ll see what happens.

 

The trip really started a couple days ago. Flights out of LA to Madrid were so much cheaper that we rented a car and drove from San Diego to LA via Bakersfield. Actually, I needed a practice ride behind the same boat as Worlds to test out my recovering hamstring. Good dinner with my son on the way there, good ski ride (I’ll be able to do an easy run) and a nice swim to loosen up for the flight. An hour delay for catering (they shouldn’t have waited – bad airline food) and we were off.

 

Madrid airport is pretty cool, they have enough customs people to make the entry experience easy. Tried to rent a Fiat Panda but got a VW instead. Bare bones, manual transmission and no GPS (we had Lisa’s phone set up for Europe so no problem). Followed directions perfectly through a very confusing drive to the airport hotel and had a nice night there.

 

Practice was early at the site so we dragged our jetlagged bodies into the car early. The embassy (McDonalds) next door wasn’t open yet and it was pitch black. We headed on the 40 minute drive to Seseena following our detailed directions. The GPS on Lisa’s phone wouldn’t work (we should have been aware, it didn’t work in LA the day before either, hmmm)

 

Somewhere I missed a turn. The road signs are quite different and we thought we were going right – until the sun started to rise and we realized that something was wrong. The rental car map was worthless. We pulled into a town and asked a guy for directions. Very confusing, especially when we went the wrong way. No turn around for several kilometers and the traffic circles made us feel like the Griswalds. After going nearly to Portugal, we got to the site 3 hours late.

 

Howling wind, a bit chilly, people stressing over practice and a travel weary leg – I’m better of without practice. Mediocre lunch at the hotel with a bunch of waterskiers and we had arrived!

 

To fill the afternoon, we went touristing to the Spanish Royal’s summer palace in Aranjuez. It started pouring rain so we missed the garden tour (sorry no pictures as cameras weren’t allowed inside). Beautiful castle meticulously maintained.

 

The rain stopped for us to get a nice swim and party in the room with some of the skiers. Nice afternoon.

 

Woke up jetlagged. Tossed and turned with the fight or flight adrenaline going whenever I thought about the morning’s prelims. This competing is tough. Maybe if I type a trip report I might be able to get a couple hours of sleep…

 

Eric

 

[RichardDoane]

Good Luck Eric - we're cheering for you !

 

[Edbrazil]

Heard from others about the difficulty of finding the site. One guy saying he could see

the site, but still wasted over 2 hours actually getting there.

 

As of this writing, the event has already started (6 hour time difference), and April Coble leads

the W35+ in Slalom.

[disland]

live results?

[jcamp]

live results @disland

[gsm_peter]

If some one else will go there.

- There is (? at least was) detailed driving directions on their home page.

- There is a train from the airport to the village Aranjuez for approx 5 USD.

Train takes about 1H 15 minutes.

Taxi from Aranjuez to the site cost type 30 E, 20 minutes.

Some locals bike there. Type 5-6 miles or so.

 

FWIW

The lake is an old mine that has been filled up and extended.

 

I cheer for Eric (and the Swedes ;o)

 

It looks like Odd Brådhe from Sweden is no1 in Trick 55+ at the moment.

 

 

 

[Edbrazil]

Results, live and otherwise:

http://www.iwwfed-ea.org/classic/16IWWF02/

 

Original poster Eric Lee just squeaked into his Finals after a subpar run in the Prelims.

[andjules]

Good luck, Eric.

And yes, the last 3 or 4 miles to the site, once you get off the highway, is a bit confusing.

Toledo is lovely and Madrid is very chic and fun. Enjoy your trip.

[eleeski]

Darn international plugs. Computer battery is dead and adapters aren't working. My Mcgiver setup didn't work either. So no pictures until I figure out a charger.

 

Last post from me neglected to mention the dinner out next to the Irish team. Fun banter with some great guys. One of the little experiences that make a trip so much fun. New friends.

 

The skiing was tough for me. Trick skiing is a performance. While I have done all the tricks many times, cobbling a new run together to compensate for a minor injury adds huge variables into the performance. Add jetlag and tournament pressure and some bobbles can happen. A slip on my opening trick required a huge pull out recovery - which lit up the sore hamstring. I was able to get through some of the run, but not enough to guarantee advancement.

 

For a couple of hours I was pretty sure that I hadn't advanced to the finals. A bit of soul searching goes on but the immediate reality of being around so many friends, in such a cool place and just being part of the show was magic.

 

A massage, some more Alleve, some sleep and a few days to heal more gives me confidence that I will be OK for the finals. And certainly able to enjoy some touristing.

 

The site is great. After so many manicured perfect lakes it's cool to see one that is a bit more natural. The conditions were great - excellent wind sheltered water (which we needed as the weather was a bit adverse). I appreciated (unfortunately) the cutouts in the cattails so I could swim out of the lake. The road in is a challenge but is the one destination in Spain where I didn't get lost (every one else did - GPS didn't help).

 

The opening ceremony was a fun pageant. A nice party for the skiers. The group photos and meeting old and new friends all together was wonderful. And really, I didn't walk through the Goode team photo on purpose ( I do snow ski on Goodes).

 

We drove halfway to Normandy (it seemed) for dinner in Chinchon. We parked in the middle of the bull ring with everyone else but were warned that they make 200€ off the tourist parking tickets. So I moved the car to a tiny park on a tiny street way up the hill. Easy walk to the restaurant. Tasty lamb? drumstick and nice but too chilled house red wine (just one glass as foreign driving is difficult enough). Walked directly through the maze of streets to the car. Drove forever hopelessly lost to try to find the bull ring again. Good thing the car has unlimited mileage although this adventure wasn't long distance but very convoluted. I know it wasn't the most direct route since I passed my parking spot once. And the car with the plastic bag underneath several times. Once I got to the bull ring, the drive home was really quick and easy.

 

What an adventure!

 

Eric

 

Thanks all for the nice comments.

[eleeski]

What is Clark Griswald's wife's name? "Big Ben, Parliament, Big Ben, Parliament"

[eleeski]

Went out to the site today to watch my slalom event. While it’s a bit of a bummer withdrawing because of the hamstring, no way did I honestly belong there. My lifetime tournament best would not have made the cut and the overall skiers were so far ahead of my recent practice bests that I would not have been competitive there. Congratulations to all those incredibly skilled skiers.

 

I missed viewing the other trick prelims (can’t see anything through the cattails). But the swarm around the judges result release was interesting. The judging was horrible. These guys are the best in the world and know their tricks better than the judges. Every single one of them got something cut that they felt they didn’t deserve. Hopefully the judges will let the skier performances decide the finals, not the judges egos. Trick judging needs to change – partial credit?

 

We left the site to head to Toledo via a planned detour to the mall and the electronics store. Found a charger (so pics can happen!). Missed the exit and had a fun time winding through new Toledo to the tourist trap of old Toledo. Passed up some street parking for the tourist garage. Good thing, another skier got a parking ticket for street parking – you need a resident sticker. Climbed a huge staircase through the walls into the citadel (normal people were using the escalators but I was working out my legs). Cool old but living city (a family was having a party in their apartment!).

 

I’m convinced that the giant cathedrals caused the Dark Ages. Too much of the world’s talent and resources had to go into the construction of the monumental churches and the intricate artwork. At least we got to enjoy the enduring results of that work centuries later.

 

Tourist tapas were fun. We strolled around the old town and enjoyed the views (it is up on a view generating hill). Bought a cool leather belt. Nice touristy time.

 

Took the long way home (not intentionally) and tried Lisa’s GPS on her phone (we reset some things to make it look like it worked). It worked well enough to give bad directions. A nice meal at Tomate in Aranjuez, our best so far in Spain! They had a beer sin canin that was quite tasty for a n/a beer. Great artichokes! Headed home and got quite lost – we should have used the bathroom first. Stopped some police to ask directions as they were setting up the DUI checkpoint (not sure it was a DUI checkpoint but happy for the sin canin beer). We were close as the crow flies but no roads through. Made it home safely in a couple minutes with the good directions.

 

Fun relaxing day.

 

Eric

 

[gsm_peter]

@eleeski

Hope for a quick hamstring recovery.

Keep up the writing. I enjoy reading your reports.

Despite hamstring, I do hope you and Lisa will have a nice time in Spain.

[eleeski]

 

The lake.

 

[eleeski]

 

Team USA

[eleeski]

 

Panda!

[eleeski]

 

Typical Spanish road.

 

[eleeski]

 

Toledo

 

[gsm_peter]

@eleeski

So you got a Panda! o:)

Congrats.

 

 

 

Great car. ...

 

 

[eleeski]

I’m tired of getting lost. So we took the train into Madrid. Just got a little confused on the way to the train station but we made our train (there is one every 15 minutes). The train took us with not too many stops and a pretty short elapsed time directly to the heart of Madrid (Sol station). We walked to Plaza Mayor and had lunch just outside the plaza. Since we bailed on Tenerife, we ate at a Canary Islands themed restaurant, El Escaldon. Fun potatoes and sauce.

 

We went shopping. I needed a navy blazer for the tournament banquet. Might have been better in Milan but I did find a jacket that will work.

 

Off to the Parque de Buen Retiro. Stopped at the America’s house but it wasn’t the embassy (no McDonalds ice cream). Went in to the Palacio de Ciebeles but there were no paintings on the walls – yet. No shortcuts, I had to get cultured at the Prada.

 

We walked through the beautiful park with the coolest giant overhead teeter totter to the Prada. Walked into the building that said Prada where the lady at the desk smiled and shooed us away to a huge building with people everywhere. It was busy but we walked up to the line to buy tickets and the ticket line control motioned us to the left. Hmmm, what are those people doing there? So we walked to the end of the line – which wrapped around the corner for at least a kilometer! Tapas and beer seemed like a much better idea. Saw most of the exhibits on paintings that the street vendors outside were selling. My kind of culture.

 

Easy train ride home to Aranjuez and I made it back to the Barcolo hotel without getting lost!

 

Fun touristy day – I hope I didn’t walk too much.

 

Eric

 

[skibackwards]

Eric, thank you for the pictures and commentary from the 35+ Worlds

 

[Jordan]

Nicely done Eric...great pictures and I enjoyed your stories...I'm picturing you as a waterskiing Anthony Bourdain!

[DaveD]

Glad to see the flip flops and socks are also in style in Spain.

[eleeski]

Off to watch the finals today. Calm warm conditions, good for the performances. Walked to the far side to see Oliver Fortamps trick over 10,000! Very impressive! Most of the skiers did well. AWSA prez Jeff Surdej rocked his run. Kris LaPoint put on a slalom lesson to overwhelm the 4 way tie for second (their scores were pretty phenomenal too). Great skiing at a wonderful venue!

 

Off to lunch in Aranjuez. Mark Shaw who wasn’t here (glad it was money and scheduling – not an injury!) told us of a must see bar. Closed… But just across the street was the best meal of the trip, gambon and ajuacate salad. Turned out to be shrimp and avocado over hunks of tomatoes. Yumm! Made it there and back with just one quick Uturn.

 

A swim in the pool – what happened? When we arrived, the pool was nice and warm. Now it’s freezing. Winter is just around the corner. Maybe there will be snow when we go to Andorra in a couple days?

 

Salad in the room for dinner as I’m stressing over my finals. Bed early - like an old jetlagged insomniac will sleep but that’s how the game is played.

 

Eric

[eleeski]

@Jordan I'm not going to take pictures of my food!

 

@gsm_peter and @thompjs I'm worried that @Horton will give me a Panda because I didn't rent a Panda when I could have. I did try...

[eleeski]

 

 

Prada 1 km line

[eleeski]

 

 

Madrid plant wall

[eleeski]

 

Jill and Christy herding cats for the team photo

 

[eleeski]

 

 

Team USA!

[eleeski]

Competition is tough. And I was recovering so well. Hamstring popped halfway through the first pass. Stood it up but was way slow. Barely got the toe harness on for the second pass and the toe tricks really hurt. Stood up but was dog slow. Didn’t score well, took fifth but I did 100% of what my body was capable of this day. Odd Bradhe’s run would have been tough for me to beat healthy, congratulations to him!

 

I wanted to hang around and watch friends jump but my leg was pretty uncomfortable so we went back to the hotel. Just as I was pulling the curtains to curl up in the fetal position while sucking my thumb and crying, the maids came to clean the room. So off to the pool for full body ice therapy. This is the last day for the unheated pool to be open for the year (winter is coming) and it was realistically too cold for swimming. Still the leg felt better afterwards and we headed back to the site to catch the last of the jumping and the medals ceremonies.

 

The gas light came on (how did we use so much gas going the 50k from Madrid?). Checking out the gauges I noticed that the compass display was giving weird numbers. Like going from 2 to 3 as I shifted up. Wait, that’s not a compass, it’s a transmission gear indicator. And five looks just like the “S” in south. And I thought we were always heading south on the freeways…

 

Today’s weather was perfect. Sunny, warm but not hot, no wind and pleasantly dry. Spain is pretty nice. The neighborhood around the hotel is an interesting upscale recent development. A little weird that the huge business park is fenced off and completely empty. The houses seemed pretty suburban but were pretty densely packed with most being townhouses with shared walls. All of Spain seemed to favor big multifamily buildings with lots of open space around. The houses I thought were coolest were the remote houses – which all seemed to be abandoned. They weren’t particularly remote either, a few kilometers to the city. While there was a fair amount of farmland, it wasn’t as actively farmed as the multi cropped land in California. Interesting differences.

 

For the foodies, today was tournament snack food, peanuts, cookies and big bottles of water. We are off to the banquet – we’ll see if the banquet food is worth reporting.

 

Eric

 

[eleeski]

 

 

The podium I missed

[eleeski]

 

 

Stretching out

[eleeski]

Fun banquet. I drove over so just got to sip the reasonably good Spanish wine (enough people took taxis that many bottles were drained at the table). Needed whiskey to try the minnow on a cracker - no whiskey so no minnow tasting report. Supposedly we had beef cheeks but it was a pot roast variety. Nice banquet food.

 

The USA team won the team competition and there were some great performances. Tony Knight rocks! Mark Stevens of Canada won my division overall - after recovering from cancer. An inspiration for all aging athletes. Keep playing!

 

Eric

[eleeski]

 

 

Party at the podium!

[Dirt]

Great reporting Eric. I have not gotten lost as many times as Eric but my phone GPS works.

 

The tournament was really fun. Congrats to all the medalists (even Super Greg Badal). Thanks to the Botas (even the mean sister) for all the hard work. Her husband is an incredible skier. He won the 35+ slalom and skis a lot like Nate.

 

I felt like I got left behind as I watched almost all of the skiers pack their cars and head for the airport. I thought about tagging along with Forest and Rhonda Fisher but they were headed to Africa and there was that whole uninvited third wheel thing.

 

I wanted to head to the beach so I contacted a college dorm mate (not literally) named Carlos "Caco" Fidalgo, also known as the Crow. He said,"You know Madrid is in the middle of Spain, right?"

 

I asked about Valencia and he said he preferred Benidorm because his family had a place there when he was growing up. I arrived in just over a four hour drive.

 

I walked down to the cable ski in the Mediterranean Sea and contacted Caco's friend, Daniel Arana. His family owns the cable ski. He gave me the history of how his father installed it more than 50 years ago and it a kilometer in length.

 

I had a great time watching tourists faceplant on the start. It was a 15-20 mph headwind with wind swells pounding in. We went in the boat and picked up fallen skiers and boarders, telling stories about Caco and Marcos Pocole.

 

I got brave and was going to try it on a trick ski but decided on jumper looking doubles. I made it all the way around, barely. It was super fun. I quit and had a beer while watching others.

 

That is the great thing about this sport. You travel the world and other skiers treat you like family.

 

I figured out why Caco sent me to Benidorm. He wanted to relive his days as Spanish cable ski champion. Now I can truly appreciate how difficult it is. There is a slalom course and it can go 58k.

[Dirt]

 

 

The view from my hotel room. That is the cable ski in the water below.

[lhoover]

Eric, would you be so kind as to provide some details on the financial support that the skiers receive (or do not receive!). Airfare? Lodging? Food? How much does USAWS provide, if any? Just curious.

[skibackwards]

Skiers are on their own for financing of Airfare, lodging and food.

 

[eleeski]

@lhoover I was not on the team so I had to pay everything. I'm not sure the team members got any more help than I did. Still the logistics that Jill and Christy did for the team is invaluable. We do get a lot of support, it's just not all financial.

 

I'm sponsored by EdITS.net , a career guidance materials supplier. So I can get a job when I quit skiing....

 

Eric

[TrickyTom]

@eleeski Thanks. Enjoyed your trip reports of Seseña.

[eleeski]

The tournament is over so you thought the reports would end? No way, we have the rest of Spain to still see!

 

Driving out of Aranjuez, I finally figured out how to pronounce it properly. “A wrong way.” We safely Griswalded out of town with just a few multi circle roundabouts. I kind of like that feature, you can circle a couple times and decide which is the best exit. Slightly better than random. And if you guess wrong they are really easy Uturns. We did pass the Leclerc store we had such a hard time finding a couple days ago several times…

 

Off to Cuenca. Easy drive and we didn’t get lost. Beautiful countryside. Looks a lot like Northern California. It got a bit cooler with a few pines mixed in in the higher spots. Interesting roadside geological features. Came into Cuenca rather abruptly. The cities have a lot of population and not much sprawl. Densely packed urban living (not sure it’s for me – I like going to my lake where the nearest neighbor is a few miles away). After a couple Griswald circles we ended up on a country road heading out of town. So we pulled into a driveway to Uturn that happened to be a pretty little park. They must use a lot of Aquashade to get the water so turquoise in the duck filled river. No bathrooms (do Europeans have giant bladders?) so we didn’t leisurely loiter. The worker there said to drive up the road (see earlier picture of the typical Spanish road except add extreme steepness) and walk up there.

 

Up a big flight of stairs was the tourist area! I lucked in to the easiest access and best free parking to get to the historic area. Except for the stairs. My leg really hurt – I skied really well to perform at all on this leg so I’m really proud of my run. Taking it slow (like the old man that I guess I am) we made it into the town.

 

Slight detour to the porta potties. European porta potties are great. A flapper to prevent blue splashback, a civilized blue pump[er and a little hand wash sink. That’s a far cry from the stinky outhouses that the college kids need to stir to make room for… this is headed in a bad direction. Stil, I was kind of wondering why there was a porta potty here.

 

We walked past a worker hosing down the street (and us?) and came to some heavy duty barricades as we came into the Plaza Mayor. Lots of people milling around and lots of busy workers. We go into the tourist information center to get a map and find out that today is the running of the bulls! We talked to a worker spreading dirt on the cobblestones to protect the bulls – he was wearing the red bandana around his neck but but still not sure he wanted to run. The guy in the restaurant we had lunch also had the bandana and also was unsure. No way am I hobbling with the bulls. The whole city had a very fun excited vibe.

 

We walked around for a couple of hours. What an amazing city. A little later than the dark ages so most of the effort went into houses hanging from the hills and massive retaining walls. Incredible!

 

We went to a wall with the most awesome views. We enjoyed the views. Sniff, sniff. This is worse than OB (back in San Diego where the homeless pee everywhere). We moved down the wall. Worse. Europeans haven’t solved all of the world’s problems.

 

My leg was suffering, we were supposed to meet our new friends Mike and Cindy in Valencia and the running of the bulls was still 6 hours away so we decided to pass on the actual event. I probably enjoyed seeing the setup and talking (through my bad Spanish, slow English and interpreter Lisa) as much or more than watching a blur of activity whoosh by in a couple seconds while being pressed by millions of people. We bailed on the actual event…

 

So off to Valencia! A wonderful and easy drive. We passed a reservoir. It was quite low. Does drought follow me everywhere? That’s a big lake to Aquashade but it was beautifully turquoise. I really wanted a boat to ski with there (and a good leg).

 

As we approached Valencia, things changed a bit. The farms were more managed. The sunflowers were bigger, the olive orchards were cleaner and better organized and the whole fields were producing. Serious farming was happening. I’m looking forward to Valencia orange juice.

 

We made it to Valencia. Lisa’s GPS was just bad enough to keep us from smoothly meeting Mike and Cindy on time. So we ended up just walking on the boardwalk on the beach near the America’s cup spot. Very cool! Nice tapas on the beach and the day was pretty much done. Awesome day!

 

Lisa had booked a fancy room in a hacienda of an olive farm. Quite posh. Maybe a little over the top. The geology book in the library was about the geology of wine regions in Spain. And every other book or magazine was about wine. A bit pretentious. The restaurant was closed so we had a drink and a cheese and meat plate in the library. I had the best brandy I have ever enjoyed. Stupid me, I forgot to get the name the next morning to get some. But now I’m on a brandy mission!

 

Eric

 

[eleeski]

 

 

Best grafitti ever on the rocks across from Cuenca.

[eleeski]

 

Cool rock formations - without grafitti.

 

[eleeski]

 

 

Bull barriers going up.

[eleeski]

 

 

Houses built into the cliffs at Cuenca.

[eleeski]

 

 

Burial site in the center of town. Where cars drive!

[eleeski]

At Hotel Mas Boeles in Tarragona, we made tiny cups of fancy coffee in the room for coffee in bed. Fancy coffee maker too. Put on bathing suits to head to the pool for a swim. Uh-oh, not heated. So we took a nice walk around the beautiful grounds instead. The olives have a ways to go and we didn’t see any grapes (harvested already?). No swimming meant an early start to Barcelona.

 

Ham and other pork products are everywhere in Spain. Even the little stores will have a wall of hanging salted pork legs. So where are the pig farms? We passed a couple on AP7. Whew! And when we passed the pig hauler truck we were able to positively identify the odor.

 

The drive went smoothly (if occasionally aromatically) to Barcelona. With no cultural maps of Barcelona, I vectored pretty much directly to a giant phallic symbol we could glimpse. Barcelona is a huge city. It took a while to traverse. Arriving at the weird modernistic building, we parked underground. The exit led to a locked door at the top of the staircase. OK. Out the other exit.

 

Interesting building. It was a private office building in the middle of an office district. The Torre Agbar building. Empty now. Eerie. Snapped a couple pictures and found a farmacia for an ace bandage. Got a Barcelona map and headed back to the parking garage. Fumbled with the coins at the payout machine and the ticket fell under the seat so we took a couple minutes to get to the exit. Our ticket didn’t work to get out! WTF? Another .65 for the couple minutes we spent leaving. Heaven forbid there would be a line to exit or we’d go broke to leave.

 

Drove to the tourist area. I’m not a city guy and I’m getting pretty stressed (don’t drivers ever take turns merging?). Maybe I should have gotten the insurance. Drove past the Arch. Parked at a close in lot by the Picasso museum (with a human lot attendant) and escaped the car. Nice pizza lunch (I am superstitious about pizza and tournaments but that’s over). Walked around a pretty park where they were taking down everything from a festival we missed yesterday (more bull running? No.). Posed by the Mammoth statue. The maintenance on the park was a bit discouraging. Grafitti on beautiful wood doors long untended. Broken bench slats. Just a general deterioration. Make the public feel the austerity where it is most visible?

 

Walked through a beautiful neighborhood and ticked off several must see buildings from the tourist map. Quite nice. Had an ice cream, espresso swirl, that might have been better than Mcdonalds ice cream. Got to the Picasso museum. Some line.

 

Aside: whenever I buy a lottery ticket, we talk about how we would spend a big winfall. Buying a Picasso has never been on the list. If we were given a Picasso, we would sell it immediately. We really don’t desire a Picasso – regardless.

 

So back to the Picasso museum, Are we really going to wait for the better part of an hour and pay money to see an artist we have no connection with? Ummm, no. Even the chocolate museum was too busy. Off to the beach!

 

The crazy Russian motorcyclists must have all moved to Spain and gotten scooters. We wanted to drive by some church – the drive was hell. With my non rental insurance clause flashing before my eyes every couple of seconds, we made it to the giant fancy church that is being restored at the cost of Spain’s solvency. At least half of Barcelona was there to enjoy it as we creeped by in the gridlock. We finally get on the toll road heading up the coast.

 

Funny thing about the toll roads, they charge you 2.11 but don’t accept 1 cent coins. I think the troll behind the troll roads is pocketing that little excess (after they dither the parking lot timers).

 

Griswalding out the wrong exit from a traffic circle, we get off the Google route (not again). Lisa looks at the map and “recalculates”. If we go to Loret de Mar we can take GI682 to Platja d’Aro. Looks about the same distance… Now the traffic and driving had me pretty stressed in Barcelona. We get on this curvy little road on a cliff above the ocean. Nobody is on it. Lisa asks me if I’m OK. I just smile. Open curvy road with gorgeous views and what was pretty much my own private race course? “I’m fine.” It took a few minutes longer but was the absolute highlight of the day! It was a lot like highway 1 near Big Sur but way more accessible.

 

We get to the hotel in time for a walk on the beach. The rainstorm that had turned the ocean yellow at Tossa de Mar had barely gotten the sand wet here. The water was not cold and quite clear. Bodes well for a snorkel tomorrow.

 

Dinner at the hotel looked sketchy so we walked the long walk into town. We stopped at Mariscos – I don’t think I got the name right but I sure got the right restaurant. Wonderful paella, nice garlic shrimp, fresh squeezed Valencia orange juice and some nice Spanish brandy to finish. Excellent meal! Walked off some of those excess calories on the way back to the room.

 

Eric

[eleeski]

 

 

The beautiful hacienda gardens.

[eleeski]

 

 

The empty Torre Agbar tower.

[eleeski]

 

 

Am I in Barcelona or California?

[eleeski]

 

 

Made it to the Med!