Starting to blog again---- spain recap

Alright, I’m in Germany now, and am starting up this blog again, so I’m not emailing everyone separately with the same stories.

I flew in this yesterdat from Barcelona where my family and I went on a cyling trip around Spain for around two weeks. I will now make a weak attempt to briefly sum up that trip.

            After a couple planes, some sleep and a lot of free beers, we arrived in Barcelona with all nine of our bikes intact. Although we only had two panniers (small bags that attach to your bike) each, we enjoyed our first day biking through Barcelona without them.  After my bike’s pedal broke off within two minutes of getting on the bike, my dad and I were on our own for the rest of the day, which proved to be blast. Speeding through the city of Barcelona on these little bikes with the traffic was awesome. I got to see the beaches, some churches, and the Olympic stadium/park. It all surprised me right away to see how huge and rich the city was, I definitely underestimated Spain.  At the end of our trip, I also went to the FC Barcelona soccer stadium, which is absolutely huge holding more then 100,000 people I think.

            Now biking. Keep in mind, I had only ever ridden probably 50km on a road bike in my whole life before this trip, and we were going to average around 80km a day… through the Pyrenees mountains. Short story would just be that mine, along with Vince and Dave’s (my brothers) butts took a serious beating. I would strongly suggest you get used to sitting on a bike seat before going on a trip like this.

            Biking seemed to be the perfect way to see Spain. You see landscapes that remind you of the dessert to the Rocky Mountains, and everything in between. After the first day, I think all of us understood that my dad’s plan for the trip was not to start slowly.  His guidebook marked these trails at an advanced difficulty, but he didn’t bother to waste his time with such difficulties. Anyways, some of the harder days included a 20km climb, meaning for 20km, the only thing that changed was how steep the incline was.  Others had the rare off road track or a wrong turn that just add onto the kms you have to bike.

            Good parts included some of the placed we stayed in: beach towns, castles, small town hostels, and medieval villages.  Thankfully we were treated to a nice places and some seriously good meals. Although the healthy indulgence in beers every night didn’t make the biking easier.

            I managed to get my burn on early on in the trip and then accepted that sunscreen may actually be necessary.

Another thing that didn’t exactly work out was the fact that Steph and I, and especially Vince speak Spanish, but in the portion of Spain we were in, many people and things used the Catalonian language.

            I’m already running out of time, but if I find some more time soon, I might write a little more on Spain. But all in all, the big group, large hills, fast downhill’s and beautiful country made it a very successful trip. Although probably not for everyone, I would strongly suggest something like this to other travelers and will probably explore countries this way again.

            I got into Giessen, Germany today and it all looks awesome! The work i did my first day was awesome and the internship looks extremely promising. I’ll try to do another update and talk about the job when I get a chance. 

Leave a comment if you there's anything you want to know or think I should talk about.

This blog has already taken too long so Ciao for now!