Guest Blog from D - Yippee

There has been quite a bit going on and I should write some posts going back a bit in time, but right now I will write in the present.  It has been a hard week to be abroad, as I lost a good friend and colleague back home to a tragic accident.  Perhaps I will be able to compose a post on that later, but I cannot do it now...

Prior to that news, I had been thinking about our bicycle situation.  I brought a tandem and a folding bike with us from home, the landlord had a bicycle here that J. is riding, and the first week we were here we bought a second hand bike for A.

Bicycles from home brought as checked luggage and assembled.

While some of us do keep bicycles in the living room, we have a parking space in our underground garage which is kept locked.  So it seemed like a good plan to use it for bikes since we don't have a car.

Landlord's bike, tandem, and A's bike in our parking space.

Sant Cugat del Vallès has one of the highest rates of bike theft in Spain, and our garage is not that secure, so I felt I needed to really lock it to something.  This resulted in learning about hardware stores in town and getting a chain and lock exactly the right size to put around the column that supports the building.  

U-lock of tandem to chain locked around the column. A. locks to the U-lock.

I have been riding the folding bike to commute to work everyday.  There are several variations on the basic route, which I have explored, but they are all about 5.5 km, and use a bicycle path separated from the road for much of that distance.  The route is downhill-flat-uphill both going to and from work, which is not my favorite.

Everything from the first traffic circle to the motorway is on a bike path. 

However when A. started school, I was riding with him to school so that took me uphill from our place to his school, and then I started exploring new routes.  Google maps is a great resource, but it also makes some pretty odd choices.  The first time it took me on a route from A's school to my work, I ended up climbing on a steep dirt road.  Here is my folding bike loaded with my pack on the rack on that dirt road.

The off-road commute on my trusty FlyBy bike with my work bag on the back.

The routes were now longer, about 10 km, and I found a way to stay on paved roads, but I was now climbing much higher first and then zipping down hill which I enjoy much more... Here is a map from the day I went out to his school, then work, then back to his school another way, and returned home.

Toward the top of the map is uphill and toward the bottom is downhill.

At work I see the other folks who ride in (about 20 scientists) and one told me he was riding his mountain bike over on dirt trails through the local mountains from Barcelona.  This was enticing, and I lamented not having a mountain bike to ride.  He told me about a phone app, Wallapop which has become the dominant tool for buying and selling used goods in Spain.  I found a basic used mountain bike there at a reasonable price only 8 blocks from our place.

The bike is a 2009 GT with 24 speeds and disc brakes.

J. has been exploring running trails which are also used by cyclists.  I took her lead today and rode off into the woods.  I met three guys who led me for awhile and then joined two other guys who led me further into the mountains.  I was thinking about my friend who loved to climb mountains and decided to go to the summit of the mountains between Sant Cugat and Barcelona.

Today's summit ride in honor of my colleague.

At the summit is a tall church that we can see from our home in Sant Cugat and that you can also see from Barcelona.  There is also a small amusement park, and a hotel at the summit.

The church of the Sagrat Cor in Tibidabo.

You can see the red roller coaster track of the amusement park.

I enjoyed exploring and meeting folks on my ride today while thinking about my friend.  Oh and of course the ride out was all up, and the ride home all down, just the way I like it.  A great way to start a day.