|
|
|
|
|
| Nederlands | English | Español | Français | Deutsch |
 |
When I arrived on Schiphol airport I went to the gate on ... my skates. My fellow skaters could be recognized quite easily. Some of them could be recognised because they were dragging a skate bag along with them (alwayd take along your skates as cabin luggage, you never know what happens to them along the way or they might come in handy during the way), some people were even wearing their skates (like me). |
 |
After a short flight we soon found our place in the "Aerobus" heading into town. In the bus we met up with even more skaters. Soon the shortest route was determined, we changed to the subway on Pl. Espanya. We were separated from the hotel by a few stops. Thanks to the professional guidance we arrived in no time in our hotel. After dropping our luggage in the hotel room, we headed into Barcelona. First of all the pub closest to the hotel was tested. After this test we went deeper into the city to do some serious things like talking serious and seriously having a drink. |
 |
The nice thing about a longer trip is that you have some more time
to take a look at all the nice things Barcelona has to offer. I spent my
thursday morning exploring the beautifull buildings Barcelona has to offer.
On this radient morning I paid a visit Casa Battlo, Hospital St. Pau and the
Sagrada Familia. In the Gaudi year buildings which are normally closed to the public,
were now accessible to me (and to the other public) like for example Casa Battlo. The hospital de St. Pau is also quite special to me. Soo I was chatting to the staff over there exchanging thoughts about the buildings an the hospital. Sometimes I can't help thinking of professional things, and when you see something nice or there is a way to gather ideas.. |
 |
I couldn't miss out on the Sagrada Familia either. When I was there a hurd of tourists was pushed back in their touringcar busses heading off to the next pile of beautifull stacked stones. But that left for me : No queue in front of the Sagrada. I grabbed this chance to take a close look at the sculptures, the details and building site. The towers also offered the opportunity to take a good look at the city. The view across the city was worth the climb an d the long (1 minute) wait to get my change back :). |
 |
After having scaled the towers of the Sagrada Familia I went into the
cellar of the church. In there a museum of the Church was located. But walking
through the museum a feeling of culture saturation suddenly emerged. It was
enough culture for one day. It was time to chill on a warm beach. A SMS told
me were to be. A few moments later I was laying at the beach enjoying the
company, the sun and the waves. After having gained a bit more strength after
all the tiresome activities we went back to the hotel We gathered there to head off for the skate-brake clinic. The thursday night skate was supposed to be spectacular, steep, fast and of course fun! Being able to brake was a must. Lex an Cathelijne were pretty convincing about the breaking thing and made many skater think twice about getting along. During the clinic a whole lot of breaking was precticed and a group of well trained and well equipped headed for the thursday night skate. |
| The place to meet the fellow skaters is on the Pl. de Catalunya. A delicious square filled with supersmooth big tiles, ideal to race on or to chase away all the pigions. After the time has come a mixed club went upward. It was good to skate through all those small streets in Barcelona. Our Catalan friends were a bit tense at first; were all those Dutch skaters, only used to the mountains, really up to the downhill task which did lay ahead? I also took things a bit more easy in the beginnen, just to look at how things were going. Where was the mother of all downhills waiting for me? During the tour my self confidence grew and so did my speed. At some moment I noticed that I had become the tour leader... I took the throttle back a bit. What we had to get used to is all the stops at the drinking spots. A large number of places to drink out of a tap is spreaded across Barcelona, and our Catelan friends grab this opportunity to chat with friends and to take a sip. The tour is for a major part a social event (besides the speed) and people were doing quite a lot of sociallizing, chatting, skating and having fun whilst we were going higher and higher and higher. At a certain moment we were climbing all the automated escalators near the olympic park. |  |
 |
Like the famous verb says : "What goes up must come down" we had to go down soon time. After having enjoyed some wonderfull views of Barcelona we headed down. A nice, long, wide, smooth road with a cool hairpin curve took us with a good speed (fast) downward back into Barcelona. People passing each other, sitting low in order to gather even more speed. This was a really good long stretch of downhill. The considerable speed is quite usefull because you have to mingle with the other trafic (like cars and so on), when you have about the same speed this is much easier. Later I learned that you could even take the downhill without breaking. After this downhill, you feel the need for more speed and take a roundabout in the french way (just going straight across passing all the four lanes. After that we headed to the apres skate bar to exchange stories, thoughts and to make memories. |
| The next morning we woke up at a decent time, enjoyed a pretty good breakfast and then headed up for the subway to pay a visit to Park Guel. When we arrived down there it turned out to be the national day out for all the schools. The entire square was filled with kids, doing what kids are supposed to do, like building sandcastles, running around and other nice things which is very assisting in waking you up. Together with Astrid and Dorit we took things quite quietly, strolled around a bit and wondered why there were no hammocs attached between all the columns in the park: that sure would be nice. After having enjoyed the park and also the small routes going right through the park we paid a visit to Casa Vincen and went up to Palau de Musica. We visited the Palau quite briefly because we were to resstless to wait for the spanish tour through the building. From the outside and also the inside it sure is a neat place to visit. Instead we went to a nice, cozy tappas bar nearby serving the most delicious things. |  |
 | After having enjoyed enough culture for today it was time to skate. For me the first time and a good chance to blaze freely through Barcelona. Barcelona is made for skaters. The real big streets have cycling path on each side of the road with a super smooth asphalt surface; a feast for my wheels. With other major streets you just simply can skate right through the middle. When there is not a cycling path, you just head off into one of the smaller parallel streets which are pretty much quite desolate and paved with the same supersmooth asphalt. Especially the Av. Diagonal is a feast for your skates. Two cycly tracks separate the main road from the parallel road. The road runs all the way through Barcelona. Just take care of the cars who want to go from the parallel road to the main road. Within no time we could skate around the Sagrada Familia. |
 | After the dancing klinic we headed for the meating point of the night skate on friday. The meeting point for this firday night skate of Barcelona is the Baja on the beach front. Whith the group we skated in quite a decent speed across the Diagonal. The group was quite different from the group which did the thursday night skate. Here everybody could come along and ride along the route which is suited for everyone. This speed was quite unlike the things we had been doing earlyer hanging behind a truck and so on. After the tour we had some serious drinks and looked at some photo's. |
 | The next day the trip to Sigtes was on the program. We took the train a few stations past Sigtes in order to skate back to Sigtes. And quite early we could be found on the sunny boulevard of the Mediterranian. The first few kilometres were especially designed to wake you up, the next stretch was a skaters heaven. On the right hand there was the mediterranian (we were going to determine later that day the temperature of the water), on your left hand there were palm trees amidst a warm landscape. |  |
 | As you can imagine, we had a tough time with the warm sun over us and the smooth tiles gliding under our skates. After a perfect tour back, we took the train back to Sigtes for the last stretch. In Sigtes soon a nice piece of beach was soon found. And minutes later we were floating around in the Mediterranian in Sigtes. When you got used to the temperature of the water it was quite comfortable. On the beach there was also enough entertainment. We practiced different sports like bull fighting and several jumping techniques (quite a long story). |
 | Sigtes is the place where the rich and famous of Barcelona do live; when you are something: you live in Sigtes. Also quite a lot of football players do live in Sigtes. So we embarked on a hunt for fame on skates. A very enthousiastic Mr. Sigtes showed us his city and the uptown districts. We actually ran into my friend Mr. van Gaal. He was driving his car along and he was not smiling at all. Maybe something had gone wrong with the game with FC Barcelona. We took a look at more small streets, through the shopping district and enjoyed some views. After all this beauty we headed back to the beach. The group which didn't come along for the rich and famous tour had already begun partying. They really did set up quite a party. |  |
 |
 | After some serious catching up we were partying along pretty soon. In this party mood we did skate to the train and subsequently into the train. Of course we didn's stop partying and had quite a lot of fun in the train wchich worked quite contagious, because after a while the entire car was laughing and having fun along with us. Once we arrived we headed back to the hotel to change footwear. We still had to have some dinner. In the harbour we came across a good tappas place. The entire table was filled with nice tasty things and we spend our time there eating and having fun until late. |
 |
 |
The sunday was for the Festa de Patins. A huge event in Barcelona where everyone and everything on skates joined for the tour.
At first I moved along with the flow. Quite a nice sight this giant mass of skaters moving along, falling, laughing crawling
back up again. But after a while I couldn't stand it any more, I felt the need for speed. Together with Anne and Erik we picked up some
speed and headed forward. Trains are not only a good thing to travel in order to set a good speed in a marathon or something, but you can also have quite a lot of fun in a train like singing songs, going zig-zag through the crowd. Or you can simply skate laughing about everything during half the tour. |
| After a few kilometres we found the perfect train in the Funny Riders from Montpellier (http://funnyriders.fr.st). Soon we hooked up to them and were exchanging war songs. like a giant snake (about 15 to 20 man and woman) we found our way through the other skaters, going from left to right with a general forward direction. The spectacle grabbed the attention of the many camera's which were filming the entire Festa. We rolled across the finish line together and after having sat for about a quarter of an our on the floor laughing along we all went to off to the next challenge. |  |  |
 | We could enjoy the small streets again without any significant traffic in the direction of the Diagonal and then in the direction of the Camp. A nicely paved square in front of the stadium proved to be an ideal resting place. After having enjoyed the ice creams we went on a discovery tour through the camp. Went into the skating hall did some skating there. After that we headed for the royal palace. Then back again across the Pg. de Garcia to do some more crowdsurfing. After a few more tappa's we headed for the beach. At the beach it was a party again. There was a great loung beach place which made me all happy with sunny music, sunny drinks and sunny people. A great place to chill out. The bad thing is though that it gets too cold at night (20 degrees .... chilly !). |  |
| The last night so it was our last chance to party and to paint the remaining part of the city we had forgotten. I started with a belgian waffle and then enjoyed the several disco's in the harbour. There something for everyone to dance, to rock and to salsa. And after the disco there was a belgian waffle stand feeding the hungry. |  |
 | For me the monday was the last day. Some stayed to enjoy Barcelona for some more days. On the airport, in the bus and in the plane it was plainly visible that everyone enjoyed the holiday up to the last minute and postponed the sleep thing for the departure lounge, or simply in the plane. |