Hola from Barcelona

It was a lonnnnnnng day but I made it along with all me luggage so as tradition has it I can claim I have arrived. The flight to Montreal was a no drama one, no one up front cept me in me holiday mood. I did manage to drain the Baileys allotment on the plane again.....they really should carry more in my opinion. I just figured I should get a lot of coffee in me to survive what I knew was going to be a longgggggg day. Beautiful weather for a flight and for once I managed to get to the bathroom before the turbulence and had to stay in me seat. The ping went off just as I closed the bathroom door an noooo way was I sitting down back at me seat till I took care of business. This was the smaller bathroom so I had to jam my head on the roof....and me legs against the walls and try to ....well aim best I could.....took an effort as I was bouncing about in there but no spillage so was quite proud of me achievement. When I managed to get out of the bathroom the stewardess gave me a "Hmmm was about to sent in some help because of all the banging around in there." No worries I said....I like the challenge. Soon enough we were in Montreal, time for a long layover.  

The lounge here is being redone since last I was here so there was no longer a poutine chef....or bartender. It is big an nice but very sterile...and the seats are the low back leather ones so you can't sleep in then easy and if you sit too long your sweating. I am thinking the strategy is to get you in and out.....sooooooooooo North Amercan.....sigh.

So I managed to balance the bar trips with entertaining me self and eventually I decided to just wander around the airport whilst I could still walk a straight line. I decided to wait on eating as there would be supper on the plane .... a bit late....but I might as well get used to it as supper in Spain is usually around 9 at night. Eventually it was time to hit the gate for me flight. I was glad it was a direct flight but was not sure what to expect as it was a Rouge flight I was warned off them by other stewardesses on Air Canada flights, bit of a rivalry it would seem. I was a bit confused as I had a zone 2 boarding pass....but was premium rouge, so was not sure what it took to get a zone 1 as there is no business class. Well all answers came when boarding started. They called zone 1 and nooo one got up. Zone 2 and I was off....I was first to check in....bit of a walk down the gang plank and had to stop just outside the plane as they apparently weren´t ready for company as of yet. The cleaning crew was still in the middle of it. The attendants all have these funky hats on that look kinda cool and it a young crew at that.  

So after standing watching everyone clean for a few minutes they let us on and I had the bulkhead seat 1A and can say that its not bad. The seats are like business class domestic. Plunked down and they were serving juice and water right away. Had a pillow and blanket, and the kit with the toothbrush and socks that I've never seen anyone wear in it.  The only problem was that the bulkhead wall was a bit close.....no stretching out. The seating is 2-2-2 and me travel buddy joined me as I was just sitting down. Joseph, he was from Barcelona and was in Montreal for a meeting. He flew in the night before...had his meeting that day and was flying home. His eyes had the look of a road map with a lot of highways. Talk about a quick turn around.  

Great guy though soon he was telling restaurant names....I was trying to write them down (how many "r's" do you write when trilling them is it rrr or rrrrrrrr) and he eventually said give me the phone and he wrote a cool list of restaurants in it for me to check out. Soon enough they shut the door and we were off.

The planes do not have any tv's so in Premium they give you an IPad loaded up with movies tv shows and games. I was actually impressed...so saw a few movies on there I wanted to watch but ....seems it was supper time. Hot towel service and a meal on china service. Not bad. The bar was open also. So I had a meal and was drinking some nice rye for a change of pace...all they had was Bacardi White on board and that's not gunna happen.  Me travel buddy popped a couple of pills and was drooling in his chair slightly after take off....so not much convo going on, I didn't´t blame him for wanting to sleep either.  

Watched a couple movies...twiddled me thumbs...stared out the window...then tried to sleep..that lasted for about 15 minutes. Got up...hung out up front with the head stewardess. She was nice and she seemed bored too so we chatted for quite a while. That helped pass the time. Soon enough the sun was coming up and we were over mainland Spain and not to much later...Barcelona for a non bouncy landing.

Got off the bus after bidding all adeu, and ended up in long customs line...that went really fast, the dude just looked at me....stamp stamp and and I was looking for me luggage. With that in hand...I had arrived.  I wandered out and there was a guy standing there with an IMTBike shirt. Martin...my guide.  

Awesome guy, he talked me ear off welcoming me and we headed to the van. It was hot and humid out. In not long at all we were buzzing through Barcelona, me trying to keep up with his Spanish....he Hablos muy rapido.....so not so easy. Turns out he is Catalan from here and he filled me in on the politics. Interesting stuff. They want to separate....no shortage of drama in Europe.

Its about 10 in the morning....I am tired...but nope not gunna sleep....need to stay awake. So once we got to the hotel I got my room and its so typical european, bathroom is as large as the room...(uh small room...but the bathrooms ends up big)...did a quick shower thing and felt like new. Time to explore.

With that I headed out the door to find a simm card so I wandered to the train station which was not too far away and in about 5 mins I had a simm card for cheap. Time to wander....well it did not take long and I found a cool pub with potatoes bravada....they are like crack cocaine...sooo good. Basically they are diced potatoes drenched in this kinda hot sauce, it did not hurt that it was hot out and they were advertising Mojitos...soooooo lets just say the walk back to the hotel was a bit wobbly.  

When I arrived Martin checked me in and they gave me a welcome pack and notified me of a briefing later in the day. Well it was time to hit the briefing.....I had met a couple of guys already that are on the tour as they did standout in the hotel. Everyone is there now... and so far everyone seems great...a few more opinionated than average I seem to be the yungin in the crowd. Lets see, Pina (California cigar smoker extraordinaire), Micheal , Lee and Dan (they are all sorta related and from South Carolina and got some serious drawls going), Phillip and Greg (buds from Washington state Phillip was a tug boat capn and Greg is an Emmy winning film editor for National Geographic). The barbs started flying pretty quick so its going to be a fun crowd and I may be talkin in All Y'all dialect when I git back.

So, we have two guides. Martin and Roger. One will drive a support vehicle and the other will lead the pack. Turns out they are IMT's senior guides and been doing this for over 15 years. They are going to tag team riding days because driving the support van is like a punishment for them. They both are extreme bikers with racing heritage, they also do test rides for manufactures and Martin is a motorcycle magazine journalist. These guys know how to ride....seriously and are extremely passionate about riding. This is seeming to get better by the minute. So they fill us in on the fun to come and with no questions we had our first group supper. Man.....was it good already.....they took us to a small restaurant a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Local wines were brought out....and the getting to know everyone commenced. Food was amazing......I may be gaining a few inches of girth on this trip. The crowd seems great and we got one Harley rider to pick on and the North vrs South lines were drawn also.  Everyone was tired so it was time to shut er down....quick walk back to the hotel.....hopped in the sac....fell asleep....woke up about 2 with some serious chandelier swinging going on by the couple in the room next door. Ugh.....pillow to head did not help. Ahhh well, I'll get some sleep eventually.