{"id":5368,"date":"2012-07-02T15:41:09","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T19:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=5368"},"modified":"2015-07-02T15:12:11","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T19:12:11","slug":"day-36-sunday-july-1-barcelona-to-malgrat-de-mar-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=5368","title":{"rendered":"Day 36, Sunday, July 1 – Barcelona to Malgrat de Mar, Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hazy and humid this morning as we wound our way out of Barcelona into a stiff headwind, catching a few last glimpses\"\"<\/a> of the city’s sites.\"\"<\/a>On our bus tour we had seen this office building from a distance, but our route out of town had us pass right by it.\"\"<\/a>Within the hour the hazy sky turned cloudy and saved us from the sun and 20 plus degrees on the thermometer. \u00a0Grabbed our first opportunity to ride the beach road;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>it was enough turn in the road to put the wind at our back. \u00a0We sailed through small towns with the smell of seafood cooking in every one;\"\"<\/a>saw some very interesting architecture,\"\"<\/a>picturesque beaches\"\"<\/a>and even got a glimpse of a castle;\"\"<\/a>a truly beautiful ride.\"\"<\/a>We saw a lot of bikers on their Sunday ride and got a lot of enthusiastic waves and shouts.\"\"<\/a>At 11:00, as the climbing began, the wind switched to in our face,\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

but the towns continued to be interesting\"\"<\/a> and the scenery \"\"<\/a>fabulous.\"\"<\/a>After an hour of small ups and downs, we once again dropped down to the beach\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

with hundreds and hundreds of people walking the sidewalks. \u00a0With the overcast skies, they’d vacated the beach and were window shopping. \u00a0By noon and almost 40 miles, we were faced with the decision to ride 25 more miles (over mountains and into the wind) or stay put. Not quite sure of which road to take and exactly how bad the hills were, we checked in; a great decision given the thunder\/ligthening storm that blew in an hour later…..it was wicked.\"\"<\/a>We saw a brief break in the sky and took a stroll down the tourist trap streets of the town, like walking down Atlantic Avenue.. \u00a0The wind was blowing and it was cold, something we had not felt in several weeks. \u00a0We retreated to our room and watched as the storm got a second wind and seemed to come from every direction.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Big game tonight, European Football Championships between Spain and Italy. \u00a0It was pouring as we went downstairs to watch the game in front of the big screen TV, along with the entire hotel.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We only lasted for the first half, but knew that Spain won based on the yells and fireworks for hours afterwards.\n\t\t