Hail and storm at the spanish coast

After having crossed the border between France and Spain as part of our night ride that was already announced in our latest blog entry we are now cycling south along the Mediterranean Sea coast. The roads here in Catalonia are wider than they were in France and the tarmac is more cyclist friendly as well!

While crossing Girona we got stopped by the local police who first were just curious and wanted to take pictures but later insisted on checking whether our trailer was not too wide to be road legal in Spain (Spoiler: it is not). But all in all they were very friendly and let us continue our ride towards the south. In the evening we realised that Johannes shifting cables were defect and even though we had several spare ones we (or better I) managed to destroy them all while attempting to change them… As the next day was Easter Monday and all cycle stores were closed, Johannes had no other choice than cycling the 140km of the next day in one gear.

These 140km brought us to Sitges, a small town 30km south of Barcelona. On the way there we met Andries, a dutch cyclist who has lived in Spain for many years. We had a nice chat and he even showed us the way to the Sagrada Familia in the heart of Barcelona.

Sitges was the goal of the day as Johannes family was on holiday there and had offered to let us stay in their hotel. Sleeping on a mattress and eating from a breakfast buffet was motivation enough to bring us along the beautiful coast road even if Johannes could not change gears on the sometimes quite steep hills.

After a night in a warm and cosy hotel room we were able to buy a new shifting cable and repair Johannes transmission. Unfortunately the weather started to change from this day on. From nice and sunny to cloudy and even rainy. Additionally, we had already noticed some days ago, that our solar panels were not supplying us the amount of energy one could expect from their specifications. As it was sunny before, the power we got was still enough to bring us far enough to stay in our time schedule. But now in the rain this will start to become an increasing problem. As the weather forecast for the next day showed a lot of rain and wind, we decided to rent a small bungalow right at the beach, stay there for the day and try to figure out a solution for our solar panel problem. So right now I am sitting a warm bungalow while seeing hail hammering against the windows and thinking about how this would feel like if we would sleep in our tents - best decision ever to get a bungalow.