Life Around Tour de France – Stage 6

This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a quizmaster by profession, a passionate traveller and a hardcore Tour de France fan

Barcelona – Hola, Hola!!

When I wrote my first piece in this tour dairy – I wrote of the book by Alexander Frater “Chasing the Monsoon” and now that is becoming a realty!! We reached Nice and it rained, we reached Montpellier it rained & today in Barcelona – its pouring cats & dogs. For someone who is not chasing the rains – the race seems to have created a low pressure some where close by us!!

The Stage 6 of the tour is an all Spanish affair as the race starts from Gerona inside of Spain and ends in Barcelona city.

We reached Barcelona ahead of the race as we wanted to catch a good place to watch the race and in this effort we managed to see quite a lot of the city, particularly the Old city which would be any travelers delight for the whole place is historic with the broken city wall & roman temples vying for attention from the seasoned traveler.

The Metro rail in the city is perhaps one of the best we have traveled. It connects all parts of the city and for those who are planning to come some day, just remember that the multiple user pass is a bargain to move around the city.

Imagine our surprise when the first person whom we asked for directions turned out to be speaking Hindi!! He was a Pakistani who was working at his uncle’s ice cream store (he confided that he was in the country illegally, but was working for his papers!!) Later on in the evening when we walked the Ramblas – the central & most happening place in the city – where the souvenir shops, musicians, jugglers, singers, artists, human statues all compete for your attention, we kept bumping into Pakistani’s selling beer!! Their numbers in Barcelona is indeed alarming.

Picasso’s museum is a big draw and is just one of the many museums in the city. The Sagrada Familia church – a church where construction has been in progress for over a decade is a major draw in the city. It’s a must visit for all those who would like to see a historic monument being made and me thinks that it will be another 20 years before the work finishes, for that’s the magnitude of the scale.

Soccer fans are everywhere in the city and the merchandising of FC Barcelona is one of the fastest moving items in the shops. The club is so ingrained into the psyche of the city that there is a logo painted on the stained glass window of the 600 years old Santa Maria del Mar where it features along with biblical characters!!

The night life of the city is the most exciting part of walking the streets of Ramblas. Our friends here in the city Aitor & Joan knew just the right places to go to & told us also the best things to eat. One of the local dishes – Coca is simply the best Onion based dish we have had in all our travels and the impressive assortment of Pinchos were gastronomic delight.

While the riders where on their way from Gerona, the Barcelona city organisers staged an Unique attempt for the Guinness Book of World Records. They had over 450 plus people assembled at the Arc del Triomf monument on the route of the race and all these people where cycling on Static bikes – the record was for the most number of people riding at the same time at the same place. The riders rode for the same amount of time as the cyclists who finished the race today. A unique way of popularizing this sport amongst the public.

For the record – the Race course was 181 kms and Thor Horshod of Norway with the Cervalo team won the race stage with a brilliant sprint to the finish. At the end of the race the individual standing at the top remains the same – Fabian Cancellera of Saxo Bank Team retains the Yellow Jersey & Lance Armstrong continues to be second with just a fraction of a second gap between him & the Yellow Jersey.

The Race tomorrow heads from Spain into the Pyrenees and will end at Andorra Acralis a distance of 224 kms. This race stage will see the riders being put to test on their climbing abilities as there is a Category 1 with the finish being a hors category climb. The fun is just about to start for the climbers are all raring to go…

Au revoir…

Email : mrq@planningfactory.in