Wow, a lot has happened since that last post! There have been no more causes for heart attacks or bleeding since then, so that's a good thing! As good as I said the cycling was in Barcelona, it was trumped by Mallorca. I rented a HEAVY cross bike there for three days. First of all, my hostel was half a block off the beach in s'Arenal, about 9km southeast of Palma de Mallorca (the city and port), almost all beach apart from some rocky shore and marinas. On the first day, I rode southeast, up inland among some hot roads flanked by walls and orchards and really loud buzzing insects like locusts or cicadas or something. After what seemed like hours I came up over the crest of a hill to find a strong cool wind and breathtaking panoramic view of seaside cliffs. My guess by the map is that the drop to the ocean was 600 feet or more.
From there, I continued southeast around a point, went by some small marina and/or beach towns and had lunch at a local drinking hole. Inland, many of the houses had Don Quixote-esque windmills, small stone environs, light golden hayfields and haystacks, pink brick walls and bright green shutters. I left the coast for Llucmajor and then headed back inland to climb to Randa and the mountain directly to the east. This was at least the size of Tibidabo, if not a little more. All the landscape was semi-arid savannah and scrubland, and there was a cool sanctuari at the top (church/monestary sort of business). The view of the island and sea was, clearly, incredible. To the North, however, I could see another mountain range at least twice the size of the mountain I had just climbed. I knew I would have to go there tomorrow. But for that day, it was already 5 pm, and I was supposed to meet some other travellers for dinner by 7 and was quite far from the hostal, so I raced back down the mountain, through the scorching hot inland roads and back to the beach. The difference between coastal roads or windward mountain roads and leeward inland roads was so extreme... the coast held the cool sea breezes while inland the roads flanked by walls formed punishing hot wind tunnels.
Anyway, I've got little time left. The mountains were excellent, the beaches were excellent, Valencia and the America's Cup and Picasso Museum were all pretty cool, and on my second time through Barcelona I did make a point of seeing some of Gaudi's work, in particular the Sangra de la Familia. I think I've spelled that right. Rome has been a whirlwind tour of plazas, the Panthenon, the Vatican and the anchient city, including Colleseum. Tonight I'm off for Africa!
