Nick's biking blog

The boat took 24 hours to reach Santander from Portsmouth and docked at noon Spanish time. It pulls in right alongside the town centre so you get off immediately on to the sea front. The sun was hot so I found a nice shady bench in the town square to sit for a while. The bus to Barcelona was not due to go until 9pm so I decided to have a little explore on the bike. Followed a road up hill which began getting steeper and steeper. At this point I realised it was a one way street so I had to carry on up and up. At a certain point the road stopped but the hill went up even more steeply to some houses at the top. Next to a flight of stone steps was the surprising sight of a modern escalator. At the top of the escalator was another novelty, a kind of funicular-railway-style elevator which ran up and down the steep hillside and in constant use by people passing up and down.

After a while observing this, and foiling the efforts of an elderly spanish man to make small talk (I had no Spanish and he no English), I descended the hill by a freshly laid smooth road (whee!). By the sea there was a cycle path so I followed it to see where it led. After a while the tarmac path became a wooden slatted way across a beach. The beach looks out across a bay full of boats and a sand-bar and beautiful _huge_ hills on the other side. Further along, a peninsular is reached where there is a grassy park, and a car-less road which which goes up to a summit on which is built la Palacio de la Magdelena (). from there there is a great view surrounded by trees to the bay on one side and the Atlantic breeze blows in from the other side. Lots of people around enjoying the day.

By 8pm I located the Estación de Autobuses. Took off the bike pedals, and turned the handlebars sideways, then wrapped the whole thing in my B&Q  tarpaulin (which will eventually be tent grondsheet) and a few bits of gaffer tape. No problem loading it into luggage hold of bus (I had pre booked a bicycle - 10 euros extra).

Arrived Barcelona 6.30am and still dark. Re-assembled bike in station then waited around 20 minutes for it to get light. Located hostel (http://www.barcelonamar.com/) and deposited all luggage and bike there and then explored the town by foot. Spent most of the day paranoid about potential pickpockets after all warnings I had had. By evening very tired, chatted to people at the hostel and went to bed. There is an Australian lady here also touring by bike so we exchanged notes.

Got a good nightś sleep and its (sorry I cant work the apostrophe key) now Saturday morning and I am tempted to stay another day as there is a lot to see here, but I am going to start off the ride. North, up the coast.