Recovered Blog

When I started using this blog site in Spain, all of the headings and instruction were in Spanish. This was OK for basic posts, but editing old posts became a guessing game. After deleting a major post, I got the bright idea to look at the help pages. It showed me how to change the language from Spanish to English. So now I have no excuse for messing up. Here is the post that I deleted. It's out of chronological order, but at least it is here:

Sunday, April 29 - I'm sitting in the international terminal at SFO waiting for my flight to Frankfurt. Everything has been easy so far. BART was pretty slow but it dropped me off about 100 feet from the United check-in counter. There were almost no people in line there and at the security checkpoint. If it took me more than 15 minutes to get through everything, I'd be surprised. I guess that I'll fly more often in late afternoon. The downside of this is that I have a long wait before my flight leaves. I'll see what I feel like after I get toMallorca.

Monday, April 30 - Now I'm sitting in the Spanish Air terminal in Barcelona waiting for a couple of hours for my flight to Palma. The flight from SFO to Frankfurt was pretty smooth. Some chop from time-to-time but nothing serious. The landing was a little rough, though. Lots of wind. I managed to read a couple of chapters of my book, watch a movie, eat two meals - some decent pasta and an awful breakfast sandwich - and get 3-4 hours of sleep. Afternogotiating the maze in the Frankfurt airport, I finally found the gate to the flight to Barcellona . While the Frankfurt flight was full, the Barcelona flight was about 1/3 full. I had lots of leg room. They fed us a sandwich and chocolate bar. I started to read, but kept dozing off. I got hungry again and ate a meal of veal steak and fries. The beer that I had with it really made me sleepy.

The weather here and in Frunkfurt is lightly overcast and warm - in the 70's. I hope that this is a good omen for Mallorca.

I got to Mallorca at about 10:30 and waited around for my bags to arrive. When they didn't show up, I was pointed to a different baggage area in an enclosed customs area. I found my bicycle suitcase right away but my regular suitcase wasn't there. I made a claim at the lost luggage desk and then decided to take one last look in customs. I found the bag. It had fallen off of the belt and was hidden behind it. That was real good news. I taxied to the hotel (E26), checked in, took a shower and went to sleep around midnight. I slept fairly soundly until about 8 in the morning.

Tuesday, May 1 - The breakfast buffet was excellent - like the ones you see in Germany. There were lots of fruits including figs, melon, oranges, etc., cereal, meats, cheese, eggs, potatoes, breads..... I sat at a long table with otherBAC people and got to know some of them. After breakfast, some of us put our bicycles together at the hotel's bicycle area. They have a rental shop with a bike mechanic and a large storage area where you rent a space so that you can lock your bike. After I got my bicycle fixed up, I changed rooms to the one I am sharing with Bill Todd. Then I went to the computer area where the free wireless access was located. Trouble is that the wireless connection didn't work, so I had to postpone posting my blog. I was able, however, to use their pay-forinternet computer to read and send some emails and post a brief blog. Lunch was in the same restaurant as breakfast. It was a E20 buffet. Very good but a little over priced. I had several dishes including fish, seafood salad, potatoes, vegetables and others. Dessert was coffeeflovored flan, a baked, purple pear and lemon sorbet. After wandering around the hotel for a while and taking some pictures, I came back to our room and Bill was there having just arrived fromHeathrow.

Our Happy Hour/Group Meeting began at 6. We introduced ourselves to the group and Allison went over the BAC ground rules and safety procedures. After the meeting, we had dinner in the same restaurant. The food was the same as at lunch. It's getting very monotonous. Lights out for Bill and me were at 9:30. Because he had just arrived, he was pretty tired and slept very well. On the other hand, I had a lot of trouble falling to sleep - the second day jet lag problem. Tossing and turning into the early morning hours, Ifanally got to sleep around 2 or so.

Wednesday, May 2 - We were up at 6:30. Bill went to get his rental bicycle squared away while I reviewed my email. Breakfast was in the same restaurant. I stoked up on protein because of the long ride that was planned. The hotel gave us lunches of a mini-baguette with cheese, three figs and an orange. I left the hotel a little after 9 and rode with George andDorlene for the first few miles.Their pace slacked off after awhile so I began riding by myself. The first part of the ride was fairly flat. The route was slightly inland along lightly traveled roads. The weather started in the high 60's and eventually got up to the mid 70's. It was partly cloudy with moderate winds (at least they were moderate as tail-winds). We dropped down to the coast for a bit atSa Rapita and rode past crashing Mediterrainian waves. Then we turned inland again. Not many roads in Mallorca follow the coast. I intercepted other BAC cyclists on the way into Campos and several dozen non-BAC cyclists throughout the ride. Mallorca is a haven for cyclists.

else wanted to do the option. It included a After Campos, I took the optional ride extension. I was now totally on my own because noonemoderate climb of about 1200 feet over 3.5 miles to a monestary called Monestir de Sant Salvador. The monastary turned out to be a tourist destination including a bar/cafe. It also had several framed cycling jerseys and pictures of a local cyclist who won races in the 1940's. The views from the monastary were spectacular. You could see a panarama of almost the entire island. It was worth the climb for me and several other cyclists that I saw there.

The rest of the ride was working my way back to the hotel along mostly lightly traveled roads. Because it extended route met back up with the shorter route, I caught up with some otherBAC rider going back to the hotel.

The ride was very nice. There were lots of wild flowers, sheared sheep and fig trees. Auto drivers were very courtious and waited to pass until the road was clear. My GPS worked flawlessly and helped tremendously in following the route.

Final stats:
Miles - 71
Time - 05:05
Average speed - 13.9
Max speed - 35.4
Elevation gain - 2768 feet

Our Happy Hour/Group Meeting began at 6 with an agenda of normal administrivia. Dinner was at 7 with a slightly different menu. I had a non-seafood paella made with noodles instead of rice. It was not too bad - lots of salty sausage in it. Bedtime is going to be right after I finish these notes.