Day 10 - Monday 6 May, Lleida to Montelban

Eddy and I again had time for a leisurely breakfast. The staff in the station buffet, which doubled as the hotel restaurant were used to our needs by now and served us 2 croissants each with butter and jam as wel as the usual cafe con leche and zumo de naranja without us having to ask. By the time we finished breakfast we had received word from Badger - he had bought and fitted a new battery and purchased fork seals that were to be replaced by the Triumph dealer in Granada. He had not however had his charging circuit checked out so we were more than a bit concerned about his making it out to Lleida. We advised the hotel that we were checking out, and also that there was a chance we might have to stay another night and need another room for Badger.

I got my gear ready and went out to look for earphones for my ipod and a tubi-grip bandage for my still-sore left arm. I found an Asian store selling selling cheapo ear-phones and a farmacia, however I had to go to another type of store an orthopedia or something similar. A very helpful lass in the Farmacia pointed me in the right direction, but walking around in motorcycle boots as the day started to warm up was not my idea of fun so I gave up. In fact the whole trip out was a waste of time, when I unpacked that evening I discovered I had packed my mobile phone earphones and also that there was nothing wrong with my ipod earphones - I had forgotten they had their own volume control, which simply slid down to the Off position - DOH! Anyway by the time I got back to the hotel Badger had arrived and it was time for a quick coffee, a catch-up and off again.

Once we had cleared Lleida went headed off towards Fraga on an N road. Once in the countryside the going was very easy; little traffic on the roads, a willingness to move over for motorbikes and good road surfaces made for fast going. Badger and Eddy, as ever, were getting excited over old mine workings and seemingly abandonned industrial buildings. I was quite happy just letting the world go past and concentrating on the next bend. We stopped for a snack at about 2pm at a sports bar in Caspe it was pretty hot by then about 30 degrees. We also stopped for an ice-cream in Alcaniz about 4pm

We ended the day at a hotel by a roundabout somewhere near Montalban. It was an excellent location and pretty cheap so for the first time on the trip we all got separate rooms. The place was very quiet, clean and comfortable and we all took the chance to catch up on our washing. We ate in the hotel restaurant - we were the only diners, I guess the financial crisis has hit tourism pretty hard. We met a spanish guy who worked for Nissan and travelled regularly to Washington (Tyne & Wear not CD), but he only stopped for a coffee and a snack then headed off. The food was a bit disappointing, but this was made up for by the cool and very quiet bedrooms. After dinner we headed off for an early night as it had been a pretty hot tiring day.