Day 9 - Sunday 5 May, Lleida

We had a leisurely start for once as Badger had to ride from Lloret de Mar and wasn't scheduled to rendezvous with us until about lunch-time. Eddy was receiving a steady stream of texts as Badger set off. His battery was flat so his rugby team had to bump-start him to get going. He got as far as Barcelona by midday, needing directions he got off the bike and left it running, when he returned, it had stalled and he was stuck in Barcelona. Unfortunately for him it was a Sunday so everything was shut. I don't know if it was the heat or just frustration, but we couldn't reach a joint decision as to what he should do. Eddy and I quickly decided to extend our stay in Lleida, but Badger was unsure as to whether he should try to get a bump start and head out to us or stay in Barcelona or even leave the bike in Barcelona and come out to Lleida by train and return there on Monday morning.

Eventually it was decided that he would stay with the bike in Barcelona as there are a couple of Triumph dealers there. He called out his bike recovery service and after an hour a chap turned up, but Badger couldn't explain what he wanted him to do, which was to check if the bike charging circuit was working. After much pointless gesturing the spanish recovery guy simply jump-started the bike and Badger had to decide what he was going to do. At that point he didn't know the location of ther nearest dealer and hadn't decided upon a course of action. In the end he found a hotel, left the bike there and spent the afternoon on a guided bus tour of Barcelona.

Back in Lleida Eddy went off for a walk round the city, while I caught my my email and the blog. Eddy walked up to the castle, which offered panoramic views of the city. He particularly liked the curvy lines of the railway station, which were only really apparent from above - someone carried out a very clever modernisation, which kept the best of the old but added sensitive new features. In the evening we decided to go out for a wander round looking for a tapas bar or two. We wandered through the town centre and main square then crossed the river and ambled into the local park. Despite the fact that it was May the "Feria de Abril" was in progress - a sort of cross between a fairground and a county show. We wandered between stalls sampling tapas and local beers and generally had a fun time watching the Flamenco dancers - every food tent had a raised stage and there was a constant stream of ladies young and old doing their gypsy thing. We went for a finak drink in a cafe in and got talking about music and ended up back at the hotel room watching different guitarists on youtube.

Trivia for the Day

Spade Lugs - Eddy spotted an ancient tractor that was on permanent display in the Park. He informed me that the metal spike-type things providing traction on the wheels are called Spade Lugs
Flamenco - every country seems to ascribe a different - and wroing - country of origin for Gypsies. In the UK we think they come from Egypt, which yields the word Gypsy. In Spain they thought that they orginated in Belgium i.e. they were Flemings - hence Flamenco.
FYI Gypsies are believed to come from India - Roma has nothing to do with Romania, it's related to the Sanskrit word for a man.