Beziers to Lleida (In Spain)

13th November 2009.
Bit of an early start today as I had to drop Vivi off at Beziers station to catch the TGV to Lille and from there on to London. Incredibly this can be done in 8 hours and that includes 45 minutes in Lille. Anyway the train left at 7.35am so there was a bit of a rush but we made it and had breakfast, so all was well. After dropping her off I had another breakfast which got me up to 8.30am and then I suddenly realized that I had nothing to do until 10am when a taxi was coming to take me and the bikes and the panniers and rucksack and bike boxes to Barcelona. Time drags a bit when you are on your own waiting. Anyway I survived, the taxi came and off we went to Spain. The weather having been fantastic yesterday had turned decidedly damp although this may have been because we were passing the Pyrenees where it’s always dank. Once past them it cheered up a lot and Barcelona was positively bright. I picked up a hire car at the airport stuck a pin in the map and headed to a place called Lleida. It is bigger than I’d anticipated and having not driven for 9 weeks it was quite daunting in fact I sweated more driving than I ever have cycling.
Saturday 14th
Left Lleida at about 9 and heading for Ciudad Real. Within 20 minutes I’d stopped the car 3 times because every corner I went around produced another stunning view and I just had to take a picture. Actually seeing them now they weren’t as stunning as I’d thought. The citadel in Lleida which looks as though it’s a ‘must see’ is in fact nothing more than a ruin probably built by the Saracens and knocked down by the Crusaders and no one has been up there since to see whether it’s worth restoring.
My journey, and for the man with the map it went thus Lleida, Flix, Alcaniz, Montalban, Teruel, Torrebaja, Motila, Tomelloso, Manzanares – where fortunately the tourist office was still open so without the aid of a phrase book yet I managed to be booked into a hotel.
The remarkable thing about Spain is a) it’s huge and b) there doesn’t seem to be anyone in it. And another thing they really have got renewable energy down to a fine art. They have Sun Farms – not just a few panels on your roof, acres and acres of them and wind farms – I thought Pendogget Wind Farm was big, these guys have a thousand at a time!
Anyway apart from the sites I’ve seen it’s been a boring old day, I’ve wondered what everyone is up to, can’t wait to hear what the bag was at Aller, texted Vivi twice and now I’m having supper on my own!! Nah – it’s great really. Except I’ve just made myself a whiskey and what I thought was soda is cunningly disguised own brand lemonade only they call it soda. Only the Spanish could play a trick like that.