Barcelona to Bordeaux

Friday, September 4th

Nothing to do this morning except get to the airport, collect my bike, check-in and take the Vueling flight to Bordeaux. Now there's a Spanglish name for an airline - almost as bad as the Spanish for jogging - "footing".

But wait! That's not my flight - mine is still somewhere over the Pyrenees, so we're delayed for an hour. It starts to rain, and the more it rains, the more departure gets delayed. We eventually get away almost two hours late.

But the view of the Garonne coming into Bordeaux revives my spirits, and I start to think about my first wine for the day.

By the time I collect my luggage I miss the hourly bus to the hotel (€7), so I catch a taxi instead (€40) - thanks Vueling.

My room is small so there's not much space for me, the luggage and the bike. I certainly won't be reassembling it in here.

There's a bar across the road - looks like a good place to start drinking. It's not the best part of town though.

There's a very good light rail (tram?!) network in Bordeaux, a city of only 240,000 people, and it passes just outside my bedroom window.

Vin ordinaire, small glasses, but cheap (in all senses).

After a drink we head off on our first search for dinner - these can get quite comlicated, especially if the group is large, and the needs various. I'm new to Bordeaux so I just tag along, for now.

We found a nice place, sat inside as much for the warmth as avoiding the outdoor smokers, and ordered our two course meals.

On the way back we discovered that the night had come alive, very alive! It was Friday after all.

This was a kind of discotheque, but with trestle tables everywhere.

It's about 11:00pm and all the restaurants and bars are jumping.

Bill isn't well, so he goes to bed, and Tony D still has "skiers knees" so he joins him. The rest of us have a drink in a wine bar - for some (local?) reason, we had to order food to be able to drink. We settle for chocolate :-)