Bordeaux to Barcelona - September 2015: Day 12

Thursday, September 17th

At 5:45am the bells started ringing throughout Montserrat, then it started raining I wondered whether this was a daily ritual. By 7:30am the sky was clearing and the day was looking perfect for our ride into Barcelona.

The first groups were already visiting the church and abbey before we started breakfast.

And there was Barcelona still in the distance, but "only" 65km of cycling away!

It seemed closer with a telephoto lense though.

A final look back, before the big descent - too fast for me at times, and my Garmin played up for the next 30km as well.

The sky is clear and we put in some quick kilometers and leave the rocky outcrop far behind.

Coffee is in a small bar on the outskirts of Olesa. I thought I had organised the orders, but then everyone managed to confuse the owner when they paid their bills. She was OK, and said "because you're not from here, you all look the same to me".

We entered a more built up and industrial area, with a strange (old?) pedestrian bridge over a rather ugly river.

The navigation became difficult, the road very busy, and the tension in the peloton was building - time for a circuit breaker?!

So we stopped for a cold drink, split into smaller groups, and started the 10km climb to the top of the hills behind the city.

Our first view of Barcelona was as spectacular as I expected it would be.

And off to our left was the Torre de Collserola and Tibidabo.

Celeste II is still looking good, and riding as well as the first day.

The Sagrada Familia is still in its usual place, but from this angle it has the new "suppository" building as a backdrop.

All the team made it - those who didn't wear team uniform had to take the picture!

From here there was a quick descent, a bit of smart navigating into the busy city, and a relatively easy arrival at our hotel.

The bikes shared the underground car park with someone's beloved Fiat Bambino/500.