Hostal Avenida Lleida

... in English, Catalan, or Spanish/Castillian). We also got a fabulous guided tour, courtesy of Manu, of Lleida's very excellent castle complex with fine architecture and requisite big views of the surrounding countryside. Our usual food report differs here as we actually cooked a meal. Wow. First time fin a long time. It is strange for two people who love to cook to eat out three times a day for weeks on end. So we had a great time attempting to figure out ...

Well, most people like Jordi. We made a solid effort to get along with him, but we didn't feel the same effort from him. He often served cold food, including making mashed potatoes and putting them in the fridge for a few hours to serve them cold. Old ...

Bé, això és tots amics...això és el que hauria de dir, però no serà així, doncs ara començaré a escriure de debò totes les batalletes, aventuretes i altres coses mig serioses que m'han anat passant física i intel·lectualment...ho faré amb l'esperança de que us agradi i us ho passeu bé llegint-ho. Salut a tots!!!

During the Messanges drama, we received an email from Kieth saying that he was on a road trip heading down to Barcelona. We hadn´t planned to get to Barcelona for another week but it would be crazy not to meet up with him so we made the journey which wasn´t too bad, about 4 and a half hours each day. The journey to Spain was meant to be 4 hours but ended up to take about 7, and that isn´t an ...

... a half million people, with a beautiful and easy to navigate old town area. This is a city that isn´t over whelmed with tourists, so we could really enjoy ourselves with out being bombared with tour requests etc. I could live in Zaragoza with out any hesitancy. It´s clean, small enough that you can walk around without problems, and just has an over all good vibe. About the only negative that ...

... practice my spainish at all with the exccessive amount of eenglish and other dialects. The old castles and such are pretty cool climbed up on today that was like 500 steps in a tight lil circle but the reward was the aMZING view. o the lil city. so sometime early tomoorrow we should be arriving in pampalona to see and perticipate in the running of the bulls however probly not runing until saturday morning ...

Much better sleep (think the night before was from a very starchy rice). Still achey though, need more mileage. In bed @ 11:30 last night, up @ 9 today. One of the fingertips is destroyed, lots of tape needed. Started with 6b+. False start as tape coming off. Nice route as tape came off. Nice route to start day with. Rob tried his route first, unsuccessful so he striped the route. Took a a good while though, think I was cold again ...

**** sleep, don't feel good at all. Plan is for a new 7c+. Went up to Sector Latina, but the only 7a is taken and everything else looks too hard for warm-up. Down to La Fuente, a gorgeous sector beside the river. Nice 6b to warm up, and a short 7a. Up to Sector Pince San Rire for a 7c+ I'd my eye on. It's wet - *****.... Very hot in sun, so back to 7c+ beside the river (Sector Aguest Any Si). Got to top, but wishing I'd worked all the moves on the 1st day as fell off last ...

Shoulders achey, arms are great! must figure out what I'm training wrong at the moment. Awesome chill out day. Not completely ideal as haven't done a hard route, but still it's early in the season so can't complain too much. Thoughts on trip: lacking in mileage (as usual!) but big improvements on before. Potential for a hard route is there now..... Maybe it's worth trying one? Tomorrow, hopefully do a 7c+, and then see what to do!

Warm ups: 6a, 5, 6b (steep). Worked a 7c+. Got halfway and fell off, not that it was hard. Just convincing myself it's hard..... Worked bolt to bolt after, had done what I thought was all the hard work. I was wrong. A stopper move right at the chains.......abandon it as it's trashing my skin. Flash a 7a+ to finish off the day. Warm down with 6b and 6a, a great idea that I must do more often. tired at end of day, but shoulders feeling more stressed than fingers?