Principal Hotel Lleida

Where? Lleida is a pleasant little village a couple hours north of Barcelona with a very worthy site or two. But more than sightseeing, we were there to visit our friends Meredith, Manu, their two adorable boys and to rest a bit after many days constantly on the move. Thanks to the hospitality of Meredith and husband Manu all goals were accomplished. It is hard to explain, but the ability to just hang out in a real home (and a Spanish one at that!) brought us great ...

... that had been used in stews for weeks. Beware of earwigs. And if you're going in late October/November be sure to bring very warm clothing for inside and out harvesting olives. An Ipod or some form of music is highly reccomended. He's not much of a talker.

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 ...

After a few days in Madrid, we headed out into the unknown. As we had a few days to kill before meeting my brother and his family in Barcelona, we picked a town about half way in between. This town was Zaragoza. This just goes to show you that sometimes you just need to throw out the good old LP and do things the old fashioned way. By dumb luck. Zaragoza is a fantastic place. It´s a city of ...

On the way to pampalona for san fermin, We come up to this town, with one of the most amazing churches I've seen in my life. WoW Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar. So i left baRCElona on the scenic road to pampalona for the running of the bulls, been stopin at some cathedrals on the way checked out a 11th century buddest place yesterday on the top of a mountain takes a gonadola to go up, today checked out ...

... up clip at roof. Stupid as changed my mind when I got there - ***** again. Pumped out and fell off. Got the crux clean though off. Got the crux clean though after. Think 7c is my upper at present? Tied a 7b+ straight after. Almost clean, but one fall. Mindlessly pumped as I started so chuffed that I fell off due to grabbing hold incorrectly. Last day so on the road again. Still though, have a great impression of the place. Amazing!!!!

... Worked out a sequence though. Rob tried a hard-looking 7b also. Drips coming down from the start?!? Re-tried 7c+, tired. Seem to only have one go in me @ the moment. Lack of mileage showing. Sliced two calluses also, one badly. Could be a problem in a day or two. Not a particularly nice 7c+, silly crux at the top. Really just doing it for the grade tick. That's a bad thing. The big sector with all the lonnnngggg routes is wet also, think we're a bit early in the season.

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?