Having grown up in Texas, I could hardly be anti-sport, but this weekend I’m in full immersion. Thursday we were at the Irish bar for an early Scottish session, so we decided to stay to watch the first elimination game for Spain in the World Cup on Thursday night. By the time our session was over there was a long line of soccer fans outside the door, being admitted in groups to specific tables, but I was able to weasel two spots out of the manager, who was trying to herd the rest of the musicians out. It didn’t hurt that we were ordering dinner.
The game was held in Los Angeles and fans of the Spanish team, fondly known as La Roja, appeared to occupy about 75% of the stadium, if wearing red was any indication. The bar we were in, which you will remember is located in Spain, did not have a much higher proportion; we were seated behind a table of five Austria fans, for example. We had both been recovering from colds for it seems like weeks and it was So Much Fun to be in a big crowd, ordering food and drink, and cheering for the home team, who was happily favored. As you surely know, Spain won 3-0.
Being out in the world is good for my spirit.
On Saturday, BCN hosted Le Grand Depart, the first leg of of the Tour de France. This is a big deal–the city had a 100-day countdown–and a first for BCN, which is how everyone writes Barcelona here so I will, too. My husband and I were delighted to have something more exciting than the US 250 birthday, of which we did not get a whiff the entire day, to do on July 4th, and decided to go in person. The route was lined with spectators but only 1-2 people deep, so it was pretty easy to get a glimpse as they raced by, except at the corners, where the crowds were bigger.
As we left the bar on Thursday I had taken a shot of Sagrada Familia towering over the bike course, with its central spire illuminated in yellow to commemorate the race, as many buildings in BCN are doing for at least this week. This is not the section we saw on Saturday.
The first leg was a Team Time Trial. I am a neophyte to this sport so I will not attempt to explain it, but what I saw were clusters of cyclists riding fast in a line, almost touching. I think there were seven on each team, but by the time they got to our spot, about halfway along a 19-km course, some if them had split up. I only got one video, and only one cyclist is in it!
As you can see is the video there are motorcycles and cars, also going fast, startlingly so at the turns. The second photo below is a view from the same spot, during a time when no teams were passing. At the end of that view is a corner. The teams start at different times spread out over about an hour, so there was a lot of waiting in-between. My husband found an app that showed the locations of the racers on the course, though you could tell when someone was coming by the crowd noise.
It had been a little tricky to get there, because I wanted to be on the far side of the course from where we live. The buses weren’t running anyway, but obviously the only way to cross the course was underground so we had to take a different train than usual and walk back to the course from the nearest stop. It was our first time on the L6, and we were stunned to see that it has soft seats with headrests and armrests unlike our usual lines, L5 and L3. We knew that there are different operators for different lines, and now we know that we should check them out.
It was pretty hot on Saturday. We walked slowly, and stopped for a drink on the way. I’ve been reading some European heat management techniques and one of them is to drink a hot drink on a hot day. A hot drink tells your body your core is heating up, so it tries to cool you down. A cold drink does the opposite. I don’t know if it works for everyone, but I’m hooked. I had hot tea.
Starting today, the day of the second leg of the race and the first of two mass start events to be held in Catalonia, we are expecting even hotter weather. This leg ends in BCN again, and I really wanted to see the ending, but I realized that between the excessive heat and the need to get there early and wait for the end of a 168 km race was going to defeat me. So today we will be watching on Spanish TV. We’ve even found a program where the announcers are speaking English.
One more sporting note: On Friday we were just hanging around and it occurred to me that the gym would be air conditioned. I had been saying I would join the gym after our vacations were over and so I did! It was just at delightfully cool as promised, and it fit perfectly into my fin de semana deportivo…weekend of sports? Doesn’t sound as good in English!