Flying at Krushevo and Ager
11 Aug-3 Sep
11 Aug, Sat – C.J. and I left North Bend at a reasonable 0930 for a
flight scheduled for 1330. There was no traffic slowdown (unlike on Thursday
when we diverted from I-90 through Preston-Fall City to avoid a major accident
near the High Point exit) so we reached ParkNJet lot 2 right around 1000. The
lot was quite full and we were directed to the valet parking area near the
entrance. The shuttle took just the two of us to SeaTac and dropped us off
where the driver spotted a baggage cart that had been left on the sidewalk,
saved us $5. Checked in and got through TSA Pre-check (the pre-check had been
on just the one SEA-AMS boarding pass and at first we thought we had not
received it). We had one gate change and then our flight was delayed due to a late
arriving plane. It was the wrong time to get any appreciable amount of sleep
during our flight and I ended up choosing to watch Coco and The Last Jedi.
At Amsterdam we arrived more or less on time but then had a loooong taxi to our
gate.
people without their bags, us among
them. We all filled out missing baggage forms. Later we heard that there had
been too many big bags to fit on the small plane, so they were left in BEG.
Hopefully that was correct and they will arrive on the 0130 flight on 13 Aug
and get sent to our hotel. Since we had no heavy luggage to schlep, we decided
to take the cheaper shuttle bus instead of the 20 Euro taxi. It
wasn’t going to leave until 1645 so we had time to wander around the tiny
airport and eat a slice of the local meat-filled croissant-like pastry called a
burek . We got dropped off at the Hotel Holiday Inn and walked along
the Vardar River past two bridges crowded with statues, and a couple of
boat-shaped restaurants to the 12-arched Stone Bridge.
13 Aug, Mon – This morning we had breakfast in the restaurant downstairs. Afterward we asked the desk manager to call the airport and find out about our lost/delayed luggage. It had not been sent from Belgrade because there was no flight last night (0130) but it will be sent Mon. night/Tue. Morning. Later we ran into Peter Longstaff and his wife Janet and sat with them a while after they had eaten breakfast. They have been to Macedonia a couple of times previously and have done a fair amount of traveling. Later we went out and stopped at a souvenir stall and bought a Macedonia cap just so I’d have something to keep the sun out of my eyes. We also went to a nearby shopping
mall and
bought a small tube of sunscreen at a Vero. We climbed back up to the
Fortress and walked around the mostly rebuilt but crumbling grounds. There were
no explanatory signs and no displays. And it was really hot in the sun. We
returned via the twisted streets of the Old Bazaar and crossed back over the
river on the bridge in front of the Archaeological Museum. We stopped for a
milkshake at one of the Trend Restaurants because it had misters running in the
outdoor seating area. Back at the hotel I sent the above email and rinsed
out another sweat-soaked t-shirt. We received an email from Toby at PP saying
to meet at 1230 for the 2-hr shuttle to Krushevo. I let them know about our
missing bags. When we went out again we really didn’t have a destination. After
looking at the tourist map at the north end of the big plaza, we went back
along 11 Octomovri to the huge triumphal arch, Porta Macedonia. Then we walked into the Woman
Warrior Park and looked at all the different monuments. It was pretty difficult
to figure out what most of them represented. We did recognize one of a golden
man with a spear; it was the one that had had “metal underpants” installed “to
cover his manhood” when some female politicians |
| "Iron underpants guy" |
14 Aug, Tue – Up sometime after 0700 for a shower and to
start packing up. I checked with the desk to see if our bags had been delivered
overnight but they reminded me that the airport does not do night deliveries.
They said we could call the airport and try to get them to hold onto the bags
for our arrival around noon. At 0830 the desk called saying that our bags had
arrived from the airport. Whew! We had breakfast with Peter and Janet and this
time we had the Macedonian breakfast with “pie”, hardboiled egg, black and
green olives, feta cheese chunks, some lettuce and tomato, and an interesting
sauce (ivar?). After breakfast we took a walk on Blvd Makedonija and we found
the
Mother Teresa Memorial House and a new multi-domed church of Sts Constantine and Elena that was being
built, including a tall, separate bell tower. When we returned to the hotel we
rested a bit and at 1125 went downstairs to check out and
load all our bags into a taxi to the airport. We didn’t have too long
to wait for the four other pilots to arrive and then we were off in a weakly air
conditioned van south on a motorway, then west on 2-lane roads through Prilep,
across a wide tobacco-growing valley, then up a winding road to Krushevo and the Hotel Montana Palas. We checked in and moved our gear to our
room on the 2nd floor (3rd, if you count the main floor
as 1). I installed my SIM card and then ran into problems with C.J.’s iPhone so
we went down to the lobby and got help from Mike Agnew of Passion Paragliding (whom we had met when he was working for XTC in Slovenia) and
Jonni who is one of the guides. Back in the room we did a little unpacking then
went to the restaurant for a scoop of ice cream. Back in the room I
uploaded the waypoints that Toby had sent in an email to our instruments. ,
both of C.J.’s instruments and my Garmin 76S. Around 1900 the whole crew of
something like 12 pilots and Mike and maybe Toby walked down the road to the
village, about a km. Apparently Mike had made prior arrangements because
there was already a long table set under an awning and we were served first a
salad, then a cheese dish like fondue or raclette on slices of crispy crust,
then slices of pizza, and finally, fruit slices. It was quite a meal.
The walk back was trying for me and I had to stop several times with chest
pain. We went to bed pretty early after taking some photos of the picturesque
town below.
15 Aug, Wed – Up around 0630. Breakfast buffet in the
restaurant was full of variety from Macedonian items to fried eggs and slices of
omelet. There were also plates of meat and cheese so I made a sandwich for
lunch. There was no hot chocolate but I tried a drink from the fancy espresso
machine; the vanilla latte wasn’t too bad, not bitter like coffee anyway. And
much better than the thick and pudding- like “hot chocolate” at the Hotel London
breakfast. The orientation meeting at 0900 provided a map and lots of useful
information although the British accent was sometimes hard to understand.
Afterward we had 20 minutes to get our gear ready before we loaded on the two
vans. We first drove down into Krushevo for a stop at a small store for people
to get snacks for lunch. Then we drove a few km south from the hotel and up a
paved road signed for the paragliding launch. Everyone was surprised to see the
whole crowd of the British Open pilots (120 of them) there so early. We had
another orientation with a big map and Toby chose a task of B19-B16-A10, or,
north to the junction of the “crocodile ridge” out front with the higher
Krushevo ridge, then a point south of the launch, then straight east to an
airfield halfway to Prilep (the goal of the British Open, and about 36 km,
total). By the time we had gotten ready all the BO pilots had launched and
probably started. There were still other pilots and groups, but the launch is
large. I launched at 1155 and struggled out front at the supposed house thermal
but I finally got back up over the launch ridge. Then I started off north and
found light lift at the edge of
Krushevo near our hotel. I continued on along
the eastern edge of the city then past the Makedonium monument. About that
time, I saw an armada of pilots flying toward me, most of them low. I guess
that the BO had its first turnpoint at the huge cross on the mountain north of
K, and they were returning. I found some lift to 1600m as I crossed the valley
to the 1 km cylinder around B19, but arrived at 1100m. There was enough lift to
circle for a while at the ridgetop of the crocodile, but it didn’t last long
and I had to fall off the ridge and sank into a long field in the valley. There
were horses in a nearby field that were a little startled as I flew over but
settled right down as I landed (0:42). I was surprised to see a couple of kids
appear because there really was not a house close by, then another eight or ten
showed up. Only one spoke a little English and another one had a rudimentary
idea about how to fold up a glider, but they did help a little. Just as I
finished, the van showed up so I shook hands with all the boys and got out
through a nearby gate. The van took me to the bailout LZ where we picked up six
or seven more pilots, and then we returned to launch where Toby was waiting to
help anyone who wanted to fly again. He thought we might have an hour or more
before the predicted over-development occurred. Clouds were tall, but not
anvilled, and there were lulls in the cycles on launch. So, when Peter started
getting ready as well as Jamie and Bernie, I got set up and followed Peter off.
I flew straight out without encountering any lift and was actually starting to
feel a bit worried about reaching the bailout, but once I got under a cloud
there was plenty of lift. I got to 1400m or so and flew as far as the toe
(tail) of the crocodile ridge. I was down to 1200 and looking at crossing a
town on the 11.4 km route to the goal, but I encountered no lift and turned back
along the ridge to the bailout. I flew low over the tall trees to see which
ways the leaves were fluttering and managed to land into the wind. Just as I
started packing up (Bernie and Jamie and a couple of others were already there,
but Peter had gotten high and gone toward goal), the van drove up with C.J. and
others. She had not flown the task (put the turnpoints in backwards) but had
flown for 1hr 40m. We all headed back to the hotel while the other van went out
to the east to get Peter and? Back at the hotel C.J. and I changed our InReach
messages to include our cell numbers in Macedonia and the Passion PG guys. We
had the hotel buffet dinner with Jamie, Mark and Jason.
 |
| Part of hotel breakfast buffet |
16 Aug, Thu – The day dawned cloudy with an unpromising
forecast of showers. We met at 0900
and Toby asked if we’d like to go to Ohrid,
about a two-hour bus ride. About half of the group (seven plus Mike and Jonni) took
him up on it and we left about 1000. The scenery was not very exciting even
though we were driving through the mountains; the rain kept the visibility down.
In Ohrid (say OCK rid) we got off on Bulevar Turisticka just a short ways from
the pedestrian way that paralleled Bulevar Makedonski prosvetiteli (Macedonian
Educators) and went down to the lakefront. We had started off with Mike and
Jonni but we lost them when we stopped to study a tourist map at Ohrid Fountain
Square; we were on our own. So the first thing we did was stop for some ice
cream, of course. Then we continued down to the lake front and followed the
old, narrow, cobblestone streets along the shore and up the hill bit to St.
Sophia’s Church. From there we cast around for a few minutes before finding a
path to the waterfront which led us to a boardwalk suspended over the water
which bypassed some cliffs. Eventually we reached our destination, the ancient
church of St. John the Theologian on a point of land sticking out into the
lake. Because we had only three hours to explore Ohrid, we were going to stick
with the old town and mostly the park that contained the main tourist
attractions. Since we did not want to retrace our steps, we headed uphill on a
steep climb to the Fortress of Tsar Samuil. Some of the reconstructed
walls and towers dated from the 10th century and some even earlier.
We got some good views from the inner walls and, after a climb of a steep
stairway, the wall above the main gate. From there we headed downhill to the
Upper Gate and then down to the reconstructed ancient theater. About that time
it began to rain lightly. We were down to t-shirts because of the exertion of
climbing to the fortress, but we cooled off quickly.
By the time we reached the
water front square again, we were ready to pull on our rain jackets, and find a
public restroom. We had bypassed the portapotties at the theater (if they were
even open to use) but we found a park with pay toilets. Unfortunately, we did
not have the three 10-denar coins required. But C.J. managed to slip in when
another woman emerged. We walked back up the pedestrian way and stopped at the
fountain square to eat a little lunch under a sycamore tree. Then we veered off
the tourist route into a more generic market with clothing and household items.
We were early at the place where we were going to meet the van and no one was there.
When it got to be several minutes after 1500, we began to be a bit nervous. But
soon enough the rest of the party showed up and
then the van pulled in for an
illegal stop. It rained most of the way back; we hadn’t missed any flying. My
nose was running and it was clear that I was getting a cold so after dinner
with Peter and Janet at the hotel bar (the big restaurant was being used as a
buffet for the British Open). I took one of the cold remedy pills I have
been carrying for ages (next one in four hours). That seemed to help and I was
able to sleep.
17 Aug, Fri – The weather looked a lot more promising so,
after breakfast, we met at 1000 and drove up to launch. The British Open pilots
were already there but were not launching. Toby gave us the option of doing a
quick flight (a “cheeky top-to-bottom”,
as he termed it) and then going XC later. C.J. and I opted out of the sledder. I took a
walk up the road to the statue of a man hurling a
boulder (perhaps Pitu Guli), a monument to the “Republic of Krushevo” revolt against the Ottoman Empire which lasted ten days. There were still wreaths on the base of the statue left over from the Aug 2nd celebration. The British Open began launching before noon
with the task out in the middle of the valley and almost all the way to the Greek border. During the time that there was a big disorganized gaggle over launch, a mid-air collision sent two pilots
to the ground; one Brit appeared to be unconscious and did not
deploy a reserve. He landed in the brush downhill in front of launch and reportedly sustained a broken shoulder. The other pilot, a Ukrainian, not a BO competitor
also looked unconscious but had deployed his reserve. He crashed through some
trees, and later we found out that he did not survive. [These results are the
very opposite of what one usually expects from a mid-air. Typically, the person
who deploys his reserve avoids major injury.] Even though there was a fair
amount of cumulus buildup out in the valley and behind launch, we took off on a
task to fly SE to B26 then due S to A09, also down near the Greek border. I
took off at about the same time as Shalon, and we were able to thermal up
somewhat as we moved south along the ridge. I thought it might be possible to
get to B26 by crossing the gap and then flying E to the waypoint (2km cyl), but
I could not get much above launch level (1400m) and had to keep pushing out
toward the valley. I tried flying over a village (maybe Precil) but there was
no lift and the wind was getting pretty strong from the north. As I got low
south of the village I saw that there were a lot of tobacco fields and I did
not want to land in them. I aimed for a fallow field and had to do some hard
turns so as to not overshoot. I landed (0:24) just
north of a big rosebush and
my wing blew into it. It was a long and trying effort to get the wing out.
Three kids showed up but they were more of a handicap than a help. The older
boy grabbed my Leatherman and managed to cut himself while trying to saw a rose
branch. Just about the time we got the wing down and mostly packed up, the van
showed up and the driver came out. I gave the kids some peppermint candy (they took the whole bag) and I got the heck out of the field. C.J. had landed
not too far north of me and Paul was to the south, and Simon (?) was in
between. While I was trying to extricate my wing the sky darkened and lightning
could be seen to the east. Good call to get out of the sky (the BO task was
stopped as well). Back at the hotel we had a short debrief with Toby reporting
the fatality and holding out hope for a late afternoon flight. C.J. and I went
out to the hotel driveway and got my lines all sorted out. Then I added my
Macedonian phone number to my InReach preset message so I could tell if it was
working. I rinsed out some sweaty shirts, and Toby decided that it was too
stormy to risk a flight. Brian Webb, who was taking part in the BO, is running a
10-day flying tour in MK starting tomorrow. His wife, Barb, brought the clients
down from Skopje today. Around 1800 C.J. and I walked down into town and met Sid,
Clive and Rob for dinner at the same restaurant, CKAP, “Scar,” that we ate at
the first night in Krushevo. We ordered a Krushevo Pot which was a cheese,
mushroom, egg and ham dish sort of like a thick fondue. It could be spooned onto
wedges of a flaky crust. We also ordered a Taratura salad whose description sounded
like a cucumber salad but turned out to be a lot of sour cream with a very
little minced onion, nuts, and cucumber. We didn’t finish it. The beer was
good, though. [On the way down the hill we met Toby who told us that the
pilot who sustained a shoulder injury had died. What a horrible ending for the
British Open!]
boulder (perhaps Pitu Guli), a monument to the “Republic of Krushevo” revolt against the Ottoman Empire which lasted ten days. There were still wreaths on the base of the statue left over from the Aug 2nd celebration. The British Open began launching before noon
with the task out in the middle of the valley and almost all the way to the Greek border. During the time that there was a big disorganized gaggle over launch, a mid-air collision sent two pilots
to the ground; one Brit appeared to be unconscious and did not
deploy a reserve. He landed in the brush downhill in front of launch and reportedly sustained a broken shoulder. The other pilot, a Ukrainian, not a BO competitor
also looked unconscious but had deployed his reserve. He crashed through some
trees, and later we found out that he did not survive. [These results are the
very opposite of what one usually expects from a mid-air. Typically, the person
who deploys his reserve avoids major injury.] Even though there was a fair
amount of cumulus buildup out in the valley and behind launch, we took off on a
task to fly SE to B26 then due S to A09, also down near the Greek border. I
took off at about the same time as Shalon, and we were able to thermal up
somewhat as we moved south along the ridge. I thought it might be possible to
get to B26 by crossing the gap and then flying E to the waypoint (2km cyl), but
I could not get much above launch level (1400m) and had to keep pushing out
toward the valley. I tried flying over a village (maybe Precil) but there was
no lift and the wind was getting pretty strong from the north. As I got low
south of the village I saw that there were a lot of tobacco fields and I did
not want to land in them. I aimed for a fallow field and had to do some hard
turns so as to not overshoot. I landed (0:24) just 
17 Aug, Sat – Breakfast was less crowded since most of the BO
pilots had left, but it was the weekend so there were more people arriving. Our
group met at 1000 at the reception (lobby) and then went right up to launch. After
getting our gear laid out Toby announced that the task would be simply to fly
to A08, a straight shot to the SSE almost to the Greek border and about 46 km.
(An alternative for the pilots who wanted to get a 50 km flt was to go to B19
to the north before heading off to A08.) C.J and I launched close together but
I managed to find weak lift and stay up while C.J. scratched low over the
treetops. When I got up a bit I headed south but found no lift and
had to push
out into the valley. I got enough lift over the first village to burble along to
the east and got a few turns in at the tail of the crocodile before turning
back and landing in a fallow field. Pick-up was very quick. I barely had time
to stuff my wing in the cinch sack before the van was there. Meanwhile, C.J.
had gotten up and flown south to near the same field I had landed in north of
Presil village. The same three kids came out and while C.J. was not looking,
unzipped the top of her pack and stole her wallet. C.J. did not notice until
she had been shuttled back to launch. Fortunately, she had taken a photo of the
three kids. She reported the theft to Toby who sent the pic out on WhatsApp to
our group and informed Adam who is the liaison to all things Macedonian. That helped settle C.J. enough that she felt like taking another flight. I had launched again
around 1345 and had a collapse of the left side of my wing which I had to pump
out, but then I got into a good thermal and climbed enough over launch (to 1500
or so) that I felt like I could start south along the ridge toward the goal. I
was able to just fly straight for a long time keeping my altitude. Just before
the first gap, I found good lift that took me to 1800m, my high point, so I was
able to glide easily across the gap. Once on the next ridge I had to scratch a
bit before getting up. I never went back to the high ridge but followed a lower
ridge on the east side. I never really got back up high again and I started to
push out into the valley to see if I could get a climb over one village or
another. And then I flew over some high, uncultivated ground without finding
much lift. The next village did not put off any thermals either and I ended up
landing in a fallow field next to a paved secondary road 24 km from the A08
goal (22km, 0:56). I called on the radio with no response and sent a WhatsApp text
and location, packed up and moved to a shady spot on the side of the narrow
road. I looked back at the messages on my phone and found out about C.J.’s adventure.
It was about 1615 before the van showed up not quite full of pilots who had
flown farther south than I did. We drove north along more secondary roads
picking up a pilot here and there (at one time next to a very old Muslim
cemetery marked with field stones and no inscriptions). At this time, C.J. was
still in the air and crossing the first gap. The van stopped at a village store
and left most of the pilots to hang out with beer or soft drinks (I got a beer
and a bag of “crisps” to go) while I went back south with the van to get C.J.
who had finally landed. After picking up the rest of the pilots, we stopped in
the village nearest to where C.J. had been robbed (Miloshevo, north of Presil)
and Adam showed the kids’ photo to some locals who gave him the parents (two
sets, brothers) names and phone numbers. We drove up to their compound and Adam
went to talk to the boy’s father who was very angry with his son but polite to
Adam. At the girls’ house Adam retrieved the wallet, empty except for $12 in USD,
but the father was belligerent and said there was no money in the wallet. C.J.
thinks that there was 1200 MKD plus a pill case, her emergency contact list,
MedJet card and a Tiger Shuttle punch card, as well as her Captain Chicken card
from Richard Bach. Strangely, there was a wallet size school photo of another
boy in the wallet. Anyway, there was much phone talk to the girls’ father about
sending the police. Finally he hung up on Adam. After that we headed back to
the
hotel arriving around 1830 which gave us just time to shower before we met
in the reception for a group dinner. About half the group walked and we rode to
Restaurant Libra located not far from the Makedonium, and across from another
park with a memorial statue. Toby/Mike/Adam must not have given the restaurant
very much notice because there was a long wait between the shopska salad and
the main dish of stuffed peppers, beans and potatoes. Later there was a waffle
spread with Nutella and topped with a scoop of ice cream drizzled with
chocolate syrup. And there was also complimentary rakija, a plum brandy (?).
There was no van available for return to the hotel, so Toby asked the
restaurant owner to call a taxi. He couldn’t get a taxi so volunteered to drive
his own car back to the hotel; that was great service! (PECTOPAH = “RESTORAN”,
restaurant in Cyrillic/Russian as we learned years ago from Scott Rutledge).
19 Aug, Sun – After breakfast at 0730 we had a briefing/Doarama
post flight at 0930. Around 1030 or so we drove up to launch. Wind was sort of
strong in cycles and forecast to back around to south in the afternoon. Most
people flew early without doing the task which was to fly south and out into
the valley to B28, then north to the airfield at A10 and back along the highway
to the main landing zone at A07. C.J. and I did not fly figuring that we would
wait until conditions improved. Unfortunately after noon the over-development
was increasing especially to the south. Some people went back to the hotel for lunch
and were expecting to return to launch at 1500. C.J. and I had already eaten
our leftover breakfast so we decided to take a walk to the Mechkin Kamen
monument (the heroic figure heaving a boulder). There were lots of people
camping and picnicking in the shady beech woods near the monument. We ran into
a guy whose family had moved to the US four generations ago and he explained
some of the story of the “son of the bear”. From there we found a path that
took us up to the Mechkin Kamen-West launch. It had no Astroturf like the east
launch but it was a wide shallow grassy slope with no obvious landing zone in
sight. Back at launch we hung out until the overdevelopment to the south
overflew the ridge and it started to rain. Fortunately, we had packed our wings
up when conditions began to look threatening so we were ready to load into the
van which had been waiting for us. Back at the hotel we waited hopefully for
the announcement of a possible evening flight after the storm passed.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be; Toby said the wind was east and it was damp. To
take advantage of the extra free time, C.J. and I decided to walk down into the
town center and then up, up the hill to the trademark icon of Krushevo, the
Makedonium. I used Google Maps to find the best route and 
the Makedonium marked by white concrete (or stone?) sculptures representing links of chain, one broken to represent freedom, three intact to represent the three difficult decades (?) and one shaped like an Ottoman gallows. A stairway took
20 Aug, Mon – Our last flying day in Macedonia! After
breakfast we went up to launch early, 0915, because Toby was concerned that it
might get too windy in the afternoon. We were about the first group on launch
and as soon as a few people started launching we could see that it was ridge soarable
and even starting to be thermally. I launched shortly after 1100 (?) and tried
going left to see if I could stay up in the ridge lift. It wasn’t very strong
but it was soarable for a while. I made a few passes and then got up high
enough to go to the end of the ridge where I could look down at Krushevo and
also try to figure out where the ski area is located [We had seen a lift right in the middle of the town]. After I returned to the house
thermal area, I got low out front and had to scratch for a while before getting
back up. I made a pass at the launch for a top landing but I was way too high
that time. Then I sank below launch again until the next cycle got me up and in
position for a good toplanding just below (west of) the road (0:44). While I was
hanging out on launch, a representative of the municipal government asked to
interview me on video. He wanted to know what I thought about the launch at Mechkin
Kamen, particularly the installation of the artificial turf. I told him it was
a great improvement since the erosion caused by so many pilots would have worn
off all the grass and then the dirt and rocks would be exposed. Later, after
watching several of our group launch I decided to fly again and put the task
(just A08 again, almost to the Greek border) into my Garmin. When I launched I
got a decent climb right out front that allowed me to go south and work the
area above the clearcut. That got me close to 1700m so I started to glide south
in pretty lifty air. However, Jonni and those who were past the first gap were
concerned about the rain from a big cloud over the horseshoe-shaped hill to the
east; they turned back. It didn’t seem smart to fly south when they were
running north so I turned east and radioed my new goal to Toby – the airstrip
at A10. I ran into big sink heading out to the valley and had to stop and climb
under some clouds before heading for the first big village, Krivogastani, where
I was low again and had to circle in light lift until I gained some height over
the ground. By now the cloud to the south was growing and I could hear the
occasional rumble of thunder. I pushed east along the road getting lower and
hoping to reach a field across the canal where there were no tobacco plants
growing. A lucky thermal gave me enough of a lift to get across the canal and
set up for a good landing to the NE. (Later the wind switched to strong south
as a gust front came through.) Just about the time I had finished packing up, the van pulled up. It turned out that there was another of our pilots in the same large
field. I was glad to get out of the field because there were a lot of flying
bugs and there was no nearby shade. We stopped at a grocery store in Krivogastani
where the other van had stopped and the four of us switched to the other van in
which C.J. had gotten a ride from where she had landed south of the first gap.
We picked up four more pilots at the main LZ and then headed up the hill. Most
of the pilots went back to launch but C.J. and I and Di elected to get dropped
off at the hotel since we had had enough flying for the day (at least from the Mechkin
Kamen TO). We were hoping that we could get over to the Monastery of the Holy
Mother of God, just NW of Prilep, but that was not to be. Some people got flights
while we started packing and weighing our bags to try to get within the Austrian
Airlines stringent weight limits. Later we joined the rest of the tour on a
walk down into the center to Shape Restaurant. We had tomato and cucumber salad
shopska) with more feta cheese slices, sliced eggplant, breaded zucchini
fingers, and a veggie fritter. When we mostly finished that, we had what we
thought might be a Krushevo Pot, an earthenware bowl filled with meat chunks
and some mushrooms, covered with cheese and then capped with baked dough. After
the main course, rakija was served, and then a dessert of a cake soaked in a
honey-flavored liquid and topped with whipped cream drizzled with chocolate
syrup. We also took up a collection for the van drivers and Adam, the
gov’t approved local guide. The whole group burst into “Happy Birthday”
when C.J. announced that I was having my 73rd birthday on the next
day. About eight clients are taking the van to the Skopje airport at 0200,
while most of the rest of us are leaving at 0830 (so we get some breakfast at
least before the two-hour drive). Peter and Janet are spending five days in
Ohrid before flying to Italy where they left their car. Then they are off to
Verona for an opera. Their travels are even more extensive than our own. We are
looking forward to seeing Chris and Patricia tomorrow night in Barcelona.
21 Aug, Tues – Up at 0645, our last breakfast at the Hotel
Montana Palas, loaded the van around 0830 and off to Skopje airport at 0845 or
so. Arrived at 1100. I went into the terminal and snagged a cart and we checked
in. We had to pay 95 Euros for our third checked bag. Nothing was overweight and
our backpacks were not weighed. I exchanged all of our MKD bills, about 4900,
for about €75.
We didn’t have all that long to wait as we started boarding at 1220. The flight
was only 1hr35mn to Vienna and we got a drink and a snack before landing. We
had a layover of 3hr30mn and had a croissant sandwich and a Coke (€10,
airport and Old World prices). I spent some time figuring out where the Aerobus
which runs every five minutes from Terminals 1 and 2 to Plaça de Catalunya
would drop us and how far the walk was to Hostal Argo. It looked to be about
1.3 km which isn’t so far, so long as we have only our carry-ons, but it will
probably be dark by then, so we’re not sure yet what we will do
(TaxiFarefinder.com estimates €6.23 from the plaza to the hostal, but a minimum
of €20, and probably close to €30-35 for a taxi from the airport. €5.90 each
for the bus.) Once we got to BCN, we had a long wait for our bags and then we
went as far as a parking spot with Toby and Mike and left them with our wings
and the rolling duffel (Thank you!) That freed us up to catch the Aerobus to the Catalunya Plaza, the end of the line. It was dark by then but the sidewalk along the Passeig de Gracia was wide and well lit and there were lots of people about. We
felt safe enough to walk the 1.3 km to Hostal Argo. We arrived just 20 minutes
after Chris and Patricia had gone out for dinner. We paid our room tax in cash and checked into our small room on the third floor. Fortunately there was a
small lift so we didn’t have to lug our bags and backpacks up the stairs. After
settling in we went to a restaurant, Can Cargol, in a flower market just a few
doors down across the street. C.J. had a quinoa salad with prawns and I got a
skewer of sausage, bacon, veal and beef mixed with onion and pepper, served
with potatoes (Neither of us was ready for the specialty of the restaurant, snails). Back at the hotel we ran into Chris and Patricia as we were
filling our water bottles downstairs in the breakfast room at a water cooler. They
had brought me a chocolate pastry for my birthday cake! We did some planning
for the next day before heading to our rooms to rest at something like 0030.
22 Aug, Wed – We got up to the alarm at 0800 and met Chris
at 0900, then Patricia a bit later. We
went around the block to find a café
that served bacon and eggs as well as bread and sweets. Everyone else had bacon
and eggs while I had a “mini gofre”, a small waffle with Nutella and other
stuff. The cocoa was good, too, and I had part of Chris’s big ham sandwich.
C.J. and I went to a nearby Vodaphone shop and got two SIM cards with 1.5GB of
data. We had some problem getting my phone to work with the new SIM card and
the shop manager had to spend what seemed like an hour getting it to run (20).
Then the four of us caught a taxi to Parc Guell where we walked around on
paths in the free area since the tickets to the Gaudi monuments area were sold
out. Before we started trekking around the gardens we stopped at an ice cream
shop and bought a fruit cup and a maracuya (passionfruit) popsicle. Finally
we reached a
high point at the Tower of the Three Crosses (Calvary) and had good views out over the
city including Sagrada Familia, the
unfinished Gaudi basilica. On the way there we found a place to eat at Café Vall outside on a
square; C.J. and I had normal meals of salad and BBQ ribs while Chris and
Patricia introduced us to tapas. I got another 200 Euros out of the nearby
Caixa Bank ATM. We all walked from there to the Sagrada Familia where we had
tickets for 1700 to go up into the Nativity Tower. Unfortunately something
was
wrong and the lift was not operating so we spent about three hours touring the
basilica and the museum beneath with audioguides. On the way out as the
basilica was closing, I must have set my phone down and I didn’t miss it until
we were across the street from the entrance. Fortunately, someone had turned it
in and Chris was calling my number just as I was asking at the office about it.
I got it back, and more quickly than I had expected. We walked on toward the area
where our hotel is located and found a place to eat (after passing quite a few
places that had all the outside tables taken) at MasQMenos. We all ordered
tapas dishes to share: rocket salad, Russian potato salad w/tuna, peppers
padron, Iberian ham, sausage, dogfish nuggets, and Patricia also had a Gorgonzola
salad. Everyone else had water but I had an Amstel Radler. We walked the
rest of the way back to the hotel (and I once again had to stop every so often
to catch my breath, and it wasn’t even uphill).
23 Aug, Thu – This morning we gave up on having Vida find a
room for us and used Booking.com to book a triple room at the same Hostal Argo
for $377 for three nights. The description shows that there is a fridge in the
new room as well as an additional single bed. We got WhatsApp messages from Mike, so we are
hooked up with them. That was after emailing Mike our new phone numbers (SMS
did not work). I sent an email to Linda Martinez at Vida saying we did not need
them to find a hotel room in Barcelona for us anymore. Chris and Patricia slept
in and then were busy packing until 1000 when we went to breakfast at the same
place. This time we ate inside and I had the eggs and bacon, too. Patricia reminded
us that we were finished with Ager on the 30th, not the 31st,
so I had to book another night at the Argo. When we got back to the hotel and
reported our reservation to the desk guy, he told us that we would have gotten
a better deal if we had booked directly with the Argo (oh, well, we usually do
that, but this time we were kind of stressed about not having a place to stay
when we came back from Ager). Chris asked the reception to call a taxi big enough
for the four of us for noon. Then we went across the street to a food market (Concepcio) where we had a raspberry
drink and bought cheese, olives, a small loaf of bread, peaches and a box
of cherries. When we finished we hurried up to our rooms and finished
last-minute packing, filled our insulated bottles
one last time and caught the
taxi to BCN Terminal 2. Our landmark there was one of Botero's sculptures which looked like a chubby horse. We were plenty early enough so we
waited in the café at the end of T2 until some other pilots and Mike showed up.
Eight of us loaded into a big black van with Vincentet, the driver. We drove
out of Barcelona into the countryside for an hour and a half then stopped at a Carrefours
in Balaguer to buy food for our stay in Ager. We bought cereal and
milk, lettuce, salt, eggs, sliced turkey, a 6-pack of local beer, yoghurt, and
a big container of water. We got to Ager around 1600 and got our cottage
assignments. They are pretty rustic with knotty-pine interiors, but there is a
small refrigerator and a 4-burner stove and a sink. There is a bed in a loft as
well as one downstairs. The windows have shutters but no screens. We hope the
bugs are not going to be a problem. Although it cooled off once the sun went
down, it’s still stuffy in the cabin when the windows are closed. Chris and
Patricia are right next door. We did not fly the first evening because there
was a big Cu-Nim nearby and we could hear thunder, although I did not see any
lightning.
Despite there being many pilots here besides our group, we saw only
three wings in the air while we were outside checking out the Camping Vall
d’Ager LZ. Earlier we had a briefing in a room above the restaurant. After the
briefing we had dinner when the restaurant opened at 2000 (open until 2230).
The Hamburguesa that C.J. and I shared was pretty tasty although it was like no
American hamburger I had ever had. It was probably made with pork as this area
is a big hog-producing region, no bun. It was served with a salad and fries and a
basket of bread. [Both C.J. and I thought we had lost things today – I
spent time searching for my flip flops and C.J. for her flying jacket.
Fortunately both were not really left behind, just misplaced.] We will meet on
Friday early (0830) to fly before the wind forecast to get pretty strong, up to
29 kph, I think.
24 Aug, Fri – We did meet at 0830 but had to wait for a
pilot who slept in so we did not get going until nearly 0900. We stopped at
“the pig farm” LZ, which is associated with a PG school (one of several around
here). After a discussion of how a typical landing goes there, we continued up
the switchbacks to Coll d'Ares launch on Mont Sec. It was a large gravel and rock area and
we were almost the only pilots there. Toby described the flight plan – a
top-to-bottom to the pig farm. It actually turned out better than that as I
found lift at the top of the cliff on the lower ridge and managed to eke out 20
minutes before landing in south wind along the down-sloping microlight runway. I
got popped coming in and landed a bit farther away than I thought I would land.
After packing up we went right back up Mont Sec to Coll d’Ares where there were
now lots of pilots – there were two contests going on. One was a local PG league
meet and the other was a hang glider comp. We let the PG meet pilots go first and
launched just a few minutes before their start time of 1300. I flew left toward
the high point of the main ridge, or maybe to Gabriello, the highest part of the
lower ridge. Lift was strong and punchy in places and I quickly lost enthusiasm
for the task (from launch go east to the high point or beyond, climb to
cloudbase and glide over the back. A few more thermals should take pilots past
Tremp to the goal at waypoint A20, the east bank of a long lake). I turned south away
from the ridge and flew out into the valley. I was hoping that I could fly all
the way to the LZ at the campground but that looked like a long way. As it
turned out, there was light lift and not a lot of sink so I was able to fly past
the pig farm and even fly over the ruins on the heights of Ager before turning E
to circle down into the lifty LZ. I landed out farther away from the breakdown
spot than I wanted due to a pretty strong west wind (about 0:20?). Several
others from our group landed there, too, including C.J. A few landed at the pig
farm and several made it as far as Tremp, over the back (Chris and Mike among
others). Patricia chose not to fly. Later C.J. made a salad for lunch;
unfortunately, our fridge was set too cold and the cucumbers were frozen solid! We hung around (and had an Oreo ice cream sandwich from the campground restaurant) until 1830 when we went
back up to Coll d’Ares. There were still some pilots up there but not the large
crowd of PG and HG competitors as at noon. Unfortunately ,the wind was strong
and most of our group did not launch. Chris did, but not C.J. or Patricia. We
drove down and met again at 2100 for a group
dinner at Casa Xalets in Ager. It was a
Friday night so the restaurant was quite crowded for the €19.50 prix fixe three-course dinner. C.J.
had lamb and I had casola de llom
(pork) for our main. Our premier course was smoked salmon on tomatoes with
capers, etc. while C.J. had a salad with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Dessert was included and we had crema Catalana (very much like crème brulee) and
a mini flan. There was beer, wine and bottled water so our final cost per
person was 23.50 which got rounded up to 25 each. We didn’t get out of the
restaurant until close to 1130 and it was a slow walk home for me when we
encountered some mild climbs. We got to bed about 1230 after downloading photos.
It was cool enough again for two blankets.
waited until the wind switched to uphill and a few pilots, mostly tandems, seemed to be staying
I continued up the street and then
up some narrow cobblestone lanes to the church of St. Peter located on the high
point of the town. The church was closed as well. Back at the campground I met
C.J.as she was walking from the LZ to the bungalow. After cleaning up a bit we
had lunch with Patricia who had landed at the pig farm and walked from there. After lunch we went to the
CG restaurant and had an ice cream bar. Then we collapsed on the bed for
some much-needed naptime. I got up at 1755 and found Patricia at the door
asking if we were going to go up to launch. We hurriedly got ready and went up
with most of the group [David was already on launch suffering from vertigo and
almost unable to walk. Toby brought him some of his pills. Hopefully he will be
feeling better on Sunday.] It was blowing too hard at 1830 again so Toby
demonstrated some high-wind kiting and launch techniques (cobra, As and Cs, rosetting
by first pulling in a foot or two on the rear riser, then making the usual
loops of line; that makes the rosette less likely to scoop air). By 1915, the
wind velocity was decreasing and I launched along with most of our group. The
lift was smooth and I was able to get above the ridgetop (1679m). I tried going
west to the point beyond where the road reaches the Coll d’Ares and got there,
but the lift was not working there and I lost a lot of elevation and came back
beneath launch. However, I soon gained back what I lost plus more and was able
to go a ways down the ridge to the east. After half an hour I had had enough and
turned south for the Campground LZ. I did a lot of crabbing on the way, but
arrived at Ager with 1300m (?) so I had plenty of altitude to make a big circle
over the town with its ancient fortified church before circling the campground
and landing in very light to zero west wind (0:43). Mike Lawrence was already
there and mostly packed up. By the time I was almost packed up, C.J. was
landing. It was after 2115 when we had gotten cleaned up a little and were
heading for the CG restaurant. It was a Saturday night AND there was a big
soccer game so the restaurant was full
(apparently we should have made reservations) but, after a 20 min wait, we got a table.
C.J. had the “sausage with dry beans” and I had the chicken skewers with fried
egg, chips and salad. I paid for the whole €37 for the four of us with my Citi credit card
and gave Chris the receipt to figure out how much he owed. Tomorrow we won’t go
up until 1000 since the forecast is for weather much like Saturday and then no
one launched until noon.
27 Aug, Sun – After breakfast I walked to the bakery and the
nearest little grocery store. I got a loaf of bread and two more flautas. The grocery had cheese, yogurt, nectarines and tomatoes for us.
I
downloaded our camera photos before leaving for launch at around 1000. Toby
did a lesson on “How to stay alive in thermals” He covered the three Ps: Pitch,
Pressure, and Potato (body position). I launched about 1230, early enough, I
thought, to avoid the strong sharp thermals. Too late, so I ended up flying out
for a point to the east of launch (wind was more easterly today). I worked some
ragged lift out near the church/hermitage (Mere de Deu de Petra ?) then I ran for the
Camping LZ. The LZ was soarable (there was even a dust devil in the unpaved
parking lot) so I circled and circled and finally had to land in bumpy south
wind, across the field (0:27). I carried my wing back to the shady lawn in
front of the bungalow to pack up, and had some lunch. I hung out in the shade
for quite a while before C.J. and others returned. C.J. had landed at the pig
farm to avoid the thermally CG LZ. We got a WhatsApp post saying that we might
be able to fly in the evening so be ready at 1730. That got pushed back to 1800
and then we didn’t go up until a bit later when the wind stopped blowing over
the back. When we got there people were flying but the wind was seriously
crossed from the right, west. Fortunately there is a (somewhat sketchy)
west-facing launch so some of our group used that. By the time I was ready the
wind had switched to sort of SW and I could use the usual take off. Unlike the
previous night, lift was sparse, and I was soon down to the cliffs of the lower
ridge where there was even less than I expected. I headed off south following
Chris but he kept getting farther away from me and higher (could be that I was
just sinking faster). I flew past the pig farm LZ but it looked like a reach to
get to the campground, so I turned back and landed at the pig farm LZ. It was a
longish wait with Stephen before we were picked up. Everyone else made it to
the CG, except for Mike L who decided not to fly. We had wine and snacks to
celebrate Patricia’s first flight “home”. Then we went into town to eat since
the CG restaurant was closed. Oops, so was the restaurant across from the
bakery, Casa Portola, and the tapas bar Lo Torre was packed. We gave up and walked home and
went to bed early.
27 Aug, Mon – We weren’t even starving when we woke up so I
guess we didn’t miss dinner all that much. We went up the hill at 1000 and I
launched at 1111. There was a bit of ridge lift on the high ridge and then I
sank down a bit and headed for the front ridge. There was enough relatively
friendly thermal lift for me to hang in for almost an hour going from one part
of the ridge to another and then heading out to land at the pig farm field
around 1215 (1:04). I threw my stuff in the Sol cinch sack and the six (?) of
us who had flown rode back up to launch (C.J. had not flown). Toby set a task
in the valley: launch to E06 a village to the E, E39 the golden fields to the
west, E47 Toby’s village E of Ager, and the CG LZ G01. I put the route in my
GPS but did not seriously consider flying it. When I got in the air around
1330, I flew east along the front of the high ridge in reasonable ridgelift
with some thermals, then I sank when I wasn’t willing to circle in the rougher
thermals. I was a bit concerned about making it across the plateau to get
beyond the lower ridge, but some lift got me easily over it. Then it was just a
glide to the CG LZ which was switchy but with light winds (0:20). I carried up
to the bungalows again and had some lunch before folding my wing. I was almost
finished when people from our group began to arrive many of them having made
some or all of the turnpoints. C.J. made two of the turnpoints and landed happy
in the pig farm field. It was hot today, much hotter than it had been so far
here in Ager. I used the wi-fi at the restaurant (closed again today) to check
email. Around 1700 I realized that I had not tried to get money out of ATM in
town so I walked up there and the machine worked this time! I took out an
additional €200.
The little store was open, too, so I went in and browsed around but did not
find anything that we needed immediately. On the way home I stopped to check
out Bar lo Torres where Patricia said they had ice cream. I called C.J. to
report but she wasn’t interested in hurrying down there at 1730, when Toby and
Mike were going to pick us up at 1800. When we arrived at launch the wind was coming in
nicely but Toby cautioned us that conditions were changing and there were still
some thermals. When I launched (after two aborts) just before 1900 I went left
and climbed in ridge lift close to the cliffs. I went back toward launch once
and then went a bit farther east the next time. By now I was almost to 1700m and
I was well over launch and atop the ridge. It seemed like a good time to try to
go to the west. I crossed the Coll d’Ares gap and passed the first cliffs. I
kept expecting to hit good ridge lift as I was flying along a cliff band facing
into the wind, but there was nothing. Eventually I had to turn back and there
was still no lift. By now I was below the cliff band and flying over the brushy
slope. No lift, and the plateau between the two ridges was looking closer and
closer. I couldn’t cross back over the road and below me were pine trees and
down on the plateau there was an olive orchard, neither were good options for
landing. Luckily, I hit some tiny bits of lift and they were just enough to get
me a glide to a fallow field next to the road. My glide improved on the way and I was able
to squeak over the lower ridge and fly along that face, but there was still no
lift. I finally gave up and flew out into the valley. It was still possible that
I could make the CG LZ as it was a 5:1 glide. But, I didn’t want to chance it
and flew around near the pig farm field looking for lift. I landed with
Patricia in the pig farm LZ (0:30); it appeared that everyone else had made it
out to the campground. It was relatively early (for a “restitution” flight) and
yet there was no one left in the air after we landed. Apparently, the wind had
turned off and/or turned catabatic. It was about 2000 when we got back to the
bungalows and I was ready for a shower before we headed out for dinner. Since
both the campground café and Casa Portola were closed again tonight, we thought
we might go back to Casa Xalets, but we stopped to look at Bar lo Torres and
found the outside tables full. However, there was plenty of seating inside. We
parked under an air conditioner and ordered a Bocata Hamburguesa Torres with a
double patty, cheese, bacon, lettuce, and
barbacoa sauce to share. It was enough after we shared some of Chris’s
tapas dishes and had ice cream for dessert. We walked back on the road
instead of the path so that we could eat our ice cream without stumbling. The
rising full moon was brilliant but somewhat yellow. We were back before 2200,
early by Catalonian standards.
28 Aug, Tue – We drove up at 1000 and the conditions looked
good with the wind blowing in nicely. The sky was somewhat overcast but a few
of us got ready to fly. Right after Patricia launched the wind stopped and then
switched to blowing from the north, downhill, with some appreciable velocity. I
got my wing packed in its bag and then waited while Toby spent some time
answering questions and describing some of the other trips that Passion
Paragliding runs. Colombia sounds like his favorite, and he said that Morocco
was more of a “flying adventure” than a place to go for cross-country. Sometime
after 1300 the wind switched, and I joined the queue for launch. I went east in
intermittent ridge lift. Then I pushed out to the lower ridge. I encountered a little
lift part way across and again out in front of the hermitage where I gained
enough to get back above the plateau. But that was about it and I landed to the
east in the pig farm LZ (0:14). Chris, Mike and Daniel were still flying but
the rest of us went back to the bungalows for lunch. At that time Toby was
thinking about going back up at 1700, but then he put off a decision to 1745.
It’s just as well, because flying three times a day for several days has worn
me out. At 1830 Toby said there would be no flying tonight. We hung out and
then met Chris and Patricia up in the town at Casa Xalets for a dinner of
carpaccio with parmesan, salad with seafood, and a shared “xurrasco” with fries
and a couple of pieces of eggplant and peppers. On the way home in a
sprinkle of rain with some thunder and lightning in the distance, we stopped at
Lo Torres for some ice cream.
29 Aug, Wed – Our last flying day in Ager. When we went up
at 1000 we were the only pilots on launch for a while. The wind was blowing
pretty much straight in to launch, and it appeared to be ridge soarable. Toby’s
weather forecast had not shown what we were seeing. I launched and went left
hugging the rocks. I couldn’t seem to get above the ridge even though there
were people at the high point soaring above it. I returned to launch and felt
I was high enough to try to go west, so I crossed the road and got as far as
the first rocky point. Since there wasn’t a lot of lift there, I turned back
before I sunk any more and had to worry about landing on the plateau. Flying west again
I gained back some of the height I had lost but after a few passes, I turned
out and flew to the lower ridge. I was able to hang in there for a while but I
eventually headed out and landed to the east at the pig farm LZ (0:50). Patricia landed shortly after me and we
bundled our wings up (mine in my stuff sack with my harness) and got a ride
with four other PP pilots back to launch. It was still blowing in but a bit harder.
Patricia took one try and decided not to fly. I got yanked and had to abort,
but on the second try I got off. It was sort of soarable but not as smooth as it
had been. I went east for a ways and then turned out low to reach the front
ridge. Just over the top of the ridge I caught a good thermal and climbed a couple
of hundred meters. That gave me a 3:1 glide to the campground LZ, so I headed
that way. Good thing I had extra height because there was a lot of sink.
Except
at the LZ which was soarable and switchy. I came in pretty smoothly and landed
to the north (across the width of the field (0:15). I carried my wing up to the
bungalows and packed up in the shade. When C.J. got there (after a groveling
low save on the plateau) we moved the table out onto the lawn and had lunch
with Chris and Patricia and talked about things to see and do in Barcelona. Later,
Toby came by and said that conditions looked unsettled and probably too strong.
So, he did a whiteboard lesson on speeds-to-fly. After that, around 1900, he
thought that we ought to go up to launch and have a look. It’s a positive
aspect of the Passion Paragliding team that they try to get their clients as much flying
as we can stand. There was absolutely no one there when we arrived, there were
Cu’s building all around but none nearby, and the wind was strong (26, gusting
to 30kph). C.J opted out of flying as did Patricia; I considered it when the
rest of those who had come up (not everyone) got their wings ready and followed
Toby off. I was feeling like it was the end of the trip and I had already
carefully packed up my wing, so my decision was not to fly (even though Toby
was having a great time “ridge dancing”). Naturally, the wind slackened and
conditions became mild. We had to be at the campground restaurant by 2045 for
our paella feast so it was too late to unpack, set up, fly and land then repack
even though Toby was having a great time zooming around and toplanding, a real
ridge-dancer performance. So, we drove down (the first time I’ve driven down in
the past two weeks) and got cleaned up for the group dinner. Toby bought us all
drinks at the bar and then we had a dining room to ourselves. The first course
was a salad, served family style. Then two big paellas were brought out and everyone dived in. In addition to our early drinks, there were
bottles of red and white wine on the tables, plus bottled water. In addition to
the twelve clients and two Passion Paragliding partners, Toby’s wife Yuki Sato was
there and also Vicentet, our driver. It wasn’t until almost 2245 that Toby
mentioned that all the vans were leaving at the same time – 0830 – for the
airport. There was a bit of a scramble as everyone (except Kevin and Martin who
were staying for the next week) headed for their bungalows to pack their gear.
We got to bed around 2330(?).
30 Aug, Thu – 0700 seemed to come quite early but I got up
and took a shower; when C.J. tried the same, there was no hot water. We had our
usual breakfast and took what food was portable with us but left behind a bag
of salt, a couple of beers, some milk and a heel of stale bread. The vans left
semi-punctually and we were in the green van with Mike, Chris and Patricia, David, Daniel
and Adrian. The others went in the black Mercedes van borrowed from the Camping
de Vall Ager, directly to the airport for some few people’s early flights. We
stopped at a truck stop and had a second breakfast. C.J. and I ordered hot
chocolate (we think) and shared a chocolate filled pastry. The hot chocolate
was more like a melted chocolate bar- hot but very thick, good for dunking. Then it was less
than an hour to the airport. We had thought that we might leave our big bags at
the Left Luggage counter, but the cost was something like €10
per bag per day…and they didn’t open until just about the time of our flight.
Then, when Chris and Patricia decided to go for it, the price increased to €15 per large bag. So, we headed off to look for a large taxi. We joined the queue and the director got us a cab that was big enough and not as expensive as the cab we
all took from the hotel to the airport. We paid €35.60 and that was split with
Chris. Although it was only shortly after noon, we got right into our
rooms [Note to self: don’t book through booking.com if you want the best rate –
go directly to the hotel website]. Our room was nice and big (well, comparted
to our last room at Hostal Argo) and looked out on some other apartment
buildings, but it did have a mini fridge. Chris and Patricia paid less but
their room is smaller, has no fridge, and the A/C was not working; but it does
have a small balcony. Once we finished
settling in, we met downstairs, filled water bottles and went a few doors down
to El Fornet, a chain of bakeries, sort of “like Starbucks but with better food”,
as Patricia said. C.J. had a salad and I had a nice cheese and sliced chicken sandwich on
a baguette. After lunch we walked together down Passeig de Gracia to the TI at
Pl. de Catalunya. We looked at a few brochures and then talked with an advisor.
We ended up buying two days of Hop-on-Hop-off bus tours, and then a
self-guided trip to the monastery at Montserrat, both on the Visa card.
Chris and Patricia went off to visit a museum they had not gotten to see, while we braved
the crowds on La Rambla, a busy pedestrian street. Just to get into the spirit of
the thing we bought an overpriced scoop of gelato at a street stand. We
spent a good bit of time roaming the aisles of the food market Mercat de la Boqueria
taking lots of photos. From there we decided to wander through the Barri Gotic,
the old Gothic Quarter to reach the Barcelona Cathedral. We also saw the
basilica church of Santa Maria del Pi (have to look that up). We didn’t go in
either one but the outside of the cathedral was interesting enough for now.
Then we walked along some other narrow lanes passing the Mercat de Santa
Catarina, before reaching the Palau de la Musica Catalana which Rick Steves
said was a “don’t miss”. The outside was architecturally stunning, but we
didn’t spring for the €11 each for seniors for the guided tour of the interior.
By this time we had walked enough and were ready for a break so we found the
most direct route back to the hotel and returned to rest for a couple of hours.
Chris and Patricia got back sometime after 1900 and we all went out to eat at
2000. Chris eventually found their favorite tapas place, Vinitus, germa petit,
just a block or two off Pg. de Gracia. We saw the table next to us had a pitcher
of sangria which looked good, so we ordered a one-liter pitcher. It really was good.
I couldn’t help wonder why Rick Steves had advised against ordering it; maybe
it’s too much of a tourist thing for him. Chris ordered a bunch of tapas plates:
Iberian ham, potatoes bravas, shredded cod fish salad, calamari rings,
asparagus and mushrooms, bread with tomato jam, caprese salad, beef tenderloin
on bread, and maybe something else I’ve forgotten. We also had dessert: hot
chocolate (just like at breakfast) with churros for dunking, and C.J. had ice cream cubes
with a layer of wafer on top and bottom. Chris had a bread pudding and Patricia
had the crema catalana. Chris treated us all in honor of my birthday!
31 Aug, Fri – It was a little cool in our room overnight with the A/C set at 24 but not enough to get us up to look for an additional blanket. Little did we know that it had been raining overnight and was still coming down pretty good until 0800 or so. We got up at 0700 so there would be time to have a last visit with Chris and Patricia before they left at 0900. I ran into them coming back from the coffee shop when I went out to see if I could get some fruit at the Conception Market. It really wasn’t operating at 0800 but I found out that there is a big supermarket beneath the market we had visited before we left for Ager. It may have been open but I didn’t see any shoppers. I ended up going across the street to a small convenience store and getting some plates, nectarines and a four-pack of yogurt. C.J. was down visiting Chris and Patricia when I got back, but by 0850, we left them to finish getting ready. At 0900 we just missed seeing them off as they were quickly bundled into the taxi and driven off to the airport. We were really sorry to see them go because they were a lot more savvy about doing stuff in the city than we are, and they were just good company, as well. We had some breakfast downstairs where the hot/cold water is and where a few wrapped pastries are set out each day, as well as tea bags and a chocolate drink mix. Back in our room we spent some time planning and I sent a reservation request to www.bamboobiketours.cat for a street art tour today at 1330. They are supposed to get back to us by phone or by email to confirm. Later, Andre confirmed, so we took our stuff and headed out to catch the hop-on-hop-off tourist bus. We got on right near La Pedrera, another Gaudi architectural marvel. By the time we had traversed only part of the Red Route we had seen Fransesc Macia on Av. Diagonal, the Estacio Sants, Plaça Espanya, the Museu Nacional de Art de Catalunya, the 1992 Olympics arena, the Monjuic teleferic, then on to the waterfront and the cruise port, World Trade Center, the Columbus monument, Port Vell (“veh”, old). We got off the bus at the next stop near the Museu d’Historia de Catalunya. From there we walked back to the huge “Colom” monument and its TI in the basement. We skipped the line for the lift to the observation deck, but C.J. used the rest room in the wine bar. There were a bunch of buildings from the 18th c. in the waterfront area including the Catalan Naval HQ and the old Customs House. We walked to La Rambla through the Ciutata Vella and then took a narrow side street that took us to Plaça Reial, a rectangle surrounded by restaurants. Following Google Maps we chose another narrow street that we thought would take us south to near the cycle shop where we were going to meet Andre. On the way we grabbed a sandwich from a bakery since it was getting near 1300. It turned out that the street we chose was the correct one and we arrived at El Ciclo with a half hour to spare. We checked in with the shop owner and then sat in the small square to eat our sandwich while gazing at a bright gold wall (later, we found out that the wall was part of a demolition project and the colored spray was holding the loose bits together). Andre showed up at 1330 and got us fitted for the bikes. C.J. was too short for a bamboo bike and had to settle for a seven-speed city cruiser. Andre’s bike and mine were actually made from bamboo tube of a fairly large diameter. They were cruiser-style, too so one rode sitting up pretty straight. We headed south to the waterfront and the Columbus monument again. Somehow, messages had gotten mixed up and we were getting a historical tour rather than a street art tour. But that was okay with us and we would learn a lot. Then we pedaled east along the man-made beach with views of the World Trade Center, a tall cable car ride, and the sail-shaped W Hotel (much like the one in Dubai, but not as high). We got as far east as Port Olimpic, where we saw the two large towers built for the Olympics and the one-time housing for the athletes. There was also a large curvilinear structure which looked sort of like a fish with no head by a famous US (?) sculptor. Turned back west we rode near the 1929 Estacio Frances railway station before reaching the big city green space that had been part of the 1889 (?) Intl Exposition, Parc de la Ciutadella. Among other things, there was the Catalan Parliament building, Barcelona Zoo, a large fountain with figures from Roman mythology, and a life-size sculpted mammoth. The entrance to the Exposition was through Barcelona’s version of the Arc de Triomf which celebrated no military victories, but was sort of spiritual in nature. Then we turned back into the old part of Barcelona, the Gothic Quarter (Barri Gotic) with its narrow, winding streets (made narrow, so Andre said, to provide the maximum amount of shade). We soon reached the center at the Cathedral where there seemed to be a bigger crowd than we saw on Thursday; around behind the southeast corner Andre showed us the high point of the original Roman settlement of Barcino (16.9m above sea level). In an out of the way location nearby were preserved four of the original huge columns of the temple dedicated to Augustus. Definitely some very old stuff! Continuing on, we passed through a square where the governor of Catalan was based and across the plaza was the equally large building that housed the city government. Apparently, this is the location for many protest rallies. From there it was only a short distance back to El Ciclo where we turned in our bikes and paid Andre with a Visa card. It was about 1545 when we started walking back to the waterfront where we could catch the Barcelona Bus Touristic back to the Pl de Catalunya [the bus we got on was a newer one and the narration over our headphones was clearer, plus we got to ride in the front row seats on the top of the bus. From Catalunya we wandered back to the hotel looking for a place to have an early dinner rather than waiting until the usual opening time of 2000. We didn’t really find anything and our fallback position of going to the Concepcio Market was foiled when we found that it had closed at 1500. We asked the reception for a recommendation and she suggested a place just beyond Av. Diagonal. We found it (we think) but we didn’t get any attention, so we left and took the next place we saw. It offered an assortment of tapas for €16; that sounded easier than figuring out what to eat so we ordered that. The dishes came very quickly: three kinds of salad, meatballs, potatoes bravas, calamari, tiny fish, mussels, spinach with pine nuts and raisins, bread with salami, Iberian ham, and another kind of sausage, and a basket of bread. It was a lot more food than we wanted to eat so we staggered back to the hotel without even stopping for ice cream. Early to bed.
1 Sep, Sat – I had a bad night with stomach cramps which pretty much kept me awake. In the morning before breakfast I had an episode of vomiting in which I brought up very little. Fortunately, after that I felt better. So, we had a normal breakfast downstairs before heading out on a Montserrat practice run to see how the Metro (subway) worked. We found the right line for getting to Espanya station, bought the ticket and found the platform and train. At Espanya we followed the signs for line L5 to the right platform (quite a ways) and made sure it said that it was going to Montserrat. After that we came up into the rain above ground (Bummer! We hadn’t brought our rain jackets with us) and got on the BBT (Barcelona Bus Touristic) red route again. It was windy and damp on the upper deck even though the roof was keeping the rain off. By the time we got to the transfer point for the green line loop, the rain had stopped. We enjoyed seeing a new part of the city for us, a more modern, and maybe more “blue collar” than the center where we had spent most of our time so far. We switched back to the red route at the same transfer point near Port Olimpic and stayed on the bus as far as the stop for Santa Catarina Market, which was open this time. Then we walked over toward the Cathedral passing lots of ice cream shops. We decided instead to share a sandwich in a little shop where we sat at a counter and shared an Aperol Spritz. After that and some wandering around the Cathedral area, we caught the bus back at the Sta Catarina stop and continued on to the National Museum of Catalan Art (MNAC) in the Palau Nacional built for the 1929 World Expo (or, at least, we should have stayed on the bus when it stopped for a few minutes at Pl de Catalunya). We had some good views of the city from MNAC then we got back on the bus and drove the relatively short distance to the top of the funicular and got off again. We bought tickets for the teleferic to the top of Montjuic and the fortress. It was a scenic ride to the top but a bit gray because the sun was not out. We walked through the pretty empty fortress (although there were a number of descriptive signs in four languages) and visited a couple of exhibits; one was a series of photographs of places where people were executed/murdered during the Spanish Civil War (1936-40?). And the other was an interpretive exhibit about the fortress itself. By then we were getting a tired, so we started down on trails and stairs through the Jardins de Joan Brossa. We came out just where our bus had dropped us off and we got a ride to the Columbus Monument. I wanted to head back to the Cathedral (where all the ice cream shops were) so we just started wandering through the narrow streets of the Barri Gotic aiming more or less toward the Cathedral. At some point we started looking at restaurants and near the Pl de George Orwell we stopped to eat Mediterranean food at Buen Bocata, a plate of gyro meat with hummus, fries, and salad, while C.J. had the baba gunnag. We did get to the Cathedral finally but there was no more visiting allowed and the gates were closed. We walked up the street parallel to La Rambla that feeds into Pg de Gracia and got to the BTT just as the last one on the blue route was pulling away at 2000. Oh well, we had a good run with the hop-on-hop-off bus and learned a lot about the city. We dragged ourselves back to Hostal Argo and crashed on the bed before getting going on our journals.
2 Sep, Sun – Up at 0630 so we could be sure to catch the 0836 L5 train out of Espanya station. I took time to get us checked in for our flight home on KLM and Delta, and paid for the extra bag. We walked to the farther entrance of the Pg de Gracia Metro station and took the L3 to Espanya. We got there in plenty of time to get on the train, but not to get a comfortable seat. At least we were able to snag a couple of fold-down seats for the hour-plus ride. Once at Aeri de Montserrat we had a 30-45 min. wait in line for the 30-passenger cable car to go up and down a couple of times. When we reached the top of the cable car, after a quick ride with great views of the conglomerate spires of the mountains, there was still a bit more to climb to get to the actual monastery entrance. We stopped in the TI and got info about the basilica and the boys’ choir, plus a map and description of some hikes from higher up funicular stations. Then we went to the AV presentation on the history of the monastery. By the time we finished it was almost 1100 and Mass had begun in the quite full basilica. We couldn’t understand anything, but we recognized the Epistle reading, the responsorial psalm (with the boys’ choir), and the Gospel reading. We left as the homily began. Since we had seen much of the interesting stuff in the monastery (as far as we knew, anyway) we decided to use our unlimited-ride tickets for the funicular to Sant Joan. First, we stopped in the cafeteria and grabbed a greasy “bacon” (Iberian dried beef) sandwich) and wrapped it in a handful of napkins. The funicular took us up 600 meters (?) and deposited us at the junction of several trails. We took the one to the right just because it was one that gave us the names of some of the spires, after just a few minutes walk: Mummy, Little Mummy, Pregnant Woman, Phrygian Cap, and others. We ate lunch there at one of our famous “scenic lunch spots”. We continued along the rough trail that went up and down but never steeply, sometimes in the holm oak and sometimes exposed to the sun as it traversed one face or another of the spires. We saw a dozen or more climbers on various spires as we hiked, but only a few hikers. We stopped here and there for views, once on a rise to the left of the trail where we got a view of the side away from the monastery. It took us about an hour to reach the crossing of Santa Maria creek, which the description said should be about 35 minutes. That’s where we turned back. It took us less time to return to the funicular and we took a few minutes there to walk through the nature and history exhibit. Then we got right on the funicular, stopped to check out the (expensive) ice cream stand, and then took the cable car back to the base. We had a twenty-minute wait for the train and then an hour or so back to the city. Once at Espanya we took the L3 to Liceu which is about halfway up La Rambla. From there we plunged into the Barri Gotic in search of either ice cream or dinner (or both). We found our way to the place we had dinner on Saturday but another Middle Eastern restaurant, Dionisos, tempted us away with outside seating. C.J. got another Sangria wine-and-fruit drink and I got a beer to go with my lamb hamburger. C.J.’s Mykonos salad had smoked salmon and some big shrimps along with the greens, tomatoes, avocado and a pink sauce called tarama.. We used C.J.’s phone to plot our way back toward the hotel (since my phone had stopped working because I had used up all of my data and not topped up) with a stop for ice cream along the way. It felt like a long walk when added to the hike we had already done – and C.J. in Tevas. Back at the Argo, we asked the desk to call a taxi for 0330 and then we packed and moved our wings downstairs. We went to bed early planning to get up around 0230 (groan).
3 Sep, Mon (in the US, Labor Day) – The alarm went off at 0230 as planned and we finished getting packed and ready. We didn’t have to leave too much food behind after eating a last peach and packing two apples and the remains of two pieces of cheese. After lugging our gear down around 0315, we found the large taxi already waiting for us; we got an early start to the airport. Luckily the driver knew that we wanted to go to Terminal One (I had figured we should head to Two since that’s where we had gone every other time we went to El Prat). Checking in went smoothly, then there was the usual security before we found some seats near Gate A22, but not at the gate which had only a few seats. There were lots of people who looked like they had spent the night at the airport sprawled out on the floor and any other horizontal surface. Most of the shops were not open, even by the time we started standing in a long boarding line. Our seats on the KLM Boeing 737 were, unusually, near the front at Row 8 so when we landed in AMS after a two-hour flight, we were among the first off the plane. We walked quickly (It always seems to be the case at AMS that there is not much time between flights even though we got in at 0845 (?) and our next flight did not leave before 1010.) to Gate D1, which turned out to be a security check station for passengers going to the US (“Did you pack your bag yourself?”, etc.). We got a new gate assignment and waited there until the boarding which had been delayed started. This time we flew in an Airbus 330 with 2-4-2 seating and got a hot meal and some snacks and drinks during the nine-hour flight. As is often the case, C.J.’s seatback monitor did not work. We got some sleep and had some good views of Greenland. We passed too far north of Scotland to see anything there. But Greenland was clear, and we could see the partly bare mountains along the coast and the central area totally covered by its still thick ice cap. We passed over northern Canada, too, but the land looked very barren, There really wasn’t anything that caught our attention (although we passed near Bowron Lakes, we didn’t see them) until we got down into the Coast Range of BC north or west of Pemberton – lots of wilderness-y mountains with glaciers. We came in low over some of the Gulf Islands and passed right over Victoria. Then the Olympics were visible out through the windows on our side, right, of the plane. We did a circle over Sequim Bay before heading into some clouds as we got closer to Seattle. We landed about 1115 and it didn’t take long to get our bags and go through Immigration and no time in Customs. Since our phones still had the Vodaphone Spanish SIM cards, we couldn’t use them to call ParkNJet for a pickup, but the courtesy phone at Island 3 worked fine and we almost immediately caught a shuttle. Our car was waiting for us right outside the office with a window open so it would be cooler. We tried cashing in a Groupon at Gyro House in Renton but it was closed on Labor Day. We got home and found several bags and boxes of pears that Diana had picked for us. There were also a bunch of ripe cherry tomatoes on our vines, but not much of anything else. Still, there were enough veggies for a good salad for dinner. Great trip, but we’re glad to be home.
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