Cologne, Germany

After Kelly's parents went back to the States after Christmas, Kelly, Mike, and I caught a flight from Palma to Cologne, Germany.  Why you ask?  Because it was dirt cheap.  Lots of Germans come to the island for the holidays so the return flights are empty and cheap.

 Greeting us at the Cologne airport was this awesome sign because, you know, why not...

Once we were in Cologne, we wandered around the city center.  The city was bombed to the ground during World War II, so there are no old buildings like alot of Europe.  There is a giant cathedral and that is about the only building that is from before 1945 so the city has a different vibe than what you think of as a European city.

Eventually we found the Christmas Market in a square near our hotel.  It had a large ice-skating rink and lots of vendors selling food and things.  Oh, and there was a flea circus.  Like, for reals.  It took us seeing the guy playing around with a city in a briefcase a couple times to realize what it was, but it was a flea circus.  It was also all in German so we understood none of it, but from the look of the crowd, Germans really like flea circuses.

 Big 'Ol brat in Germany

Fried bread-y things, delicious

We wandered around the city center for most of the night in search of a cheap beer.  I always thought that beer in Germany was dirt cheap and served in giant glasses.  At least in Cologne, this is not true.  The beer (Kolsch beer is from Cologne or Koln in German) was expensive (note:we live in a country where there is 20%+ unemployment and so everything here is cheap, but still...) and came in little .2L glasses.  Who knew?

 Looking over the Rhine River at the cathedral

We literally stumbled over these small bronze plaques in the sidewalk.  They were in front of a house and had the names of the Jews who had lived there and were taken to concentration camps along with the number they were assigned in the camp and the date they died.  These were the only ones we saw so I don't know who put them there or how many there are.

All-in-all we found Cologne to be underwhelming.  We have heard great things about Germany but Cologne, with its newer building and industrial and touristy feel was not our favorite stop.  It has some great museums and is easy to get to and from by train though.  And lets be honest, if flights there are cheap again, we'll probably go back, traveling is never that bad!

This is great!!

Ride Report - Palma-Soller-Valldemosa

I left Palma under sunny January skies with the temperature in the 50s, heading toward the 60s.  I was off to ride the old road to Soller, a small town on the other side of the Tramuntana Mountains.  The ride north, out of the city, is a nice false flat road that continuously climbs (just a little) as it heads toward the mountains.

Mountains ahead

The tunnel that now takes road traffic from Palma to Soller was completed in the late 90's and cuts 7 miles and many, many turns off the old road over the top.  Bicycles, however, are not allowed in the tunnel so cyclists get to (or have to) take the old road over the top.

 The climb itself is a beautiful with a consistent gradient and tons of switchbacks.  There is almost zero traffic since most people pay the toll and take the tunnel, and the way the climb is built give plenty of opportunity to look back from whence you came.

 Excellent signage

 Look at that road...  With a better camera, you would be able to

see Palma and the Med through the 'V' on the left.

The road on the backside of the climb has plenty of switchbacks as well, but it is in a tighter valley with less straights and steeper drops.  This leads to something you see frequently on the mountain roads here in Mallorca during the 'rainy season', moss.  Many of the roads are so tight, and have so much tree cover that moss grows on the roads, mostly on the edges, but occasionally in the middle too.  This makes descending switchbacks a slower, more cautious affair than it would usually be.

 moss

 Looking down at Soller over an orange grove.

After dropping into Soller, the road starts to climb again almost immediately heading south along the coast toward Deia.  The entire road runs immediately along the coast so that you have the Med on one side, and the island on the other.  There are many small 'towns' along the road that would be hard to find on map.

 Town, Village, Hamlet...?

Narrow roads

After plenty of time getting to know the coast, the road heads inland again at Valldemossa for a long fast downhill run back to Palma.  A beautiful and climb-y ride that makes for a great day.

SuperPrestige CX Race Diegem, Belgium

December 29 we took the morning train from Cologne to Brussels.  After tracking down our hotels and getting a feel for the city we took the bus out to Diegem, about 9 km away for the Diegem SuperPrestige CX Race.

We got there as a junior race was ending and about an hour before the mens race began.  After taking a peak in the techno-blaring VIP tent and getting scared senseless by a firework/bomb that got set off in a muddy field we got some frites with mayo and a couple beers and checked out the course.  The Diegem race is the only major CX race run under the lights so they had these big glowing orbs around the course for illumination.

We set up shop at the top of the wooded section where we could see the riders drop into the start of the woods and then see them come out into an uphill section with a tight 180 turn.  We picked our spot right on the barriers and stayed there the whole race.  It helps that people from Belgium (and Germany and Holland) are all really tall so noone needed to take our spot since they could all see over our heads.

 Kelly after carrying this tray 1/2 km around a muddy course right before the race!!

Tom Meeusen followed by Sven Nys

 Kelly & Mike before the race.

Jonathan Page was in the race but had to pull out due to injuries from a previous crash so we did what pretty much everyone else was doing and cheered for Sven or Neils (Sven obviously) and the guy who was in last place, who must have been a local and had a sweet mustache, who got a huge round of applause every time he went by for the entire race.

In the end, Sven Nys won the race (his last on a Colnago before he switched to Trek) with a pretty large gap.  Walking back to the train station, we passed the now insane techno-tent party and at least 100 charter busses filled with nothing but people, galoshes, and Jupiter beer (and more techno).

Just Awesome...

Here's a link to the Cycling News race report.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/superprestige-diegem-2013/elite-men/results

Winter Travels

After Kelly parents left Spain we headed up to Northern Europe for a little holiday travel with our friends Mike and Michelle.  The trip started in Cologne, Germany where we had brats from the winter market.

Followed by a train ride to Brussels, Belgium where we saw the Superprestige CX race at Diegem and enjoyed plenty of good beer.

Then another train ride to Amsterdam where we rang in the new year in with a bazillion other people and the got some culture at the Rijksmuseum.

And we finished off with another train ride back to Cologne where we flew back to Palma. 

Details to come...

Pollenca - Part II

The second part of our trip to Pollenca involved checking out the town.  Its been a settlement since the Roman Era so it has plenty of historical buildings around.

First we went inside one of the two large cathedrals in town.  Im pretty sure this one alone has enough seating for the entire town.  All of the walls and ceilings in the church are painted and they didnt show any restraint in the use of gold either/

This was followed by a hike up 300+ stairs to the old monastery in town.  It was a great workout and made for some nice views.

And someone found a cat...

After our roomies left we settled in at a cafe and 'watched' the Gamecocks while watching RCD Mallorca on tv (we eventually got our game to stream, yay!).