Moto Mania (part 2)

Let's kick this off with the obligatory motorcycle-road-trip-poster-shot-of-the-bike-on-the-side-of-the-road picture.

Oh GOD! Helmet hair! Make it stop!!! Why? WHY?!?!

Andorra is a beautiful country, and it's impossible to do it justice in photographs. All I can do is give you an impression. I rode into Andorra la Vella, the capital city of Andorra. It's a pretty compact city, having been built within a steep mountain gorge.

The downtown area contains quite a few shops. As it was sunday, most of them were closed. At first I thought that I was impervious to shopping districts. After all, I have all the clothes I need, my computers are up-to-date, etc...

Uh oh, I hadn't counted on this! Run! Run for your life!

These are the largest ball bearings I have ever seen. (Note: the author is aware of the comedic possibilities presented by the preceding statement and encourages you to submit your witty retorts as comments. For example, "that's what she said")

On the way out of town I discovered the sweetest back-road ever. It was nothing but endless switchbacks climbing higher and higher into the mountains. Had I a week to travel I'd have followed this road to wherever it led.

Just across the Spanish border is the city of Urgell. Above the town is a castle, which has been recently converted to a hotel. I think Americans suffer from castle-envy. To us, of course, anything built before the 1950s is considered old enough to be considered an historic land mark. Some media mogul builds a 'castle' on the coast of California and suddenly you have a major tourist attraction. I couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous noticing the multitude of ancient forts and castles dotting the Spanish country-side. As the time I had spent on the road was getting dangerously close to two hours,  I finally decided to poke around one.

Here I am all squinty-eyed trying to take a self-portrait with the castle in the background.

I'm sorry guys, this just isn't as easy as it looks.

I did my best to imagine pouring boiling oil on hoards of invaders from this wall.

I took my sweet time coming back to Barcelona through the country-side. At one point I saw signs that read "Bar" and decided to follow them. When I reached the end of the road I discovered that "Bar" was, in fact, the name of a very small town and realized that I had been sadly mis-lead. But seriously, it's just freaking gorgeous out there. Coming down the hill from here I had to pause to wait for a shepherd to move his flock across the road. I really should have got a picture of that :(

I passed by Montserrat on the way back, and decided to take a little detour. The road over the mountain was so good I decided to ride it twice! Also, Throughout my whole trip I had noticed graffiti like this, and finally had an opportunity to take get a picture of it.

 

Whoo! Self-timer! But...hmm... something's not quite right.

There, I fixed it.

Brrrrrrrrrrr brrrrrrrrrrrr brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Home sweet home. Time for a beer and a kebab!