Euroroll September 2006, inline skating in Spain
In this report, you'll find links to pictures in subpages, because there was to much to cram it all onto one index page, as I usually do. Also there is a Flash videoplayer at the bottom of this report. If you want to view the videos more often, please download the mpeg version (still to be published). The quality differs, as some videos have been shot with a real DV video camera, whereas other videos with a photo camera in video mode.You can return to this page from the picture galleries by clicking "Euroroll 2006" in the upper right corner. Spain Sevilla
The first thing to notice was that it's very hot in Sevilla (35 - 40 Degrees Celcius). Fortunately the hotel was airconditioned and had a private pool on the roof top. It wat located in the very nice old city center. Surrounded by lots of narrow streets with a multitude of little bars with tapas. No night skating the first day, but having dinner instead. Pictures: Sevilla city impressions On Saturday we did a group skate in Sevilla with about 40 skaters. Some Eurorollers went shopping, sightseeing etc., so in average 40 was the size of the groups skates we did. The center of Sevilla is not skater friendly. Lots and lots of cobblestones, or else rough surface. But that's part of the fun when exploring a new city. With a group of this size, you will get noticed by the traffic, so it's relatively safe to skate in the streets. Doug led the skate by improvising on a city map. Sometimes you'll get stuck, like the time, we arrived on a busy road. the only way out was to climb over a fence. Pictures: Sevilla city skate
Sevilla is known for it Flamenco, so most of us visited a Flamenco show with dance and music. Also some visited a bullfight in the arena. apart from the old part of the center, the big Palaces and Palza Espana are worth a visit too. On Sunday we took off to skate to ancient Roman ruines called "Italica". Just as we left the city skating the main roads, we found ourselves on a highway! Some car drivers started honking, but we could exit pretty soon. A nice hill was waiting for us in the burning sun. As we arrived in the village on the top, it turned out that we had taken the wrong way. After asking the locals for directions and studying the maps in bus stops, we continued and found a route through several villages. A nice route with good surface, uphills and a long nice downhill. At last we got to the ruines of Italica for an educational moment :-). The route back to Sevila was a lot safer, because an barkeeper indicated a bus lane with bicycle track next to it. Back at the hotel, it was time for a pool party! Pictures: Sevilla Italica group skate
Granada
On Monday morning we left Sevilla by two chartered busses and headed for Granada to see the famous Alhambra Palace. Pictures: Granada and the AlhambraApart from Angelika and me, the group boarded the night train to Barcelona in the evening. We stayed in Granda for one more day. At night, I took my skates and did some skating in Granada. As in Sevilla, the center is filled with cobblestones. Just outside the old part of the town (which is very small anyway), you'll find roads with good surface for some high speed inline skating (see the video). But since I was on my own now, I had to take care. The cars drive fast at night and you're not so visible as in a group. For us the nighttrain to Barcelona (800km) came with a surprise. It's good sleeping in a night train, but it should bring you to were you want to go to. Due to very heavy rainfall in and around Barcelona, washed away tracks, the train had returned and we woke up in Valencia, where we had to board busses for the remaining 350km :-( Barcelona
Barcelona, as ussual, is great skating. The weather was a bit unstable. A
group skate got cancelled because of rain. On thursday Dirk May from TNS-Frankfurt arrived
with 35 skaters from Frankfurt. We skated along the city beach and chilled out at a beach
bar. At night it rained in the north part of the town, so not many skaters showed up for
the Thursday Night Skate at Placa Catalunya. We were with just 15 skaters, but it was very
cool! Now we could really speed it up and do a wild city race. (see video below). On this
skate I met Robo, another skater, who shoot inine skate videos like me. We had been in
contact by email, but just missed each other on skates in Amsterdam and Frankfurt. I think
Ignasi and Miguel were a bit surprised about the speed we did. Jaques Steve and Johnny
were racing at the front. by tradition, this night skate is without blockers, so you have
to watch the traffic yourself and take care of your own safety. This was a real street
skate. Pictures: Barcelona group dinner, Thursday Night Skate, city skating with TNS. On Friday, of course everybody joined the Friday Night Skate organised by the ABP. Most of the 60 Americans were present, as well as 35 Frankfurt skaters, a few Frensh skaters and of course me as a Dutch skater. The night skate on Friday is guided by blockers and sweepers from the ABP. This means no racing, or dangerous crossings with other traffic. The pace was quite good, except for the narrow streets in the Bario Gotic, where you have to be carefull not to run into pedestrians. Pictures: Friday Night Skate Barcelona
On Saturday Albert. Pimpo and I had organised a 25km group skate along the spanish coast from Sant Vince de Calders to Vilanova i la Geltru. A very nice tour! You skate along the beach and through small villages. I noticed some new bicycle tracks which make this rout even more skatable. About 40 spanish skaters showed up on Saturday morning. Unfortunatly not everybody joined this skate. A 45 min. train ride brought us to our destination. Along the coast it was a bit cloudy, but the temperature was still good. At a moderate pace we skated accross the boulevards, Some skaters brought along their kids and even babies in perambulators: a real family outing. The locals are getting used to a huge group of skaters, because we have done this trip a few times before.
Pictures: Beach skate to Vilanova From Vilanova, you can skate to sitges, or even to Barcelona, but the road conditions are not that good and there is much dangerous traffic. It's better to take the train to Sitges and skate along the boulevard and then take the train back to Barcelona.
The last two days Angelika and I stayed with Tatiana and Matthias who owns the skateshop "Inercia" in Barcelona together with two other skaters. So if you are in need for new wheels or brakes after a few nice downhills, you know were to go to :-).
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| Link to website of the Barcelona skaters:
www.patinar-bcn.org
Video's:
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Pictures and videos by:
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| Peter Nikkel.
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