Great photos! I wanna go to Spain! - Suzanne, Sat, 25 Sep 2004 1:10AM
I feel like I just did a quick trip from Barcelona to Lourdes...thanks for the memories - Wendy Minor, Wed, 25 Aug 2004 12:40AM
I love your pictures! Wonder how much it will cost me to print them all!!! We need to do it again sometime! - Margot & Troy, Sun, 8 Aug 2004 3:28PM
Thanks...that was like reliving the trip again,...sharon - sharon & pete meindertsma, Sat, 7 Aug 2004 12:19PM
You're captions are hilarious. Thanks for sharing the great pics of the tdf. I think I'll resort to a coffee table book for scenic Europe though, ha, ha... just kidding. Looks like a fun trip! - eric, Thu, 5 Aug 2004 4:55PM
1 Just arrived in Barcelona and waiting to check in to the hotel. This is a plaza (one of many in Barcelona) that we stumbled upon.
2 Back side of the cathedral. (The front was covered in scaffolding.)
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5 Gothic Quarter
6 Government Building
7 Columbus Statue (pointing toward America?)
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9 La Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family), by Gaudi
10 More elements of La Sagrada Familia.
11 La Sagrada Familia
12 The first of many street performers we saw in Barcelona
13 One of Gaudi's early and more traditional works (maybe his first?). Composed of mythological characters.
14 Gothic Quarter
15 Gothic Quarter
16 Just one of many street musicians
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18 The top of Las Ramblas. First there are the flower vendors, then the bird vendors, then all the street artists and performers. At the bottom of Las Ramblas at night the prostitutes come out. The pickpockets are always out.
45 Mark watching the TdF in the sitting room of the Bellmirall. It was fun listening to it in Spanish.
46 Bellmirall stairway.
47 One of many stairways in Girona. The stairs are not reflected on a map we had of Girona (just looked like roads) and we almost rented a car to drive there. Thank goodness we didn't, otherwise we would've kept on trying to drive up and down stairs!
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49 Hotel Bellmirall
50 Cathedral that is about 500 feet from the Bellmirall. It took us 2 days to figure out the variety of bells that rang (EVERY 15 minutes!!) and their meaning.
51 Cathedral
52 Think car.
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54 A cool park
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56 This was a nice place to stand on a hot day (cold air flowed from the grate).
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62 View of Girona from the wall that surrounds the old Jewish Call section.
63 Mark just loved these flowers, failing to recognize that these are the same flowers 2 feet from our doorway in Santa Barbara!! "That's too much!" View Comments...
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65 We trekked up and down this wall a few times.
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69 Stalker Mark leaving a postcard in Lance's mail slot. "I smell restraining order!" View Comments...
70 Back to Barcelona for one night before departing to Pamplona. The following pictures are lousy, but I'm leaving them up to give you a flavor of what Las Ramblas is about.
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74 We're in Pamplona. This is at a traditional Basque cider house. It's "help yourself cider" and there's definitely an art to filling your glass. This is one of our guides, John.
75 Mark, never one to pass up cider and a challenge!
76 Pamplona, 6:00AM. People stay up all night, run with the bulls at 8AM, and then go to sleep (sometimes outside).
77 It's 6AM and look at all those roasting chickens and huge Paella pans.
78 The pilgrimage to watch the running of the bulls.
79 Pamplona City Hall
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81 This is the view from the balcony we were standing on. The apartment belongs to a little old lady, and it had 5 balconies for our group to watch from.
82 The officials inspect the crowd to insure that no one is drunk. (Yeah right!)
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84 People trying to get a good (and free) view. This looked more dangerous to us than running w/the bulls.
91 The policia barricade the runners into a one block area. They are not allowed to get a head start (well, one minute, but that's it.)
92 Mark above the mayhem. "I hope this railing passed the inspection!" View Comments...
93 Our tour mates watch the chaos.
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96 Uh oh, the one minute warning rocket has been fired.
97 The terror begins as the toros are on their way.
98 That's a lot of bull.
99 RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!!
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106 The one that didn't get away. Around the corner from the apt we were viewing from, a man was gored 3x by 3 different bulls. The experienced runners, once gored, stay down....this guy didn't. Every time he stood up, another bull tagged him. After the 3rd one, he stayed down.
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109 Breakfast in an old palace. I almost plopped down on a chair before we got to the eating area, and luckily I didn't. The furniture is hundreds of years old. It was amazing that we were allowed to eat in this place. We also got to use the toilet, which was the first indoor toilet in Pamplona.
110 Masquerade of the Giants parade. This is just minutes after someone tried to steal my wallet, but Mark caught the punk!
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114 Along the Camino de Santiago during the annual pilgrimage.
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116 13th century church of Sant'Eunate. Pilgrims were worshipping here and we got shushed.
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118 Barbara, Khalil & Lavinia
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120 Evil wife Julie made Mark do a repeat so she could take a picture.
121 Mark trying to true the back wheel after a spoke broke. This is after riding about six miles uphill wondering why the brake was dragging.
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123 Barbara from Tennessee
124 And off they go up a 16k hill...
125 A nice village we stopped in to watch the TdF in a local bar.
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127 Mark quickly approaches
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130 Stunning views from atop the final climb of the day.
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132 And off they go for a day loop. That's Paula from N. Carolina watching her friends depart.
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134 Mark steals a poster advertising a local time trial race that goes up a 25% grade hill. Our tour mates were shocked that a cop would steal! "He's actually doing the community a service by cleaning up a bit." View Comments...
135 The evidence.
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137 The lovely town of Anso
138 Anso
139 Anso
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141 This is Eric from New York. He's one of six of our group that ran w/the bulls, except he actually had an encounter w/one of the big beasts!!!! As a result, his t-shirt was covered in dirt and he had a nasty scab under his chin. He said when he got home his grandma would be mad at him!
150 The following pictures don't do the views justice. "I remember this place -- it was straight out of the Lord of the Rings movie and impossible to photograph." View Comments...
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154 Troy from S. Carolina.
155 Mark on the Col de Soudet. We are entering French territory, cycling to Montory, France.
156 Wow, we rode up that there road, and we were barely 1/2way! First time Mark had ever climbed with a jacket on! The wind was howling.
157 "she thought that this was an easy hill climb!" View Comments...
158 "the family that suffers together, stays together." View Comments...
159 This festival was at the top of the Col de Soudet. (I think it's called the Festival of Three Cows.) It's on the border of Spain and France and it's a long standing tradition of French officials bringing 6 cows of which Spanish officials are to select three. The cows are payment for French cows grazing on Spanish land. It is a big deal and there were a lot of people there.
160 People viewing the ceremony
161 Local dancers at the ceremony.
162 This pic, along w/the next 3, are views from a 20K descent.
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166 Our tour mates watching the TdF. It was an exciting finish w/a breakaway being caught at 10 meters to go.
167 The group listens while Maria Elena gives us the talk re: the next day of riding.
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169 Jimmy & Paula from N. Carolina. Notice the same clothes! They wore the same clothes almost the entire trip, but they started slipping at the end. They are a riot. They kept stealing Mark's stolen posters. (Well, not really!)
170 Enjoying dinner at the only hotel in Montory, France.
171 One of our tour mates, (ironically, Lilli from Santa Barbara -- we didn't know that other SB residents were going, and we had to travel to Spain to meet Lilli, Linda and Anne from Santa Barbara!) saved a newspaper from Pamplona. This was one of the more gruesome gorings, w/the bull tossing the man in the air and eventually ripping off his pants. We think he was gored 7x, but he fared much better than the man that was gored the day we were watching.
172 Mark relaxing by the hotel pool in Montory, France.
173 We had the only balcony in the hotel, everyone was jealous. ;-)
174 Note the laundry.
175 A local band played until 3am!!! Our group were early birds though and only danced until 11pmish. Unfortunately for some of our group, their windows faced the band and they didn't particularly enjoy Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones at 2am.
176 Paula and Ralph after one too many sangrias.
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180 Mark leads the conga (sp?) line.
181 Alas, Mark steals ANOTHER poster, but this one was for the purpose of leaving on Jim & Paula's hotel door.
182 The evidence.
183 Uh oh. Julie freaked when she saw this hill profile. And the French are nice enough to have markers indicating the grade at every km. Yeah, like we wanted to know we were about to ascend 13%!
184 This is the 13% marker.
185 Pete from Hawaii procrastinates w/us.
186 And here comes Mark!
187 It's almost over!
188 Yeah!! "I "allowed" Julie to reach the top first so that she could photo me." View Comments...
189 Pete makes the grade.
190 Relaxing and munching after the big climb up the Col de Marie Blanque.
191 Views from a fabulous descent. This trip featured the best descents we've ever done by far.
192 The town at the base of the Col d'Abisque.
193 From atop the Col d'Abisque.
194 From atop the Col d'Abisque.
195 From atop the Col d'Abisque.
196 Old TdF markings cheering on Laurent Jalabert, affectionately known as Jaja.
197 From atop the Col d'Abisque.
198 From atop the Col d'Abisque.
199 From atop the Col d'Abisque.
200 From atop the Col d'Abisque.
201 At the base of the Col d'Tourmalet waiting for the riders on Stage 12. Note the sun!! This stage ends at La Mongie, a town on the Col d'Tourmalet.
202 The parade of riders, hikers, etc., making their way up the hill was endless. It was great people watching.
203 The French gentleman w/the black hat teased everyone that went by. He was very entertaining. "and very intoxicated! he had a nice carport tho." View Comments...
204 Waiting.... (still sunny...)
205 Oh my gawd! NOT sunny! What happened? The clouds rolled in and it poured for 3 hours. This is a rare picture of Julie w/a plastic bag on her head. This won't happen again anytime soon. That's Troy w/a big smile on his face, his wife Margot, and Steve in the yellow jacket.
206 Still not sunny. The caravan rolls by beaning people w/freebies.
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211 This is the 1st of 3 views we had. Michael Rasmussen of Rabobank is in the lead at the moment.
212 And here comes the 1st half of the peleton.
213 2nd view on the street below.
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215 Here's Michael.
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218 They will soon swallow him up. "At least it stopped raining. Hypothermia was no longer an issue." View Comments...
219 Don't expect us to identify all the riders!
220 If you click on this picture, and then click on original size, you can see Dicky V, Jan Ullrich, and the yellow jersey.
221 We think that's Iban Mayo in the orange jersey, and George Hincapie to the left of him. (the sunglasses give him away).
222 Is that Floyd, Lance and Ace??
223 Lance's left leg and Ace behind him.
224 Jose "Ace" Acevedo of US Postal.
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227 Tyler Hamilton in green and yellow.
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229 A fuzzy Tyler to the left? "Poor Tyler I know he was hurting for his beloved Tugboat. You can read the story at:
http://www.velonews...." View Comments...
245 These guys were having much more fun then the 1st half of the peloton. Their day's work was done, and they only needed to finish w/in a 1/2 hr of the stage winner to remain in the race. They smiled, laughed, and yelled at the crowd. "The grupetto!" View Comments...
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252 This guy was having too much fun!
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256 Caravan of extra bikes follows the peloton.
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258 Soggy Mark.
Lance went on to finish 2nd in this stage, behind Ivan Basso. "soggy, working toward hypothermic Mark" View Comments...
259 Descending the road that led to the Col D'Tourmalet. The first 2 miles were very scary riding a bike w/all the crowds (pedestrians, cyclists, and cars) "The party's over." View Comments...
260 This cute town had stuffed people all over. It made you feel like you were being watched.
261 That night in Lourdes we were pleasantly surprised to find out that all of the teams were staying there!! Only other TdF fans will understand why Mark and Julie were excited about buses.
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265 Phonak team bikes!
266 Look closely at the name...Tyler Hamilton! Unfortunately he would drop out the next day. Hopefully he will win a medal at the Olympics.
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269 "I need someone to spit shine my bike every night." View Comments...
272 Only at the TdF are bike mechanics considered celebrities!
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275 The start of Stage 13 in Lannemezan. Lance will ride to victory in this stage.
276 US Postal riders sign in.
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281 "Look at all these photos you took of the Posties, you're definitely a stalker!" View Comments...
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288 Christophe Moreau, the eventual highest placed French rider.
289 Margot from S. Carolina. "and fellow Scotch drinker!" "...and Queen of the mountains!" View Comments...
290 Troy
291 Laurent "Jaja" Jalabert is now retired and works for the TdF organization.
292 Bernard "the Badger" Hinault, 5x winner of the TdF, and race official. He raced w/Greg LeMond on the same team, and they had a big rivalry.
293 Notice the green, polka dot, and yellow jerseys in the front row to the right.
294 And they're off...
295 Many of the riders were not ready at the beginning of the race. They were fumbling w/their gloves, helmets, sunglasses. And many started late!
296 Robbie McEwen, best sprinter, in green jersey.
297 Dicky V & Robbie.
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299 That's Floyd Landis in the US Postal jersey.
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304 Kloden in white German national jersey, teammate of Jan Ullrich and eventual runner up to Lance in the TdF.
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317 Bobby Julich on the left.
318 Jan Ullrich on the left. "Inspector Clouseau on the right." "Green Jersey runner-up Thor Hushovd dead center in the Norwegian champion's jersey. Thor!" View Comments...
319 "oh, did the race start?" "New rules, you must wear a helmet. You don't have to buckle to your head, but you must wear it!" View Comments...
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330 THE END "You guys were alot of fun. Thanks for sharing your photos. We had a great time." View Comments...
