Thursday was the first day of school for the Spanish schools in Barcelona and we were told the traffic would increase drastically. I remembered half way up to school there is a taxi/bus lane only. While Uber does not exist in Spain there is app called cabify and one call FreeNow which is for taxi’s only. So I ordered a taxi and it paid off. It saved us at least 20 minutes of traffic. It’s the small wins.
The night before I decided to research a famous run called Carretera de les Aigües which is on the mountain just under Tibidabo. My new local friend told me that there is a trail to it from behind my kids school. So after drop off I started heading straight up to the mountain.
The first 300+ feet of elevation was straight up a hill and as fast as I was moving my legs my body felt like it was crawling. Soon I was off the paved streets onto a groomed trail curving up the mountain. According to Google Maps if I took this up it would eventually leads to the main trail that is 9 kilometers long that cuts from one side of the mountain to the other.
As I kept running, all of a sudden I hit a dead end. Hmm… How did I miss that turn, I think to myself. I circle back and see the turn now to my right, it is not a road but a narrow trail that cuts right up the mountain. Oh man, I did not realize this was in the cards. So I made a right and went directly up. The grass and bush was hitting my legs the whole time.. Mental note, shower right away when I get home just in case of ticks.
Finally, I hit the main road and it did not disappoint. The views were spectacular throughout. I ran several miles to end of this segment. I looked to the right and only saw a curvy car road to run down with no shoulder. Hmm. That does not seem like a good idea I thought. So once again, I circled back and ran down the hundreds of steps I saw by the tram that goes straight up the mountain.
From there, I headed into the streets and I ran past the science museum we were at the day before. Great, I just did this walk home with the kids. As I passed it, it was night and day from yesterday. There were many schools in the area and the roads were gridlocked and kids and parents streaming from everywhere. Loved seeing this sense of community.
Around 11am we had a highly recommend chef come by our house and start preparing meals for the week ahead. When we were visiting in May we attended a party where this chef cooked the food which was delicious. That family worked with her on a weekly basis and we made the decision then we were going to do it too. As I saw all the food out on the counter, I could not help but to smile ear to ear.
Later in the day, I had a lunch with a member of my new entrepreneur forum near Plaza Catalunya about a 1.5 mile walk. I figured a great opportunity to add more steps to my day. On the way there I decided to restart listening to Michael Thomas spanish lessons. I really like his methodology. No homework. No memorizing. No practicing after the lesson at all. Let’s see if works.
We ended up at a nice Indian restaurant. As a learn more about his business and life about 20 minutes into the conversation he looks at me smiles and says, “I am a fan.” I respond, “of what?” He says, “of you, I just listened to your book on Audible.” I was impressed!
So throughout the rest of the meal we talked about my business and growth. It is so cool as he knew about the business well from the book, as well as, the players in my company. He thought it was neat too. After lunch, I headed to the WeWork in the Gracia area since I have a free membership through American Express.
It was okay because I only had access to the open desks on the street level floor. So it felt more like being in a Starbucks vs a WeWork. I had my bi-weekly update call with Bryan Wish. We reviewed the book marketing and social media strategy for the next month.
As I headed home from there, I looked at my Health app and I see over 20,000 steps! I had a bunch a work to catchup on, including calls that lasted from 8pm to 10pm. We had a our first meal prepared by the chef. We all agree, delicioso!
As the night ends, we booked our hotels for our first trip with our friends from the states later in the year. Very exciting.
Another full day in Barcelona!