Bandits in Barcelona!

December 26th we headed off for a 3 day trip to Barcelona, Spain. We'd chosen this destination for a number of reasons: none of us had ever been there so we could discover it together, it was an opportunity to go to a different country and it was a mere 4 1/2 hour drive from Aix. We had a fairly uneventful trip; not much traffic on the roads, good weather, easy route to follow....that is until we arrived in Barcelona. We accidentally got off the auto route too soon and found ourselves lost on a major boulevard without a clue as to how to find our apartment! We stopped and asked a young couple who helped us as much as they could with the language barrier and we set off using their directions....it was here that we encountered the bandits!! I'll let Nick explain it to you:

"Here’s how they do it…as the unsuspecting tourist enters the city, a watcher points out the prey and two or three motorcyclists start to follow you into the center of the city. At a stop light, one of the cyclists will come along the passenger side and spear your tire. As you move with the flow of traffic, both your tire pressure is going down and your future blood flow is getting ready to go up! We went probably ten or more blocks when suddenly a motorcyclist came along side and started pointing at our back right tire. I pulled over on the one way street and both Nicholas and I got out to see what was going on. At that moment, Nicholas was looking at the tire and the other cyclist had now driven up onto the curb and was suggesting, I presume in Spanish, that we follow him to some Gas Station to have the tire repaired. At the same time a lady came out of nowhere and said “Watch out, they are trying to rob you!” She started to yell at the motorcyclists and before we knew it there was a crowd around the car and the cyclists zoomed off.
Thank goodness for Nicholas. He was somewhat like a waking bear! The more pissed off he became at how we might have been robbed, the more energy he put into the tire change. I think I even heard him speak some Spanish...
Anyway, some bystanders came over with advice on the easiest ways to get to our apartment and everything was uphill from there. Yet two days later it became necessary for the spare tire to be replaced and a new tire obtained. Sounds simple but no easy feat. First I had to locate a Peugeot dealership from the Spanish white pages, take our car out of the parking garage and try to figure out where the dealership was in relation to where I was parked. needless to say, I got lost a few times, finally paid a non-English speaking cabbie 10 Euro to have me follow him to the Peugeot address. He didn’t speak a word of English and gave me 5Euro back when we arrived at the dealership! Once there, we had to contact Peugeot in Paris to obtain clearance to have the tire either replaced or repaired. An hour later, I was back in the car, at rush-hour, getting dark, trying to navigate my way back to the Gothic section of downtown Barcelona where we were staying. Well as you might surmise, I made it.
The lesson learned is in Europe motorcycles are prevalent and have easy access to get through traffic. When we departed Barcelona my rear view mirrors were focused on the sides of the car and the gap between cars. When we came to stop lights we really watched the cyclists next to the car…Nicholas had the proverbial “hand grenade” ready to do some damage if push came to shove!"
NLB

So, there you have it...for life after the bandits...read on....