by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
A group of nine middle-aged companions get off the train from Madrid to begin a bicycle tour of the Guadarrama Mountains -- the same bike tour they took together 24 years before. Only this time, instead of halcyon memories and pastel-shaded visions of natural beauty, the nine start to bicker among themselves, petty concerns take over the day, and in the end, none of the group seem to be either happy or accomplished in anything at all -- they cannot even make a biking excursion hang together. When they do manage to ramble on (verbally and bicycling), the substance seems to have been let out of the dialogue like air out of a tire -- leaving the conversation flat as a pancake.
characteristics
- Train [locomotive]
- Reunion
- Cycle
