Splashdown!

After a week of preparations, Jay Sea Dee finally got back to where she is most happy…in the water. It all went very smoothly and then Pierre (owner of Nautiland) got on board to show us the new docking system. It turned out that it is much like snagging a mooring ball. I was a bit worried about it because the moorings we saw didn’t seem to have the pendants attached and nobody could explain the process of catching the line to me in English. Pierre went a-stern and using the boat hook snagged the line (there was a pendant attached to ours…yeah!) then followed it to the bow where our line was waiting to thread the needle and re-attach to the bow cleat. All that worry for not.

Gruisson and Narbonne

Here are a few photos I took while John was waiting in the Orange (like Verizon) line to recharge our phone with more money. In Narbonne, they have many canals and houseboats…a lot like Amsterdam.

A donut?

After a long day of sanding and painting…we decided to get a quick dinner and relax a bit.  Not the usual 8:30pm dinner tonight.  So we drove to Narbonne and found a drive-thru named “Quick”(No McDonalds to be found believe it or not).  Try ordering fast food in French.  It was pretty funny because the gal on the intercom kept saying “Chocolat” and we kept saying “No”.  Finally she gave up and we said “Finished” and proceeded to get our drinks and our bag of fish sandwiches and french-fries.  After going through the bag we found we had also received a Vanilla covered Donut…I am pretty sure we NEVER said donut but it was a funny discovery.

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Side Trip to Barcelona…Yes, in Spain Again.

We needed three more AGM batteries for the boat and for some reason couldn’t get them in France so we found a distributor in Barcelona who had them in stock so off we went…another road trip. On the way we drove across the Pyrenees mountains and noticed a new dusting of snow on top.

We enjoyed a nice evening with friends from “Can Drac”, Franc and Andrea. They are expecting a baby in June so have moved off of their boat into a “flat” for now. The poppies are out and beautiful..enjoy!

Some Things We’ve Learned

Today we are in a Hurricane…at least it is as close to what we think one is like (we really don’t know being from Colorado…LOL).  It is blowing 110 kph, raining like cats and dogs and is only 4 degrees Celsius which is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit.  Needless to say there was no boat work done anywhere near us.  So we chose to drive around Narbonne and run a few errands.  Here is what we learned:

1)  When in France, it is easy to buy an “Orange” phone sim card and charge it up with minutes from “Orange”.  You must have an un-locked phone though.  But now we can call locally very cheaply as they gave us a local phone number.  It is a cheap way to keep in touch internationally as well.

2)  The Europeans have adopted a Chip system in their credit cards that the American credit cards don’t have.  We have run into issues at a couple of restaurants already that can’t accept our credit cards because of this so we have learned to carry more cash than usual…just in case.

3)  When parking here, they have a “validation”  machine located somewhere in the parking lot but you need to pay for your time there BEFORE trying to get out the exit gate.

4)  When buying produce in the grocery stores here, you must take it to the “UPC” lady who prints the UPC code for you.  Otherwise you get to the check out lane and there is much confusion and anger as they try to explain the process to you in FRENCH…LOL

We’re Back

Yes, we are back in France…Yee Haw!…or should I say Tres Bon.  We brought five huge suitcases packed full of clothes, American food that we can’t find here and boat parts.  I purchased the extra luggage allowance when I originally bought our British Airline tickets.  You get one free 50 pound checked bag per person and I purchased three more for $208 USD.  Then when we arrived at the gate we had to pay $50 USD more per bag because they weighed 70 pounds each.  But still this way was way more economical than shipping ahead via UPS or FEDEX.  They wanted up to $500 per bag to ship.  Thank God they all fit into our rental car.

We saw the old “Concord” Trans-Atlantic Jet as we left Paris.  It took us three hours to get through Paris since it was rush hour.

As we drove to Gruisson, France we saw many bright yellow fields…we are assuming it is Mustard.  We also saw wind generator farms.

One last item from our rental car adventure was re-fueling the car.  We know it takes diesel but which one is it?

 

So we spent today sanding the hull and polishing the chrome…until it rained…boo hoo.  Now off to Carrefour (the French version of Walmart).

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Cadeques Spain October 28, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

Another Season Comes To A Close

Here is Jay Sea Dee all put away for the winter in Gruisson, France. We couldn't ask for a better place to leave her. Pierre and Maryvonne at Nautiland were extremely helpful. We would recommend this place to anyone needing to leave their boat in this area of the Mediterranean for the winter. We had a great year and couldn't ask for a better boat. Au Revoir! Adios! Until Next Year!

Sagrada Familia Church

We felt we couldn't leave Barcelona without visiting the Sagrada Familia church designed by Antonio Gaudi. He architecturally designed it and started building it over 100 years ago. It is beautiful but very strange at the same time. See how Jesus has the Bible over his face on the crucifix? It is still a work in progress. The $10 Euro entrance fee helps pay for the completion.

Montjuic

Montjuic means Mount of the Jews. It is an elevated area of Barcelona perched up high giving one a 360 degree view of the city...magnificent!

The 1992 Summer Olympics were held here. The stadium is still used today. Notice the photo of the Olympic torch. Do you remember how they lit that in 1992? An archer flew an ignited arrow into it and it burst into flames...perfect! Outside the stadium laid in the concrete we found many footprint tributes to athletes of the games. I have included a few...do you remember them?

We visited the Castle as well. There are the "Magic Fountains" that we passed by but they only light up Thursday through Sunday so we did not get to see the show.

Holy Toledo!

Do you know where the saying, "Holy Toledo" came from? Well, Toledo had an educated, wealthy and cosmopolitan Jewish community...called Sephardic Jews. These Jews eventually immigrated to America and brought along that expression because to them Toledo was the holiest Jewish City in Europe!

Did you also know that Toledo used to be the Capital of Spain? And that it is a walled city?

They even had a river that served as a moat but they still have water problems to this day.

Toledo's craftsmen produce a Gold Inlaid Design applied to Steel and then fired in a Kiln for strength. The items are produced using 24kt gold thread or gold leaf. They really catch your eye as the gold shines brightly against the black steel. They are also noted for their sword making. There is also lots of Mazapan shops around the Plaza's...had to try it but it didn't grab our taste buds.

We were lucky to find a place to stay since it was a last minute decision to go to Toledo and it was a holiday weekend...Columbus Day. We used our Rick Steve's guide and called the Hostal Del Cardenal. Yes, they had a room and we got the 5% discount for using the Rick Steve's guide. So for only $85 Euros per night we were good to go. The best thing about it was that it turned out to be a 17th Century Cardinal's Palace built into Toledo's wall. And....get this, the walk up the big hill into town was simplified for us. There were five or six escalators all the way up to town from outside our hotel door since it was located at the old wall entrance.

Don't you just love how the Spanish men all get together in the Plaza's (see the photo of them lined up on the wall)! We took the Tourist Train around and got some great "outside of the wall" shots of town. We visited the Cathedral which was one of the best we've seen in Europe so far...and believe me, we've seen a lot of them. We visited the Victorio Macho Museum. He was a well known sculpturist (see photo of old lady and me). We wanted to see some of El Greco's work but everywhere we went the location was being renovated so we saw none of them.

What does this mean?

I thought it was one of the Three Wisemen not allowed to eat French Fries. John corrected me and said it was a No Eating, No Drinking (It is a Coca-Cola Bottle, not a wiseman). In the Eye Of The Beholder I Guess.