More Barcelona

I am exhausted just trying to write the Blog...how we fit all this stuff in is beyond me. Anyway, last weekend was the Red Bull Airshow. We had airplanes and helicopters buzzing us all week long since it was just over the marina wall and they were practicing through the cones. The planes had to run through a course and then they did dive bombs and other tricks. It was very cool to watch. The beach was sooooo crowded as well.

Barcelona has some very cool artwork throughout the city that was probably created when they hosted the Olympics.

It is very mass transit friendly too. You can even join a club where you pick up a bike at one of many locations throughout the city, ride it around and return it to another location.

We went to the chocolate museum...couldn't pass that one up. As part of the $4 Euro entrance fee you get a free chocolate bar...yum, yum. They can make anything out of chocolate...check out the gladiator.

During one of our lunchtime outings we found a local charm, called Restaurant Careacols(meaning snails). It has been here since 1835 and the chickens roasting in the front window attracted us. There are many floors in the restaurant and each full of photos of famous patrons past. We had the roast chicken and it was DELICIOUS! Since you had to walk right through the kitchen to exit, John took this as an opportunity for a photo-op and the chefs loved it.

Just a warning to anyone traveling here. Beware of the pickpockets. John and I are usually very careful about our belongings but one day in the Metro I thought I had heard a zipper and turned and a girl had her hand in Johns backpack but luckily she had the only pocket with nothing in it and I think I scared her off. We were lucky she didn't get any of our electronics or our money or ID's. Just a caution. We are a lot more careful now!!!

Barcelona: The Fun Stuff

Trying to put our paperwork dilemma to rest, we went out to see what all the fuss is about Barcelona. Our first delight was the Ramblas. This is a grand boulevard with everything going for it...people watching, outdoor pet store, the best food market around, street entertainers, artists, bands, and best of all...no cars. (Find Jodi in the first photo...the one waving). We were surprised to see Chipmunks for sale...we could come up with a few hundred of those from home.

As you can see, someone bought themselves a hamster.

At the bottom of the Ramblas is the Columbus Monument and the Maritime Museum. The museum hosts The Royal Galley which is a ship for the Royal Family which was powered by humans...about 400 rowers whipped into submission.

The La Bouqueria Market is a food lovers dream...candy, fruit, fish, bread, produce, fresh smoothies, olive oils, cheese, legs of ham (Jamone), flowers, etc. Just walking around here is an experience in sight and smell.

We also visited the Picasso Museum which was free because it was the first Sunday of the month. There was a long line to enter although it moved very quickly. Once inside it was a bit crowded but we still enjoyed it very much. His "Blue" period really included a lot of"Blue" in his paintings. There was no photography allowed so I have no photos, only memories.

Barcelona, Chinese Visa's, and Tibidabo

After checking weather reports for days, we finally decided it looked good to leave for Barcelona. We got up at 3am and headed out past St. Elmo and North on a heading of 360 degrees. This was the sailing day from Hell. We had picked this day because the winds were to be about 20 knots on our beam and we enjoyed this for the first few hours...then came the hell part...they ended up being about 40 knots on our nose with waves of about 10 feet or more. We had squalls, rain and lightening which one bolt hit right next to us in the middle of nowhere...our Guardian Angel was definitely watching over us that day. I had one of those days where I could be sea sick but was talking myself out of it the whole 14 hours we were out. Land...where is land.

Our first adventure was to the Chinese Consulate to get our VISA's for China in November. After one of those bus/metro ordeals where you are changing modes of transportation about 4 times, we climbed the STEEP hill to the consulate. Well, guess what?...yep, they were closed that day...come back tomorrow the lady behind the intercom said. Thank Goodness they have the 10-ticket Metro/Bus pass that costs only $7.70 Euro. We stopped into a cafe, purchased drinks and used the internet then headed back to the boat. The next day we get up and do it all over again. This time, that office was closed but there was a sign directing us to another location just around the corner. Once there, we waited in line for about an hour, filled out a couple of forms about our whereabouts the last 15 days (apparently they are questionning people to try and contain the Swine Flu thing), and then were told...NO we can't process VISA's for USA residents from here...SORRY. Guess we'll have to go to Plan B. On to better things:

Since we were way up in North Barcelona I had done my tourist-director duties and planned to go to TIBIDABO. You take a funicular car to the top of this hill where the Neo-Gothic Sacred Heart Church is, gorgeous views of Barcelona (it was a very hazy day due to pollution) and the Mediterranean, plus an enormous amusement park that was empty because it is no longer tourist season. We really enjoyed walking around the amusement park, seeing Barcelona from its highest peak and then hiking up a lot of stairs to the church (where you pay $2 Euro) to get the elevator to to top of the church balconies. The views were all worth it though!

Puerto De Andraixt

We got here a couple of days ago. We pulled in just before a horrific downpour started. We were getting ready to drop anchor and a nice British fellow, Terri, pointed us towards one of his moorings. He is letting us stay free of charge and we found free internet so we are pretty happy. He stopped by the boat to visit and we found out he is a true treasure hunter. He is a professional scuba diver and he and another fellow came across a bunch of Spanish coins from the Napolean era using a metal detector, about 60 feet below the surface. He has sold most of them on EBAY and only had one onboard to show us. As we were walking through town, one of the stores had just re-stocked their gelato display (see photo). I don't know how everyone in Europe stays so thin, they have ice cream EVERYWHERE! This is a big fishing port. There is a fish market every afternoon around 5pm when the fishermen come in and then they all leave around 4:30am (they rock the boat). We had our new friends, Franc and Andrea, over for supper last night. They are on S/V Can Drac from NYC. We enjoyed great company and a beautiful sunset to boot. They left for Barcelona today but we have made plans to see them there as well.

Did we find paradise?

We thought we had found paradise. We were in our own little cala (Cala Mitjana)...no other boats around...unless you count the Glass Bottom Tour Boat that kept coming in. Surrounding us were the beautifully landscaped estate of some lucky unknown person, and a private beach. The only issues were having to lasso lines around a bollard set into the cliffs (see photos). As we found out, Jodi is not a cowgirl but lets just say we used the boat hook to our advantage. How close would you put your Island Packet to those rocks? After setting two anchors off the bow, John felt very comfortable with the situation. Jodi was still a bit leary of the situation. But all's well that end's well.

The next day we decided to dinghy out into the Med and go to Port Colom. The weather was good and the seas calm. We had been anchored for a few days and needed a people and land fix. We ate lunch, walked around town, stopped at the Fruiteria (a place that only sells produce), used 15 minutes of free internet and saw Tony (a friend from Switzerland that we met at another anchorage). It's a small world. The town is a beautiful old, historical marina town and the port reflects that. On the way home we viewed lots of the caves they have in this part of the country.

Paradise is not without its pitfalls. At night the swell would come in and just rock and roll the boat. So two sleepless nights later, we pulled up anchors and lines and moved on.

Oh...the weather

See... it's not always sunshine :) We really can't complain as we have had awesome weather all summer long. But all the guide books say it only rains 5 days in September...I think we are going on day 8 or 9 already. Our weather class always told us to be wary of the "Anvil" shaped clouds. And look what the rain brings in...I am no longer swimming off of the boat.

The Long Anticipated Archipielago De Cabrera

Cabrera was designated a National Park on April 29, 1991. It is south of Mallorca and has a semi-arid climate which means very little rainfall. There are actually 19 islands in the archipielago. Cabrera Castle (photo) towers over the harbour and was built in the late 14th century. The Park can only be reached by sea and runs a tourist boat from April 1st to October 30th. In order to take your personal boat there you must apply for a sailing permit and if you want to stay overnight you must apply for the mooring permit. The permit is all in Spanish and it asks for which dates you want to go. You must fax it in and wait two days for an answer. After submitting two applications and being denied ("Completo...which means Full) we were getting frustrated and had one of the marina employees write on our third application...give us the next two nights available...instead of us specifying dates and being denied. So we got our permit for a week later. You can see JaySeaDee in the front of the harbour photo. The only history we could find about it was that the castle was used to hold about 9,000 prisoners of war during the Napoleonic War and only 3,600 survived. If you take one of the hikes (we did) you can view the Memorial to the Frenchmen that died here. One of the other photos shows one of the prisoners inscription into the castle walls of his name and the date. You can also see from one of the photos how deep the walls are. The walls are very wide and the stairs VERY NARROW as you can see from a couple of the other photos (one is of John in the stairwell, the other is of the stairwell railing looking down from the top of the castle). Because there are few people on the islands, nature flourishes. Apparently there are turtles, dolphins, sperm and pilot whales although we saw none of those. We did, however, get a glimpse of the "Balearic" Lizard who is indigenous to the islands (photo).

And one of the best parts of this journey was we met new friends, Franc and Andrea from S/V Can Drac, from NYC...yes Americans...finally. We are meeting up with them in Barcelona too. They sailed for a year for a charity that builds wells with CLEAN water in Africa. Visit the website at SailForWater.com.