Barcelona Oct 14-17 Last Leg of Our Spanish Odyssey

Not an auspicious beginning to Barcelona. The train trip was characterized by a very loud southeast Asian family. We haven't figured out if they felt so important everyone in our car and the cars next to us needed to hear what they and the people talking on the phone to them had to say or they had no concept that they were ruining the trip for everyone in the train car. In any case we left the train quite frazzled. Then as we started up the escalator a lady in front of us with very heavy luggage fell backwards. Blair scrambled to help her and Sharon was yelling for someone to turn off the escalator as she kept tumbling backwards. In the end she was okay, one man was bleeding as he scraped his elbows, not sure if he was related to her. Then we promptly headed out the wrong door and went over a km in the wrong direction. Once we got to the B&B it was great, in a good location, and very comfy.

Heading to the B&B we are in the big city now.

One of the 2 huge fountains in the central plaza.

We went for a walkabout to get our bearings, ended up down at the waterfront only to find that one of the biggest boat shows in Europe was beginning the next day. Guess where we were going in the morning?!

Chris Columbus overlooking the harbour at the end of The Rambla.

Port Vell.

We'll look at this, a boat show!

We walked back through the maze that is the Gothic area of Barcelona, no they are not all dresses in black, with white face paint and black makeup :) It is actually the beautiful old section of Barcelona. With all the wonderful cafés and restaurants, we ended getting a donair as they actually make them with lamb here. Yummy!

Petite Palau of the Arts, example of beautiful architecture.

Sculpture work on the outside.

The ornate column below.

The next morning it was down to the cafe for breakfast as even though we were staying at a B&B the breakfast is 6 € extra so we decided the cafe would serve us best as you can get espresso and fresh squeezed orange juice from the cafe.

Sharon entering the boat show.

Then it was off to the boat show. It was so nice all outdoors, much the same as our shows only exhibitors from all over the world. Some deals that we may look at later. There was one exhibitor that really surprised us as we didn't know they existed!? See pictures below.

What a surprise, the fact that Sharon was born in Winnipeg was totally lost on the Spanish salesgirl.

Logo for the company.

The boats afloat were mostly by appointment only, unlike our shows where everyone is welcome, so Sharon was somewhat disappointed as she always wanted to go on board an Oyster. But she was not to be disappointed as we were invited on board an Oyster 82 that is 2 years old and up for sale (it is named the Raven, you can see it online if interested). The skipper who is British and very friendly gave us a tour. Gorgeous! They are only asking 3.3 million € Blair thinks we could get it for less.

Small boats to mega-yachts.

The Raven.

After the boat show we strolled along the beach and through Barcelonetta, the area right by the beach, seems many residents resent the heavy tourist trade, go figure.

Strolling the beach, Barcelona.

 

Sculpture glistening in front of Casino Barcelona, on the beach.

The evening brought another walk through Gothi and a great tapas dinner and planning for the next day.

Had great intentions of seeing some museums, some Gaudi architecture and back to the Boqueria Mercat (market) to pick up some treats to bring back. Well we bought a 10 trip pass for the metro and headed up to the Sagrada Family Basilica (Gaudi) and that was a zoo with an over 2 hour wait for tickets not to mention how long it would take to get in after that, yikes! Note to self if in Barcelona get a Barcelona Card on Day One, get in free and go to the front of the line!

Sagrada Family Basilica, it's a zoo!

Still building and the admission costs go to pay for the building.

 

We also headed over to the Gaudi apartment block, 20€ each to get in, not worth it!

Gaudi apartments.

Balconies.

Ground floor the shops are like in caves.

So then headed to the Fundacion Joan Miro, huge museum devoted mostly to his work which was really good.

View from gardens on Montjuic.

Miro sculpture overlooking Barcelona.

Roof of Miro, pictures only allowed outside.

 

The Miro is at the top of the Muntaya de Montjuic, so we found a great path down and headed over to the market and then the Barcelona Cathedral thinking we would go to the cathedral and then go to attached museum that has a big section on Gaudi who was a staunch Catholic that lived like a hermit we have learned. Well we were able to see the magnificent cathedral but the museum was closing as we arrived. In Spain you have to constantly check for times as you NEVER know when things will be open! Fine, so we thought okay we will head to the Picasso Museum and we knew that was open, but when we arrived there, their senior rate was for over 65 not just retired :) and the cost was going to be 28€ or $42 CAD too much just to see his early work, so we picked up some cold beer and olive oil potatoe chips from the grocery and headed to the B&B to decide how we would spend our last night.

Just down the way from the Miro is the Olympic pool, do you remember those amazing photos of divers over the city?

Another shot of Barcelona on our way down the mountain.

You could get down quickly if you took the tram, but Sharon said "No way"

Barcelona has some amazing architecture and sights but WAY (and we mean WAY!) too many tourists, we have decided a nice place to visit but definitely not want to live here.

So tomorrow morning we head back to Toronto excited to see our girls, ready to go full blast on our boat but really feeling blessed with a trip filled with amazing sights, weather, experiences and a new outlook on life.

It is always now.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Valencia Oct 11-14...the very old and the futuristic

We arrived in Valencia to the Pension Paris (a fourth flour walk up) in a great area to find that Vanessa had upgraded our room, so no shared toilet, yay! We were just hungry enough for a couple of tapas. Well, Blair said to the waitress "tapas" and then went in and picked out 2 plates but the waitress misunderstood as they had a set tapas menu, by the time we had finished we had 6 plates, luckily the waitress caught on before the 7th plate came. Tapas plates are not as big as at home so it wasn't quite as bad as it sounds and we didn't leave much on the plates :)

Entrance to the Pension Paris.

It's a good thing we do not have much luggage!

The first full day was indeed a FULL one, we started out thinking breakfast and a walk in the old town and did that. Valencia is an interesting city in that they have diverted the river that ran through the city and made it into a park as the river kept flooding the city, kind of like Winnipeg. So they have this wonderful park, running, walking and cycling track/paths.

Royal Gardens in Valencia.

Bottle tree in Royal gardens.

Close up of flowers on bottle tree.

We went across one of the beautiful bridges (that they have left) into the palace park, the actual palace is from the 13 th century is excavated so you can see where it was (why it isn't there is a long story) but the gardens have been maintained, so a beautiful Sunday morning walk.

Excavation of palace.

We also took in the City Museum, which essentially was a record of art in Valencia, prehistoric to modern, this time the building was a magnificent old house (palace, we think the home of the mayor at one time).

City museum entrance staircase.

View of dome over staircase.

Chapel of City Museum house, with cassocks.

After that Sharon got the big idea to walk down to the pier, beach and old Grand Prix track, then swing around at night to take in the futuristic buildings of Valencia. Well it was much further than it looked on the map so we felt like we were on one of our Camino days again, plus we got caught in a downpour at the beach, luckily there were plentiful bars and restaurants to take refuge in, so we had a pleasant beer and pizza till the storm passed over.

Storm coming in over beach.

Then we did walk back over the site of the Spanish Grand Prix and the failed Americas Cup site. We did end up at the amazing buildings of Valencia, that house the hemispheric, the Science Center and the Palace of the Arts. Very impressive especially at night.

Deserted old Spanish Grand Prix raceway.

Science Center with the Agora Convention Center in the background.

Palace of the arts, Valencia.

Our last day in Valencia was spent doing a little shopping and hitting the Market Square, this puts Granville Island and Kensington Market to shame, huge! FYI Valencia is about the size and population of Vancouver. We also walked the historic town as well as trying to find the Bio Parc (we never did find it in the maze of paths and levels leading to it) which again turned out to be a long walk but a nice cone of gelato made that all better. We have decided if we had to live in a city in Spain we think it would be Valencia, although we haven't seen Barcelona, the feel, convenience, proximity to beach, running paths, history all make it a very livable city.

Fresh food market.

Pork is huge in Spain.

 

Cathedral, Valencia.

Always looking for the umbrellas, must mean a cafe:)

So dinner tonight in Valencia and a 10:05 train to Barcelona tomorrow.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Allicante October 9-11...lots and lots of boats BIG Boats!

We both had an air of anticipation on our 7:40 a.m. departure from Cartagena. We were heading to Alicante to see the beginning of the 2014-15 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. Blair has been following these races since before they were sponsored by Volvo, knows all the players and of coursed sailed one of these boats last year from Cartagena to Lunenburg. So a bit of a dream to finally be in Alicante.

One of seven identical 65' boats, the idea is for the race to be about sailors skill rather than technology, they all have the same technology.

There is every bit of history here as in Cartagena and even a huge castle overlooking the city, but Alicante is more of a Mediterranean beach town with great resorts, so we chose to view that side of Spain, we have had quote a bit of history over the last month-plus :)

View of castle overlooking Alicante, kind of reminds us of the Great Wall of China.

The Race Village is where we spent most of our time looking at the boats actually in the race and as this is the "Grand Prix" of ocean races, the many sponsors, their CEOs and of course the wealthy are on hand often with their "boats."

Race village is open until midnight with spotlights circling and lighting up the boats.

We thought that it was apropos for us that the guide boat was named "Peregrino"

Portion of the 66 m Aglaia out of Grand Cayman, google it our pictures don't do it justice. One of her winches is worth more than our boat! Note the size of the crew member on the deck.

 

Team Brunel out of Holland brought this three masted schooner in for its guests. The boat was built in early 1900s and fully restored in the late 80s. The Pro-Am race is going on behind.

Day two, was a great day, we were able to watch a Pro-Am race from the restaurant, very civilized, we thought. Later, we had booked a time to go through the race museum, and after that Blair was able to meet Chris Nicolson, the skipper of the Vestas (Vestas makes all those huge wind turbines) boat, who was also the skipper of the boat Blair sailed last year. He asked Blair if the bunks were still as uncomfortable as in 2001. It was one of the things he had input for the boats in this race. When you only get to sleep in 4 hour shifts you need to have some comfort.

The Pro-Am race, one of the teams, SCA, is completely women.

Blair with Chris Nicolson, skipper of Team Vestas.

On our way to the Pension to shower and change before supper (we are still not used to the late suppers we are usually the first ones to the restaurants at 8:30 or so) we stopped for beer and chips on the beach, watched all kinds of sail boats enjoying the late afternoon breeze and walked back through the surf, trying not to be mean here :)

Beach view from restaurant.

The race start was not until 2 pm on the 11th. So we decided to check out the museum of contemporary art which was an almuddin grain silo) turned into an ultra modern building. Again this is an art gallery that is based on a donated collection of art. The basis of the collection was a group of prints that included works by Picasso, Chagall, Christo, Kandinsky and many more famous artists, quite impressive.

Little street on way to Art Gallery.

It was minutes to the race site from the gallery and as we arrived at 11:45 the first of the boats was pulling out to get into position for the 2 pm start. It was very crowded by the dock and the overhead walkway was quite empty, so we picked our spot and held it, was great.

Walkway after it got busy.

If you get a chance to see the start of the race on TV we are on the elevated metal walkway along the breakwater. Sharon was wearing a black and white ball cap. The helicopter got quite close a couple times and we were waving :)

Helicopter taking our picture. Notice swivelling TV camera off the nose.

The boats went up the beach,back, and around then left, it took an hour, was hard to see exactly what was going on with no jumbotron to watch, so hoping we can catch the start again on TV when we get back.

All seven boats starting the in port race.

It was really amazing to see all the boats big (Navy ship) to small (paddle boards) out to watch the beginning of the race and accompany them out of the harbour, they are now well on their way to Gibraltar, this leg ends in Capetown.

Abu Dhabi was second out of the harbour notice the destroyer and Aglaia forming a path for it.

 

SCA was last out...

After that we went to find lunch and it was tough as the cafés were all packed. We ended up sitting beside the Mayor of Newport RI and the head of tourism there. They are hosting the American stop of the Volvo Ocean Race in Newport in May and are quite excited to get the contract.

Sharon waiting for a table, very hungry and cranky, after the race.

We left Allicante on the 6:30 train bound for Valencia (pronounced Balenthia).

 

 

Posted with Blogsy