Dec 28th to 5th January 2010! Richard and Carrie came to stay!

We all got up quickly on the morning of the 29th of Dec and poor Carrie got an unfortunate initiation to the very occasionally cold showers up at the marina office, it always seems to be the girls showers that are cold, typical. We headed off for the metro and into the centre of town for a walk around. We got off the metro and walked around to show them the main centre, Placa Catalunya and Passeig de Gracia, we saw the Gaudi building Casa Batillo but decided not to bother with the queue to get in as it was massive.

Casa Batillo

Ali had some sight seeing of his own to do there, a big department store of the chain Service Estacio which is a shop that sells any thing you could ever think of from nuts and bolts to kitchen appliances and building materials I was particularly interested to find a little sign making dept where you could watch them making up all the same kinds of things I used to at Artmachine but thankfully without an audience!

We headed off to a bar to get a ‘menu del dia’ for lunch, great value for 2 courses, drinks and bread only 9.50 each and a supplementary euro if you wanted a pudding which none of us did by the time we were finished except for two little monkeys!

From there we headed to La Rambla which is the tourist centre to Barcelona, it runs from Placa Catalunya down to the seafront at Port Vell and is a large street with a central walkway filled with stalls, street artists and performers. We have been with the girls before and they love it but it always leaves us a little short of change as you have to give each performer some money before they will move! Alisha is sometimes a little afraid of them but Kaylee loves them all and the ruder the better! As you can see none of the adults were brave enough to pose....

We went into La Boqueria which is the huge market halfway down the Rambla where you can buy just about anything! Any kind of fruit, veg or meat you could think of is available including delicacies like sheep's whole head, brains or just eyes for sale the girls loved looking at all the different stuff and I did see one lady buy two sheep heads so they do get bought! At least the poultry etc was actually pre-killed at this market not like in Portugal……

Hot stuff!

We kept meandering down the street until we found an unlikely duo of Marie and Brian outside the Maritime museum, they told us it was half closed so not to bother with it and we didn’t. Ali went off with them to see a friend they had met at Badalona marina just north of Port Forum where we are. I took Richard, Carrie and the girls down to the seafront to see the Rambla del Mar and all the boats etc.
Then the lasses were starting to get a little miffed at walking around for so long so we all headed back and into the Diagonal Mar shopping centre to get something for tea (not that much as we were all pretty stuffed!) We had a fairly quiet night as we all knew New Years eve was fast approaching!

On the 30th we all headed on up to Marvin’s to meet up with the Shetland ‘gang’ and Marvin led us on a trip up Tibidabo hill at the back of Barcelona including trains buses and funiculars to get there, don’t know if we would have managed it on our own! At the top of the hill is a big church ‘Eglesia del Sagrat del Tibidabo’ and Spain’s oldest amusement park.

The height you are up the hill certainly adds another element of excitement to sedate rides like the big wheel as you realise that most of it actually protrudes over the huge drop below, not so enjoyable as one might think! Ali says it has some great views though, I could hardly look especially when the girls started fidgeting around.

The girls had a great day for everyone else it was just a chance to look at the view and eat overpriced soggy chips and drink overpriced beer, some who drank more than others….

.

We headed home then and Richard and Carrie went for a walk themselves after tea to do a bit of exploring - the mall! It was a shame as at home the January sales are well underway but they don’t start here until the 7th January after the Epiphany when gifts are traditionally given over here. It likely saved a few pounds in the long run!

The next day was New Years Eve and after a lot of conferring between ourselves and the others on the pontoon it was decided that we would all just have open house/boat that night as there wasn’t enough room to fit everyone and their visitors onto one boat (or so we thought whilst still sober….) Richard and Carrie kindly took the girls out rollerblading then to some of the numerous play parks around here to keep them out of the way whilst Ali and I cleaned the boat out and got food and drinks already for the festivities.

Ali and I decided to sneak for a lunch on our own at one of the many restaurants at the mall later on and it was so lovely and warm we sat outside for our lunch in just our jumpers! We ordered the menu del dia which was a great bargain at this place as we asked for wine, me red and Ali white and the waiter came and plonked a bottle each in front of us. ‘Aha we are not getting caught out with that one,’ we thought and asked if it was included in the menu price and the waiter said yes it was, it was just a damn pity that we still had a lot to do and we only drank one glass leaving the rest of the bottles behind very reluctantly! The meal was very good with friendly service too and we thought we would definitely be back again, the whole bill was only 21 euros for wine, bread, olives, two courses each and coffee.

We all got back, to the boat and made the obligatory Hogmanay pots of soup although we didn’t have any Reestit Mutton as I thought asking Richard to take some out may have been a favour too far, it is pretty stinky after all! Marie had made some home bakes and stuff too which Brain and Marvin delivered on the Harley in the afternoon.

The first party of the night was on Fergus’s boat and we all sat on deck freezing our butts off eating wild boar pate on toasted baguettes, fois gras, marinated peppers and other delicacies which made me cringe a little at the soup, frozen snacks and cocktail sticks which I had loaded on the boat for our turn later….. Carrie and I returned to our boat with the girls who were frozen to the bone and put them to bed at about ten and we had decided that everyone should come to ours for the bells since we couldn’t leave them. EVERYONE did come for the bells, Marvin, Gemma, Marie and Brian all roared up on their motorbike and moped at about half ten and Ingrid and Ton arrived and then Mike, Toni, Alistair and Andrew from next door Ali came back with the entire crew of Fergus’s boat too which included a lot of French visitors too. Thank goodness for Carrie for helping me with the drinks and food etc as by the time we had done one round of the boat it was time to turn around and start back at the other end of the boat again!

Ali was sitting on deck playing guitar to two young French girls and would shout for rum every five minutes which I politely ignored most of the time thinking he had maybe had enough already. It was hard work and we only realised at five to twelve to get the bubbly and grenadine out and raced around trying to find enough glasses to put it all in!

The Bells The Bells

We managed and everyone went out into the cockpit for the bells there were 23 people on deck and Ali had the foghorn out, the girls were sleeping in our cabin directly below and didn’t wake up at all, another minor miracle although by this point I think they were getting quite used to parties. Our little fog horn efforts inspired the crews of the big super yachts who all raced from the bar to their boats and soon out blasted us! It was a very good fun with all the kissing and hugging associated with a well oiled Hogmanay! Poor Gemma was driving home and had to put up with this rather amorous farewell from Ali which he only remembered on seeing the photos later….



Yes those are Ali's infamous red breeks, Shetland wasn't ready for them but Barcelona was (in his opinion.....)

About half an hour after the bells everyone ran to help tie up a couple of the boats which were swinging around wildly in the swell that had built up Fergus’s in particular, so much so that one of his guests who wanted to go for a sleep was feeling very seasick and had to come back over to ours as it was tied up more tightly, poor thing not a nice position to be in I think I would have gone to sleep in the car! As all the ‘men’ were working with ropes we heard a big snap, Fergus’s gangplank had broken in two. After a half hour or so of discussing and changing ropes they all came back and the party got well under way again.

Toni had brought over three kinds of pasta salads and the ill French lady brought a big pot of Chicken Columbo over which meant I didn’t really have to start cooking any of my lowly frozen goods or the soup as there was just too much on the table already and most people seemed to be looking for more liquid than solid refreshment. Fergus surprised me by asking me to fill a glass up with water for him I said “really?!” he said yes then could you pour it out and fill it up with whisky!

Marvin always keeps the party going!

The guitars were out in force and there were even some printed song lyrics doing the rounds so the singing wasn’t all too bad! Later when people wanted other songs Alisdaire from next door got his iphone out to look them up on the internet , high tech or what? It is just a shame there is still no gadget to get my voice into tune! There is a little video at the bottom of the page - ahem! At around four the party eventually moved up to the bar on the pier, which meant I could get tidied up and get to bed where Ali had been as usual for an hour or so already…..

In the bar

At around 8am we were woken by a lot of laughing from Marie, Brian, Marvin and Richard returning from their revelries, one had fallen waist height into the sea, naming no names…. And they were all high as kites, after the bar had closed at 7am they had all managed to con their way onto one of the big yachts who was having a party Richard and Marvin had sneaked all through it and had even been jumping on the Master Cabin’s bed oh dear! Kaylee got up too and was a source of entertainment jumping on poor Marvin’s belly when he was trying to have a neeb on the couch. We fed them all beer and soup to fortify them for the metro journey across town which I think was very comical

.No need for captions for these pics....

We all had a fairly quiet day poor Richard wasn’t feeling very well at all so we postponed the planned trip to the Magic Fountains spending the day eating up the unused soup and frozen snacks - yum there is nothing like hangover food! The only problem was the wind which had picked up considerably and all the boats were swinging we had to wake up next door to get our boats further apart as the rigging was coming perilously close on some gusts! It wasn’t the best conditions to have a hangover in so I was glad I had probably drank less than anyone else the night before, for once.

Richard Carrie and I took the girls for a walk down the seafront with the girls on the Saturday and we saw this guy doing Tai Chi on the waterfront - very zen.

We found a lot of remnants of what must have been a new years party with a difference. There were the used remains of lots of huge roman candle fireworks and strangely loads of empty McDonald's containers with a few beer cans in between.

One of the wild cats we found living in the gaps of the breakwater just south of Port Forum, they looked considerably less mangy than the ones in the sea wall in Cadiz!

There are loads of play parks along the seafront and it actually got a little wearing having to stop at every one until we came to the Parc Diagonal mar where we found some really great toys in amongst the architecture, some were big bell or whistle pads that you could jump on to make 'music' see video below.

Parc Diagonal Mar

Fake Palm Trees?

We had arranged to go out for a meal in Gracia where Martin lives as it was Marie and Brian’s last night. Toni from next door kindly agreed to babysit. So we got to go out without the girls a phenomenon for us. We took Richard and Carrie to see the Magic Fountains first which the girls were a little miffed about as they had really wanted to go with us but they were very excited about Toni coming over so they didn’t kick up too much of a fuss. Whilst there for the second time I realised that each run of lights has a different music track behind it the funniest was the eighties section as ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ just didn’t sit well with the lights and the water it was a little cheesy…..

We got up to Gracia and watched the end of the Barcelona football game which was on at Marvin and Gemma’s (both being big Barca fans) before we went out to a local restaurant. The food was good Gemma ordered a mixture of starters for us all to share which were all nice and we had nice main meals too washed down by not too much wine! It was a fine night and there was lots of conversation and laughs, there is a pic on Marie’s blog I didn’t have my camera out so here is the link:

http://enjahtravels.blog.co.uk/

The next day we thought we better get on with some sightseeing. First we waited for Marie and Brian to say goodbye when they came to get their van and head off back to Marseille. It has been a very good fun having them around for Xmas and New Year but now all our livers were needing a well earned rest! Hopefully we will bump into them again on our travels next year as it sounds as if we are heading in roughly the same direction.

We headed off intending to get the cable car that runs across the harbour to Montjuic but it seemed to be closed so we just walked around that away instead.

It was a fair old hike up the hill to the first level so we stopped for a coffee at the look out point where you get a great view of the city centre.

Then we headed further up the hill and caught the cable car that was working to the top and went for a look around Montjuic Castle it has great views of the commercial harbour entrance although the light was going so the pictures aren’t great.

We thought we better zip back down the hill but we got a little waylaid with the play parks on the way down

and then realised we were a little lost. There were loads of smashed up cars parked all around the hill so make a mental note if you ever come to Barcelona in a car DO NOT leave it in Monjuic Park! We spied a bus and although we didn’t know where it was going we thought it would be easier to get home from anywhere in town than the park. Luckily we got off when we were very near the red metro line and could get home quite easily. Richard and Carrie wanted to go and see the Sagrida Familiar and so I showed them the route on the metro map gave them our street map and hoped we would see them again later! They did turn up after some walking in the rain and shopping having walked the whole way from the Sagrida back to the boat via the shopping centre!

The Sagrida Familiar and the Agbar Tower at night taken by Richard and Carrie

On Richard and Carrie’s last day we decided to go into the town centre again but getting off the metro a few stops early so we could walk through the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Arc de Triomf before going into the old part of town.

Arc de Triomf

We had lunch in a café near to Placa Nova which was OK but a little more pricey being in the centre of town and it also being the biggest shopping day of the year before Epiphany we were lucky to find anywhere to eat at all.

Even this was beginning to look tasty but unfortuantely it is all made of towels!

The city was just packed. We walked around the Cathedral (above) and Richard and Carrie had a kiss under the kissing gate which is supposed to mean they will get married, didn't get a photo but there are witnesses!!

The 'kissing gate'

After that we walked through to the Born district and were totally ripped of after being persuaded by a guy to pay 7.50 each to go into the mammoth museum. It consisted of only two small rooms with a couple for mammoth skeletons and reproductions, a cave bear a woolly rhinoceros and a few bits of bones, not the best deal! It was interesting just not 7.50 worth of interesting!

Some (nearly all!) of the artefacts.

The Born district is a lovely old area full of cafes shops and galleries etc it is supposed to be quite good at night too, maybe we will find out one night….

Passeig de Born

We headed off back home to have our last night together as Richard and Carrie had to go the next morning, we had a couple of drams to say good bye but not too much as we had to be up early.

This is Kaylee posing after Carrie made her up she was delighted with herself!

I took Richard and Carrie on the arduous route across the city to the airport via metro, train and bus which takes two hours and we got there just in time to say goodbye before they had to rush off through security. We nearly made a big boo boo on the way there as we almost got on a high speed train to Valencia rather than the airport train, now that would not have been good! Left the airport feeling kinda sad it was great having family out to visit and hopefully Richard and Carrie might come out next winter when we are in Turkey - go on it’ll be warmer!

I quite enjoyed the run back across town as I had plenty of time to read my book a rare pleasure when you have kids, book reading is usually confined to night time when you are so tired you fall asleep. Richard and Carrie only got as far as Aberdeen and then the weather closed in and they had to spend the night there and get an extra day off work, don't think they were too upset!

The rest of the day we just did the washing and were waiting excitedly for the Three Kings Parade in town at night and I’ll do my next blog post on that in the next couple of days, honest! It was truly spectacular.