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.

Barcelona most of December....

It’s been a peerie while since I updated this old blog….. Partly due to joining face book and mucking around with that, partly due to not being able to get anywhere near the computer since Alisha discovered Barbie.com and mainly due to just having too much fun! Today I am stuck in the boat with Kaylee who spent the whole night last night spewing. Poor Alistair woke up the first time with her spewing over his head! Not a nice way to wake up. Anyway here is the blog…..

We have made firm friends with the other boats wintering along the pontoon with us now. There is a Dutch couple called Ingrid and Ton in their boat Xelha which is beautiful and they made it themselves!! Wow. They have been sailing around the med for 6 years now and are a fountain of knowledge for us, we will be grilling them before we leave in the spring! Next to them is Fergus and his Irish party boat called Spirit of Australia, we call it the party boat as it is always full of Irish men, or French women and there seems to be a free flowing tap of Irish whisky in there! Next along and our immediate neighbours are Mike and Toni and their boys Alisdair and Andrew onboard Elysian, another small world coincidence there is that Alisdair was working with a yacht chartering company in Greece last summer with none other than Magnus Johnston who did the Yachtmaster course at the NAFC at the same time as me two years ago! The last over winterer is Kristor from Sweden who has a big catamaran at the end of the pontoon. There are three other boats, a huge Italian catamaran and a local yacht and a ‘club boat’ which means it is taken out by various club members and as anyone boaty can imagine having the boat next to you being tied up and steered by people who don’t own it is not the best neighbour to have! (imagine loose halyards banging away all night, being bashed in the side as they ‘manoeuvre’ into place)

The main diversions in December has been numerous sprees and a lot of sight seeing as we thought we better familiarise ourselves fully with the city before the onslaught of visitors began at New Year!

We were invited over for dinner at the local Shetlander in Barcelona Marvyn Johnson (from Bells road.) His girlfriend Gemma who is from Barcelona had laid on a lovely three course meal and we had a great time getting to know them. Gemma gave us a run down of Catalonian history which was very interesting as I must admit to being fairly ignorant on European politics/history. We had to say goodnight before we wanted to but it a long way back on the metro with a couple of changes which are best done without too much wine aboard! Alistair noticed Marvyn has a Takkamin (not sure of spelling although I should be as it has spent about a month on our boat) guitar and made him promise to take it down to the party we were planning the next weekend…..

Alistair’s birthday was at the beginning of Dec and the girls and I had a fun trying to bake the first ever cake in our little gas oven. I opted for a packet mix as I couldn’t figure out which flour to buy in the supermarket and managed somehow to pick a lemon cake. It made no difference how the cake tasted in the end as the girls entirely drenched it in purple icing, marshmallows and sprinkles!



Ali’s birthday began on the night before when we invited Richard a long term crew member of Fergus’s boat over for a few drinks, feeling a little rough Alistair managed to smile whilst the girls bounced on top of him singing Happy birthday the next morning….

We invited Toni and Mike from next door for some cake and coffee in the afternoon when the girls got back from nursery which we had on deck as it was nice and warm even though it was the beginning of December.



That night we took the girls up to see the Magic Fountains as we wanted a quiet night before the party we had planned for the Saturday! The magic fountains are huge fountains just off the Placa Espanya where the water is coloured and makes different patterns in time to the rhythm of music. We managed to take a wrong turn when we got off the metro and walked the whole way around the Placa which is a huge roundabout. This did not amuse the girls at all and we were going to call it a night when we saw the fountains (if only we had looked behind us when we came above ground!) The girls were entirely mesmerised I thought they were going to end up in the fountain at one point, the pictures and video clip don’t do it justice but if you ever come to Barcelona at the weekend make sure you go and see the fountains. The music however was a little odd at times, ranging from classical to eighties pop and atmospheric trance music Annie Lennox being the first song to greet us as we walked up the avenue. There is a video clip below of the fountains. The Barcelona art museum sits behind the magic fountains and is all lit up too with light beams projecting out into the night sky.


The next day was party day and we had invited Marvyn and his girlfriend Gemma over for dinner before the party started to try and fill our bellies so we would manage a major night! Gemma wasn’t feeling well so we invited Kristor over to eat her portion, the wine was flowing freely through dinner so we soon abandoned the idea of pudding in favour of more drinks. It is amazing how you revert back to form when in the company of other Shetlanders! The boat soon filled up and it turned out that nearly everyone around here drinks straight whiskey, We had a couple of bottle of malt onboard which disappeared in a flash before we had to raid Fergus’s whiskey store! I got a bit too tipsy to remember to get out most of the snacks I had stored away but it was OK because Fergus’s girlfriend Margo came over with a big pot of sausage rice at about 3 am!


The night was a great success with lots of guitar playing and singing, it became apparent Marvyn is a bit of a professional entertainer as he can keep playing all night unlike Ali who falls by the wayside after a certain point as any of our neighbours at home can vouch for!

One particular memory of the night was a rousing rendition of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ Ali and Marvyn on guitars Richard on lead vocals with a back up cast of all of the rest of us and table beating for percussion!

It was a fun night although I was brought sharply back to reality when Kaylee got up it being 7am and I hadn‘t managed to get to my bed yet….. Amazingly they had slept through the whole thing a talent they have demonstrated on a few occasions since then! Poor things having silly parents like us.

The rest of December passed by with some sight seeing, we went to the Sagrada Familia a huge cathedral designed by Gaudi which is still under construction only to be completely finished in 2030. The architecture is ‘organic’ which appears to mean that most of the inspiration for it comes from things found in nature, much of it has similarities to plants, honey combs etc. We went up the lift in one of the spires which gives you a great view of the surrounding area. Kaylee wanted to go back down by the stairs so I went with her which was OK at first as we had a wall at either side of us but about half way down (30 metres up) the interior wall disappeared and there was a hole all the way down to the bottom. Not good if you don’t like heights like me! We managed to get down by me going backwards one hand on the rail and the other firmly around Kaylee’s wrist and her following me carefully, it was a bit gut churning, my legs felt a little like jelly when we got down to the bottom. The other side of the building is a huge prtrayal of the nativity scene all in stone you could look at it for ages and pick out different bits, if you didn't have two grumpy little girls with you that is! I liked the building but Ali thought it was unnecessary crazy architecture which only had the aim to be different, I suspect there are many who would disagree.

A few more quieter boat parties up and down the pontoon occurred about twice weekly through the month, we soon learned that if you open a bottle of spirits around here there is no point in expecting there to be any left the next day! It is always drunk to the bottom thankfully for me I have been abstaining (from spirits) and so was feeling a lot better most of the time than Ali who definitely was not abstaining from anything!

The girls were going to a small nursery which to be honest is the most disorganised place I have ever seen but then maybe that’s because all I have to compare it with is the excellently run Whiteness nursery. This place has a similar amount of kids some quite young but the staff to child ratio is about 1 to four and still they apparently managed to leave a three year old in the park…… and this is a fee paying nursery…. Shetland has a tip top education system and nobody can dispute that!

The real party season started when Brian Leask and Marie Fullerton came through from Marseilles where they have their boat Enjah berthed for the winter. They have a blog too, here is the link : You will get another account of their visit to Barcelona there and probably a few more photos, hopefully none too incriminating!! Marie does the blogging for Enjah and I can only read in awe at her attention to detail as I have usually forgotten most of what has gone on b the time I come to write! Marie and Brian stayed with Marvyn and Gemma and arrived at our boat on Tues the 22nd Dec to discuss the Christmas dinner, all we managed was to drink the boat dry of rum once again and the boys even polished off the bottle of French aniseed liqueur Marie and Brian had bought us for Christmas……. It was a great night swapping sailing stories and singing before all the boys fell by the wayside…. I could put up a video clip for this but I think this photo gives an impression of what the evening was like!


We had a bit of a panic the next day as Marie and Brian had left their van in the marina car park as we get a space included with our berth and it is supposedly secure…. When we left the boat we saw that the van was gone and couldn’t believe they had driven it across Barcelona in the state they were in. Ali went along Marvyn’s on the way to Alisha’s dentist appointment and Marvyn informed him they had not driven the van home. OH NO we thought it must have been stolen! We couldn’t get Brian on the phone so we concluded his phone must be in the stolen van, I was despatched to the marina office to ask if there was any way it would have been towed away, no was the answer so the office girls got the security guys to start looking through the video tapes. Half an hour later…..Ali phoned to say panic over, they had actually driven the van around the marina to cut the walking distance as it was raining and Marvyn just couldn’t remember…. I quickly ran back to the marina office to apologise profusely and explain what a bunch of drunken idiots we all were! That was embarrassing to say the least!

Christmas eve was spent purchasing the last pressies/Christmas dinner and we felt fairly prepared by bed time with only a couple of things to attend to whilst the girls were asleep……

There was great joy on Christmas morning once the girls finally woke up (as usual I was awake way before anyone else too excited to sleep thinking of their reactions to what Santa had brought!) They were delighted with their haul and understood that Santa knew they are living on a boat and so only bought smallish things that can pack away easily when we set off to sea again - thoughtful guy that he is;-)


Marie and Brian had given the lasses cocktail dresses for the Barbies which caused great delight as did the Shetland flag from Tess and Dennis Enjah’s other crew members it had a pointy stick which they used to play musketeers with.



We got on with preparing the dinner until we were summoned for pre dinner mince pies with rum butter, shortbread and a glass or two of sherry on the deck of Toni and Mike’s boat next door. Yes I said on deck it was a lovely sunny morning and actually quite warm I was sitting with just a tee-shirt on and didn’t feel cold, or was that the sherry?!

We returned to finish off cooking the dinner, we had bought a stuffed turkey crown as it would fit into our tiny oven and were surprised to find it had cooked through so at least we wouldn’t be poisoning our guests! Brian and Marie arrived a little after we expected them so we quickly go stuck into the starters, fizzy wine with grenadine to turn it a festive pink (a drink discovered first at Frank and Lesley’ 25th wedding anniversary last year another good spree!) We got stuck into the dinner which Brain and Marie were very polite about but as far as I was concerned it was all a bit burnt or cold but it was as good as we could do with two small rings and a tiny oven! Marie had taken the pudding over and after a small break we munched our way through that too the lasses miraculously regaining their appetites!

We put in a Skype call to Frank and Lesley’s house where Ali’s mum and dad were for Christmas dinner it is a great thing to be able to see and speak to people so far away. Alisha gave a great performance of ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ to all at Twatt.


Marvyn arrived just as we were serving after dinner coffees and so Christmas descended into another night of singing and mayhem from then. Ali went over and got Ingrid and Ton from their boat as they usually go home for the festivities but had decided to stay as the weather reports for here were a bit dodgy.

We had a good night with more singing and guitar playing Ali and Marvyn now really complementing each other on each song. The only problem was that we don’t know enough of each song to be able to sing them properly (except for Marvyn who can sing and play the EXTENDED version of ‘this is the road to hell’ by Chris Rea and boy is it extended!) Marvyn and Marie did ‘Rowin Foula Doon’ but he refused to play the Up Helly Aa song for us - too cheesy apparently! The night got later and later until the others decided it was time to get a taxi home which unfortunately we couldn’t get by phone and so they set off to get a taxi from the security guard at the gate who wasn't there..... So they all stayed at Port Forum for the night until the metro started running again and we gave them coffee and toast to fortify them for the journey home in the morning.

Boxing day was spent feeling a little rougher than usual but we watched Snow White that the girls had got from Santa and I think I enjoyed it as much as they did! The boat was fairly flying around with the swell all day and making us all a bit dizzy but we probably deserved it.

The next night we invited Toni, Mike and the boys over for a wee dram which thankfully was a quieter night even after Marie and Brian turned up after walking the whole way here from Gracia!

My brother Richard and his partner Carrie were arriving the next day and we went up to Marvyn and Gemmas for a lovely Spanish style buffet lunch Gemma had made. We all walked up to Park Guell which is near Marvyn and Gemma’s flat. It is a park designed again by Gaudi and is really quite amazing, my camera ran out of batteries so look on Enjah’s blog if you want to see any pics. We walked up to the top of the park which was exercise enough for me but Marie had run to the top the day before! Kaylee walked Anouk (Marvin’s Alaskan Malamut) to the top of the hill or rather Anouk walked Kaylee!

We went on the trek across Barcelona to get Richard and Carrie which involves the underground, an overground train and then a bus between terminals we managed to be very jammy with the trains and got into each just before it left meaning we didn’t have a half hour wait for the next as that would have made us late. The lasses were up to ninety hanging over the barriers at arrivals waiting for ‘Uncew Wichard and Auntie Cawwie’ - Kaylee still can’t pronounce Rs or Ls. After some hugs and kisses we made the trek back to the boat which takes just under two hours as the airport is at the opposite end of Barcelona from the marina, stopping only to buy a few celebratory beers!

We had a couple of drams to welcome our guests but not too much as we had major sightseeing to do!

I think that’s enough for now the next entry will have all the gory details from New Year’s Eve, this boat has never had so many people onboard! Also some pics from the parade of the Three Kings here in Barcelona on the 5th a truly amazing spectacle.

Ali’s mum and Dad and Daniel are here now and we are all hoping none of the rest of us pick up Kaylee’s bug as there are seven people on board and only one small toilet, not nice if we all start spewing! We are off up to the French Pyrenees at the weekend to do a bit of skiing. That should be interesting as I’ve never done it before and neither has the girls but we’re game which is half the battle and gravity should help out too!