....phew, Barcelona - just!!

We made it!!

Didn't enjoy the bout of wind! Made it to Barcelona though, and met with Jill and John. Pam flies in today (23 Dec)so off to the airport now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All.


Email addresses below:

tim dot whitehouse at yahoo dot co dot uk (spelled so that the nasty "bots" can't get me loads of junk mail)

sam dot pollard at yahoo dot co dot uk

Gibraltar

Gibraltar….and its straits. Overnight sail from Cadiz which was well timed but we still found ourselves in, what can only be described as a ‘washing machine’. The straits are very deep but the Med tries to leave twice a day through them! In other words we found some interesting currents….underwear wasn’t needed or was very wet for this passage!

On the rock itself we decided to climb to the top via the Mediterranean Steps which took between 3 – 4 hours and was quite onerous. On the way up we were overtaken by Elvis and some groupies who were doing the climb everyday for 12 days for charity uh huh. At the summit were the famous apes who were sooooo cute and photogenic

Gib is more British than Britain although they do drive on the wrong side of the road. Shop hours are just like home, no siestas and lots of fish and chip shops. It is hard to imagine fitting more bars and pubs into a small space – what a shame Tim has given up alcohol for a week (tee hee)

Cadiz

Cadiz, now you’re talking….we likened it to Venice (minus the gondolas and waterways) as it was a maze of narrow cobbled streets and tall buildings, many of which were merchant houses and as seen in some of the photos. The layout of a typical merchant house was ground floor for entry and courtyard, first floor mezzanine with lower ceilings for work and higher floors above were for living and finally the tower on the top to watch ‘your’ ships coming home. Cadiz had 160 towers at one point and a restriction was placed on building new ones! (only 126 remain).

The Cathedral took from 1722 to 1853 to complete, so any building delays you might have suffered are minor in comparison. Buildings around the cathedral were demolished so as not to detract from the impression of size and space. Near the Cathedral we discovered a Roman Theatre which was equally impressive in a different way.

The market was in a temporary building, but its content was superb. We shopped there as often as we could, the only drawback being the 25 min walk back to Lusty Wench.

Chipiona

Chipiona was quite a delightful seaside town and we stayed here about 4 nights which were spent on a marina as there wasn’t an alternative….also enjoyed the luxury of constant hot water, everlasting electricity and stepping off the boat rather than boarding Bernard…..bliss

Ayamonte

>Having reluctantly left the towns of Alcoutim and Sanlucar 18 miles up the river Guadiana we stopped off in Ayamonte at the mouth of the river. We spent about 10 days here and did the old exploring thing when we were lucky enough to be able to moor our dinghy (Bernard).

We found the marina didn’t really want us landing there so we tried the public steps opposite and came back one time just soon enough to prevent a thief pinching Bernard…..Tim was soooo manly and had a colourful command of Anglo-Saxon….need we say more?