In which Sid and Doris have a driving day with no hills.
The fact that Spanish traffic cameras can’t read Hermann’s plate mean that getting away from the underground car park requires help. Doris explains to the attendant with Google translate, which he loves very much.
We leave Murcia for Catalonia, a somewhat more autonomous region if not quite as autonomous as many Catalans would like. Catalonia became part of Spain in 1714 having backed the wrong team in the War of the Spanish Succession. Sid needs to write the brief paragraph that explains this mystery. [For your edification, Catalonia is the purple triangle in the top right of this map, plus probably a bit of France – D.]
We enjoy a love-fest up the motorway as people wave, toot and take Hermann’s photo while overtaking very slowly, much to the irritation of the French and Swiss cars who are now trying to zoom past on their way home. It’s a busy busy business being a French/Swiss holidaymaker.
There are no other hobby cars out until we see a Renault Spider, complete with optional windscreen. (Picture from Wikipedia, to whom we do give money every month. Not, on this occasion, pirates.) Even so, this Spider will be soundly beaten for Conveyance of the Day. Just see the boats and trucks below,
Once in Barcelona the route to the drop zone outside the hotel involves a walking pace trip up the pavement with many photographers following (as we had got onto the pedestrian parquet a bit further up the road). Sadly, and somewhat mysteriously given the fan crowd, we are not allowed just to leave Hermann outside for the two days we are here. But our valet parker does offer the reassurance that he has had a BMW 2002. So that’s OK.
A top contender for Transport Of The Day will be the whole of the Rosa Circo Raluy, who have gone to great efforts to source a wide variety of charming circus wagons.
Sid has a quick [? – D.] look and soon finds a Franco era Hispano Suiza Pegasus truck and perhaps an Opel Blitz. More to follow on this.
But in the marina basin is Eos, three masted and with three headsails and unknown amounts of mizzens. The main sails are in-mast furled. You can see the high pressure pipe work for the hydraulic jib twizzlers, although looking at the sheer amount of Stuff above the waterline we are guessing that this boat is intended for downwind sailing only. Also whichever headsail you are using a gybe/tack will require it to be hydraulically twizzled and untwizzled which we are betting is not a speedy operation.
Eos was built by Lurssen, is 93 metres long (nine times longer than Mark and Carolyn’s they won’t mind Sid saying) and will sail at 16 knots max (maybe 2.5 times quicker). So we can guess that Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg did not have speed as a priority. But they can take more guests. Or indeed they can leave it in Barcelona over the winter while they do whatever the Furstenbergs do somewhere else. We also return in the morning to admire the multi-anchor system which holds the boat well off that nasty unforgiving quayside thus repelling boarders and protecting the shiny blue paint in one easy movement.
[The definition of “easy” is obviously fairly wide, as the anchor/rope system looks like it took many hours of hard work to set up.] [Reminds me of the definition of “gruelling work” which for some office workers requires an end-of-day cheese and wine party in the Downing Street garden, and for some health professionals results in ulcerated sores on their faces as they work with intensive care patients while wearing full PPE, having to live in caravans in order not to infect their family, and not being able to find fresh food in the stores after the end of their shifts. End of rant – D.]
On the same dock we find the inappropriately-named motor vessel Zen, out of Georgetown, which turns out to be a Feadship. Not a small battleship as you might have thought. It is owned by a Chinese billionaire with yearly running costs of around $20,000,000, can take 16 guests looked after and sailed by 25 crew. But it is only 88 metres long.
Sid is essentially a romantic and gives the circus Conveyance of the Day.
In Barcelona Sid and Doris are staying on the front where some of the buildings were originally warehouses or misc commercial. In this very building Picasso had a studio and Doris has this picture of a picture. Painted in 1897 it won the gold medal at a show in Malaga and is now in the Barcelona Picasso museum.
Sid last saw this picture in 1975 when he visited Barcelona by train with some American girls he met singing impromptu carols in a Paris park. Franco was not long dead and the town was a grimy port. Sid had with him a copy of Homage to Catalonia, still banned in Spain at the time. The budget was tiny so Sid’s room was about the size of Hermann’s parking space, the walls were hardboard with no window and the loo down the hall. The Hotel Serras is really nice: we have a window and a bar where we can sort out our 21st century postcard. And they have organised our distinctly 21st century antigen test without which we will not be allowed back onto the ferry to Plague Island. [Before you ask: we are required to test negative, not positive.]
Dinner on our first night here is less glam than the Serras as it is time for Doris to have a burger and beer at the Black Lab brewery. Sid knows when it is time. The staff, dogs, beer and grub are all charming. It’s probably just like that on Eos and Zen – once the owners have gone.
Damn Feadship owners…