Dearest Friends and Family,

Happy April Fool's Day or.... since I can't help but noticing in this Catholic land of a million churches, Happy Palm Sunday, too! It's hard to believe that we've been back in Barcelona for a whole 3 months! The time has just flown by. It's been an unusually social winter.... not just with our dock friends, but with visiting family and friends -- something that doesn't happen very often! Our routine of walking Zoey, going to the market for the day's meal requirements, preparing meals, cleaning, weekly visits to the laundromat, doing a "walk-about" with or without Zoey, writing, reading, playing Spider Solitaire, not to mention selecting and captioning photos and writing the occasional ChaliGram, pretty much takes up the whole day. Living on a boat during very cold temperatures was something we hadn't experienced before. I think the first 2 weeks of February were colder here than in the east coast of the USA, but now, happily, we are having consistently warm days and cool nights. We had both of our electric heaters running all day, and sometimes even at night! I dread our utility bill.

SO! where to start. Well the highlights would definitely be the visits from friends and family, starting with my old college pal from Georgetown U., Anna, and her husband Klaus who live in Luxembourg. They flew down for a weekend, and Anna and I picked up right where we left off 35 years ago. perhaps MORE so, since we had more time together than we usually did in and between classes so many years ago. It was lots of fun, and the weather cooperated, so we had a nice Barcelona-Walkabout. Klaus is looking for a boat for when he eventually retires. The following weekend, our son Jonathan came to Barcelona to attend the Mobile World Congress -- the annual convention of all things mobile -- representing AT&T. He came a day early, so we had some time to visit onboard ChaliVentures as well as doing a Barcelona Walkabout. We felt lucky that he was able to squeeze in another couple of visits during the conference. It was great to see him! In case you're wondering why We/friends spend so much time doing a "Barcelona WalkAbout," is because it's the most beautiful and interesting city I've ever been in. Whether it's the ancient narrow streets and old gothic or roman buildings and cathedrals in the "old city," or the hip new Born district, or the shishi, upscale and gorgeous "Eixample" district full of Gaudi and other modernist buildings, statues and streetlamps, or even our own humble neighborhood of Barceloneta, which was once the area where the fishermen and factory workers lived. The architecture is just gorgeous..... even if it's NOT by a famous modernist. And there are lots of trees, and lots of great eating establishments to pop into. *sigh*. I could easily imagine living here. Next on the social calendar was the arrival of my new-found cousins Steven and Naomi Somkin. (I say new-found, because I "discovered them" during the course of my genealogy research back in 2008.) They hosted the first 2 "Marcus Cousins Reunion," so we were delighted to reciprocate their hospitality by having them onboard ChaliVentures. We converted our garage back into its originally intended quarter berth. What I didn't realize was that although the bed was big enough -- barely -- for 2 people, getting in and out of the bed while the other person was already in bed, was a bit of a challenge. Doing a backwards somersault would have been the ideal exit strategy.... though not terribly practical. Understandably, from such intimacy (4 people living on a 40' boat!!!???) we got to know each other very well, and became good friends! As luck would have it, we had more rain during their first 2 days than we've had all winter! But never mind. That's what umbrellas are for, right? The sun eventually DID come out, and as Steven said while sipping on some Cava during afternoon happy hour in our warm, sunny cockpit, "THIS IS MORE LIKE IT!" Our boat was scheduled to be hauled out on March 26th for her annual anti-fouling paint. As this was still during their visit, we took advantage of this time to rent a car and go explore the province of Catalunya, specifically Vic -- a nice medieval town, Figueres -- home of the Salvador Dalí Museum and Theatre which was loaded with works of the master of Surrealism, and finally Girona -- a beautiful town with lots of historic buildings, and a picturesque river running through it. The biggest adventure was just getting out and back into Barcelona! So, this past week has been very very busy, what with having ChaliVentures hauled out, going off on a roadtrip, getting ChaliVentures re-launched, then back into the marina.

Besides the visits, we also went on 2 other road trips with dock-friends Ben and Eliza. The first trip was to Valencia. This was particularly interesting to me, since I lived there in 1971-72 while attending the Universidad de Valencia as a sophomore-year-abroad. This was when Franco was still in power, and Spain was very poor, and considered a real backwater of Europe. I don't know if it's just because I was 19-20 and not paying attention, or if indeed, there was so much dirt on the buildings that made them invisible, but I was SHOCKED to see what a beautiful city Valencia was. It was clean; the beautifully architected buildings were sparkling; a definite competitor to Barcelona! And I had never noticed. Plus the old riverbed now contains the stunning and futuristic "City of Arts and Sciences," which consists of 5 buildings, some of which look like 1/Darth Vadar's helmut, 2/the bow of a sinking ship, and 3/a ship rolled on its side. I keep meaning to look up what the architects intended, but that's what it looked like to us. The architects of this 1990's project were Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela. See for yourself in the photos, or look it up on the internet. just EXTRAORDINARY!!! On the way back from Valencia, we stopped in Teruel, in the province of Aragon, known for its christian-mudejar (moorish) architecture. A lovely town....very picturesque. Our second roadtrip with Ben and Eliza was up to the Basque Country. On the way, we spent 2 days in gorgeous Zaragoza, celebrating my 60th year (YIKES! HOW DID IT HAPPEN??!!), drove around La Rioja wine country; spent a day in Vitoria Gasteiz, 3 days in Bilbao, then back along the southern edge of the Pyrenees to Barcelona. A great trip. If we'd had more time, we would have gone to Santander to the west and San Sebastian to the east of Bilbao. oh well. next time. The language of the Basque region is not like anything I've ever seen. It has no relation to any of the romance/latin-based languages. Linguists aren't sure of its origins.....perhaps one of the original Iberian tribes' language, with a little Celt thrown in. Of course the most spectacular building in Bilbao is a Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art built in the 1990's. Very modern. Very metallic.

So we've had lots of delightful breaks from our normal "humdrum" routine (albeit in one of the most gorgeous cities in the world.) ChaliVentures has also had lots of investment this winter to keep us occupied and shelling out the bucks: a new mainsail, repaired refrigeration system, engine repairs, liferaft and other safety equipment servicing, a new membrane in our @#$%@$% watermaker. I think at this point, after all the money we've poured into this damned watermaker, each glass of water probably costs about $100.00... or more. (Don't ask the obvious question!) BUT.... where we're headed this year (Italy) there aren't laundromats in every harbour town, so we'll need water so i can do the laundry by hand. again. ugh. I've been so spoiled.

We expect to leave Barcelona sometime mid April. Our winter contract expires on April 9th, so anytime thereafter that we have a good weather window to do a 20 hour passage east/southeast to Mallorca, we'll do it. We've already arranged for our winter contract for 2012-2013 to be in Marina di Ragusa in Southeast Sicily, so at least we know where we're ending up. It's a new marina, and they're offering huge discounts, so our cost will be less than 25% of what we've spent THIS year! We'll need it. Balance, balance, balance. It's also where lots of our friends who were in Marmaris, Turkey have migrated to. So, between now and October, we'll be cruising to Mallorca, Menorca, maybe Corscia, Sardinia, maybe parts of mainland Italy, and a quick stop to Tunisia before settling in to Sicily. We'll know where .... when it happens. We look forward to a rendez-vous with our pals Sandy and Martin, whom we haven't seen since May 2010 when we left Turkey. Plus, we're expecting a visit from my little sister, and hopefully my cousin Katherine.

It's another beautiful, warm, sunny Sunday in Barcelona which means the street performers are out in force. There's the bossa nova sort of band; then there are the "ring people," who do unimaginable feats inside of a spinning ring, like a giant hula-hoop. Extraordinary balance and strength. I've actually given money to THEM. Farther on down is a magician. This is all on the promenade just outside the marina gates. Zillions of people walking, another zillion on every kind of wheeled vehicle known to man: bicycles, skateboards, inline skates, and Segways (2-wheeled people mover). It's actually a rather dangerous place to walk, especially with Zoey!

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the photos of our various adventures over the last 3 months.

Love, Alison, Chuck and Zoey

https://picasaweb.google.com/alisonspinney/ChaliGram122WinterInBarcelona?authuser=0&feat=directlink