Grace Joan

My Mum and Niece come to visit over Patrick’s weekend for four days.
They are staying in a lovely big apartment in the centre of town. It turns out we all end all up spending a lot of time in the apartment because the weather is so unsettled.
This January was the driest on record in Cartagena and it turns out that this March is one of the wettest ever recorded.
Grace and Joan arrive late on the first evening and it is wellies weather the next day. The crew of Regal don full wet gear for the 10 minute walk from the boat to the apartment. We stay put and have a lovely time catching up and playing board games. We have a quick stroll nearby during a dry spell but after 24 hours in Cartagena our visitors haven’t even seen our boat. Later in the evening we hear Irish music coming up from the street which reminds us that it’s St Patrick’s day. Ronan and Joan follow the sound of the fiddles and find their way to a pub where Spaniards have gathered to play trad and celebrate our national day.
The weather is kinder to us and on the second day we show off Regal and visit several of the main tourist attractions in city. Joan’s enthusiasm is incredible and we all enjoy her marvelling at the wonderful culture, history, geography, nature, workmanship, art, ingenuity and fashion we see as we make our way around Cartagena. She really does take the time to stop and smell the flowers; it is good for us all to be around her and to do as she does.
The following day there is more marvelling when we drive out to La Manga to see the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean. We find a perfect picnic spot near the water and we see Flamingos in the distance.
When we get back to Cartagena we make a stop at the skate park so Colm can show us some of his tricks. He often comes up here and hangs out with some local kids as well as a few other boat kids.
Mum and I go to dinner in a lovely restaurant while the others go to Burger King and Ruby and Colm have (another) sleep over in the apartment. They are a great help packing up the next morning and it turns out most of bags are coming out of the apartment actually belong to Regal - Wet Gear, Laundry, Pots, Board games and food. We really did move in for the few days.Read more