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Doteyboaty

Juli 2021 - Juli 2025
  • Margaret Meade
  • Ronan O'Driscoll
  • Ruby O'Driscoll
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Family sailing around Europe Baca selengkapnya
  • Margaret Meade
  • Ronan O'Driscoll
  • Ruby O'Driscoll
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  • Doteyboaty

    Semana Santa

    8 April 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Holy Week celebrations start the Friday before Good Friday in Cartagena. It is a bank holiday and the first procession is at 3am on Friday morning. We don’t attend but the drumming does interrupt our night’s sleep.
    Semana Santa is very big deal here and there is a busy calendar of events for the week including a procession almost daily.
    We go the evening processsion on the first Friday; it is massive and runs for an hour and a half. There are well over a thousand participants with elaborate and immaculate costumes. The costumes are shocking because the hoods remind us of the Ku Klux Klan. As more and more hooded people file past us we acclimatise to this Spanish religious tradition.
    There is a wonderful sense community here and many of the participating groups are intergenerational which is so lovely to see.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    Ruby
    ColmMargaretBaking with James on Alchemy

    Gearing up

    5 April 2022, Spanyol ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Regal has been docked in Cartagena now for six months. All of us are ready to leave but we are not ready to leave… There is outstanding work yet to be finished on the boat and there is bad weather about.
    A storm comes in for two days on the 4th and 5th of April bringing torrential rain, howling wind and cold weather. The noise of the wind doesn’t stop for two days and I finally understand how the wind gets to people during the wild winters of West Cork. The four of us are down below most of the time and the boat never felt so small. It is challenge for everyone’s patience. Colm gets some respite on board his friend’s James boat. It is a gorgeous 70 motor vessel and they don’t feel the bad weather and even do some baking.
    James and his family had been away for a number of months over winter but since their return we see James everyday and have enjoyed a few get-together’s with his parents.
    We have made connections with several live-a-boards here on the marina and some boats are beginning to leave. We hope our paths will cross again when we are out on the water.
    We are waiting for Juan Pedro to fix the generator and finish wiring up the solar panels so in the meantime we keep going with our own jobs.
    We do ‘The big shop’ several times and load up the bilges with stores - We reckon Ruby could live for at least a month on the cereal and UHT milk stored in her bedroom floor. The hope is that when we are at anchor we will only need to buy fresh food which is easy to transport by dingy.
    We all have go in the bosun’s chair being hoisted up the mast to clean it after the winter and the mucky rain and to double check everything up there is still intact.
    Saturday’s weather is beautiful so we decide to go on a trial sail to check everything is working. It takes ages to make the boat ready for sailing because things that have been thrown down everywhere while we are docked - now they have to be stowed or tied down in advance of the boat heeling over.
    In glorious sunshine we take a two hour trip down the coast and pick up a mooring in a little cove. We swim and snorkel in wetsuits and dry off in the sun. We are getting very excited now about leaving Cartagena and heading out into the wide blue yonder.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    1Joan in the skate park
    The roman amphitheatreThis little fellow was on the apartment door for the duration of their stayLa MangaFancy dinner for two

    Grace Joan

    18 Maret 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    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.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    Sweeping up after a sand fall.A cruise ship arrives in covered in sandLa Algameca fisherman's villageThe truck strike

    Crazy Weather

    14 Maret 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Looking outside from the shop window, I think the glass is tinted yellow - but when we go outside the sky is actually orange. My weather forecast says that the air is hazardous.This is Saharan sand and it stays around for days, some times landing as as sand and sometimes as mucky rain. It covers everything and trying to clean up after it is no fun.
    Our decks had been gleaming after a big effort from Ronan and now they are the dirtiest they have ever been. The muck rain especially has stained every rope on board, the sails have lines of brown on them and there is even dirt gathered in the zips of the cockpit covers. It takes several days with our new power hose to get the worse of it out and we hope that time will get rid of the remainder of it.
    In other news - local truck drivers are on strike and as well as blocking the roads and the port their beeping horns are a constant background noise.
    We have a visit from Hilary and Graham, the lovely neighbours we connected with when we were staying in Plym’s lovehomeswap in Andalusia. They are on their way north to their son’s place in Aragon and decided to stop in and catch up with us and see the city of Cartagena. They bring us avocados, lemons and daffodils from their garden. They tell us about a fisherman’s shantytown they visited just over the hill from here so a few days later when we have a rental car we drive over and have a look.
    A few days later we have a rental car so drive over to see it for ourselves. The ‘town’ of Algameca - has been there for nearly a hundred years so even though the houses are rough and ready with no planning or electricity, it is here to stay and it has a charm all of its own.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    2The noise and smoke of day time fireworks

    May in March

    2 Maret 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    The boat is relaunched just in time for my niece May’s arrival. She spends two nights on board Regal and her cousins give her the highlights tour of Cartagena. She is here for a week so we do a little road trip to Valencia where we have booked a love home swap for three nights.
    We are staying in Nacho’s place and he and his family stayed in our house in Cork a few years ago. His apartment is the perfect location for exploring Valencia because its in the city centre. On our first evening we have a great walk around the city and have dinner in the Mercado Colon.
    The next morning we hire bikes for the day and cycle through the city down to the old dry river bed, which is far more beautiful than it sounds. It has been turned into a wonderful park all along the city and we cycle through it as far as the Ciudad de las Artes y Las Ciencias.
    Our jaws drop when we see the white and glass buildings here. It is like something from a Star Wars or a science fiction movie. We cycle in between the buildings, under huge arches and pass several man-made expanses of water, some even have little row boats for hire.
    We continue on our cycle and find our way to the marina and beaches of Valencia. We soak up the Saturday atmosphere as people are out walking, cycling, rollerblading and having their hen nights (days) here. One hen group have a brass band accompanying them as they walk and dance along the promenade.
    After a lovely brunch at a beachside restaurant we cycle back to the Science park to visit the Aquarium. It is huge and we spend 4 hours there moving from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, the Mangroves the Atlantic and the Artic. We love seeing all the amazing fish; Sharks, Jellyfish, clown fish, Rays, barracudas, angel fish. We experience a mix of emotions when we see the Beluga Whales and the Dolphins. At the dolphin show we see them do incredible jumps and tricks and the Belugas too move to the trainers cues. On the one hand it is amazing to see these animals so close up and on the other hand we feel its cruel and feel bad because we are watching. We are happy to leave the show halfway through as a kind of a protest but also just because we have to cycle back to the city and its getting dark.
    The cycle lanes in Valencia are fantastic and they lead us all the way back to the rental shop.
    We get empanadas to take away and have them back at the apartment for dinner.
    This weekend is the beginning of Valencia’s most famous festival; Las Fallas - which will run for the next two weeks and culminates in the burning of lots of huge Papier Mache characters. We won’t be here for that but this evening we will get to see giant figures as they are paraded through the city.
    After a delicious breakfast, of Irish sausages, rashers and pudding, thanks to May, we walk to the plaza del Ayuntamiento.
    We join the thousands of people who have gathered here for the Fallas day time fireworks display. We aren’t sure what to expect. The crowd is full of glee despite the increasingly rain. We are pretty wet by the time the first bang goes off but it was worth waiting for. There isn’t a whole lot to see besides smoke and flashes of light. This show is all about hearing and feeling the fireworks. For ten minutes the noise is so loud it goes right through us. Hundreds if not thousands of bangs reverberate through our bodies and for some reason this makes everyone laugh and clap. As we walk back through the streets adults and children are throwing their own fire crackers and bangers.
    Our ears are ringing and we are wet through so we return to the apartment. The rain continues to get heavier all afternoon and we find out that the parade has been postponed because of the weather.
    It is still raining the next morning when we do a final walk around Valencia to see the Mercado and a some fancy clothes shops.
    We hop in the car and head to our next love home sway in Cullera, a beach resort 40 minutes south of the city. The house is a fabulous American style house up in the hills overlooking the coast. It has a pool, hot tub, gym and a gas fire and an enormous telly. For the next two days max out on all these luxuries and enjoy our time with May.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    Burial of the Sardine parade
    One of many sword shopsThe altar in the CathedralRuby wants to live on the other side of the RiverA lovely landmark as we navigate our way back to the carHere comes the Sardine

    Toledo

    28 Februari 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    We drive from Granja towards Toledo, passing through the outskirts of Madrid. When I see the Spanish capital from this perspective I realise how enormous it is . There are lots of skyscrapers, none of which we saw when we were there a few days ago.
    An hour later we see the city of Toledo, perched on hill overlooking the river Tagus, the same river Tagus flows out into the Atlantic from Lisbon. We park at the foot of the hill by the bus station and taxi the rest of the way to our accommodation in centre. The taxi beeps the pedestrians out of the way and speeds up and down narrow streets following a complicated one way system. I’m so glad I’m not driving.

    We climb the spiral stairs and take a moment to settle into the apartment. Though tired, we summon the last shard of energy and go back out to get a feel for the town. We join the crowds in the streets below and hear music and it is coming our way. We have accidentally arrived at the right place and at the right time because here comes a parade full of music, dancing, costumes and a big papier-mâché fish! We have happened on the ‘burial of the Sardine’ and this parade is it’s funeral procession complete with mourners dressed up in black. This tradition is celebrated in lots of towns and city’s in Spain and it usual marks the end of Carnival and the beginning of Lent. The crowds follow after the parade and everyone is here for a good time. Long after we have returned to the apartment we hear the singing, music and fire works.
    Toledo Cathedral is so close to our apartment we can see it from the bedroom window. This is our first stop the next morning. We don’t take the audioguides as they have far too many details for our appetite. We just google our way around. My favourite bite-sized piece of the history is about the fire that burned down the market next door to the Cathedral. In the late 14th century the Bishop wanted to build an extension for a cloister. He was in negotiations with the stall holders to buy the Market site but they were reluctant to sell. A mysterious fire broke out and the stalls were destroyed. The bishop bought the site for very little and built the cloister he had always dreamed of . Funnily enough from that day to this no order of monks have ever been in residence there.
    At our next church stop, I decide to double check that we are in the right place before we go in so at the entrance I ask if there are some of El Greco’s paintings inside. The ticket clerk laughs and scoffs and says ‘El Greco painting?!!, This is his masterpiece - ‘the burial of Count of Orgaz’. Once inside it is easy to find because there are so many people standing below it and staring up in admiration. We join them.
    Later my ignorance induces more scoffing at a sword shop. I ask the shop keeper a question that has been on my mind since we arrived in Toledo- ‘ Why are there so many sword shops here’. He looks up from his glasses and tells me that Toledo steel is world famous- well I never knew … I decide to dig some more and ask him how recently this is. ‘Roman times’ he says as he shakes his head. I quickly buy a pen knife with ‘Toledo’ printed on it, thank him and go.
    We continue on my uninformed tour of Toledo and by the end of the day we think we have visited San Martin’s bridge, the Alcazar and the Jewish quarter, but I can’t be sure.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    Spanish Killarney
    Happy hotel time

    Granja

    27 Februari 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    With only a half-baked plan, we arrive into the town of Granja at 6pm following our busy day in Segovia. I park right outside the Posh Parador hotel and feeling lucky go in and ask for a room. They have availability but only for 2 people and being so fancy, don’t do camp beds. A suite is all they offer our little party of three and the price is eye-watering. I go back out to the car, take a breath and begin searching for accommodation online and by phone. 40 minutes later the windows are steamed-up, mirroring my stress level. I let the children know we may have to drive back to Madrid for a bed even though we are exhausted.
    Aware that I am red-faced and flustered I figure that now might actually be the perfect time to chance my arm and twist the arm of the Parador Receptionist. I ham up my panicked state petition her to turn a blind eye to the fact that there are three of us. After some whispering to her colleagues in the back she returns with a smile and proceeds to check us in to a double room. Our three delighted souls scurry through the lobby and dive into our fancy room. Everything in it is big and luxurious and we are here to make the most of it. The bath is run, strawberries and chocolate are smuggled in and Netflix is locked and loaded.
    Although we are 3 abreast in the bed, it is still luxurious and we sleep soundly. My children have inherited my love of buffet breakfasts and they can not hide their excitement. They beam happiness every time they arrive back to the table with another leaning tower of assorted goodies. Love is in the air and they thank me so many times. Ruby even gives me her Mother’s Day card and present a whole month early.
    We are in the perfect mood to enjoy the gardens at the Palacio Real de Granja de San Ildefonso. The Versailles inspired fountains have brought us here and they are beautiful and numerous but they are also empty or not running. In fact these wonderful fountains are off more often than on because they use so much water. They are still very impressive and we would love to return sometime to see them in all their glory. There are only 3 days in every year when they are running simultaneously - the tickets must be like gold dust.
    We spend a lovely few hours walking from one fountain to the other, through formal gardens, along avenues and woods. When we get to the large reservoir lake it feels like we are in Killarney. This is the closest we have come to an Irish landscape in Spain.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty

    The Roman Aqueduct

    26 Februari 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Ronan is still in the boatyard and won’t be launching the boat for another few days. Since the current living conditions on Regal are sub-standard we decide to convert our trip to Madrid into a road trip.
    I am more than a little apprehensive as I drive the rental car out of Estacion de Atocha in the city centre of Madrid. I worry that I will get us rightly lost in this gigantic city. Ruby is promptly promoted to the front seat to help navigate and the google maps lady is on hand. I do what I am told and without much ado we are shortly on the right road and are on our way to see the Aqueduct in Segovia.
    I park outside the town because experience has taught me that Spanish towns can have such warren-like narrow streets to induce palpitations and profuse sweating. As luck would have it, we have parked just by the very top of the Roman Aqueduct. Here it is only hip height and we can see the narrow duct that carried the water nearly 2000 years ago. We have the pleasure of walking along side its walls all the way down the hill into the town. As we decease, the Aqueduct grows so that the duct on top maintains its level. When we reach the town below the duct is now 30 metres high above us. It is incredible. We continue to walk alongside it, marvelling at its 166 Arches until we are at the top of it on the other side.
    Here we have arrived up into the old quarter of Segovia. We wander down along the narrow streets, stopping beside other tourists to admire the impressive Cathedral. We continue on the tourist trail to the Alcazar which is a fairytale castle perched on the edge of the town and overlooking the valley below. It was apparently the inspiration for the Disneyland Castle in Orlando and that is certainly what it looks like with its many towers and turrets.
    As we walk back towards town there are panoramic views over the valley and beyond it to snow-capped mountains.
    In the lower part of the town there are people sitting outside cafes enjoying a drink and a wonderful view of the Aqueduct. We marvel at it once more and then trace its walls all the way back up to the car.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    Late nights in MadridColm's covert photo of Guernica - No photos allowedMuseo Reina Sofia

    A Visual Feast

    25 Februari 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    We avail of the free entry after 6pm to the Museo Reina Sofia to see Picasso’s ‘Guernica”. It is a huge painting but we have to wait for a gap in the crowd to get an uninterrupted view. It is amazing to see it in real life and we get a better understanding of it because so many of Picasso’s preparatory painting are also on display. We see how his ideas for the painting developed over time.
    There are several floors in the museum all full of incredible paintings and the building itself is a work of art. There is a covered atrium 4 or 5 storey high. We walk in the open space at just under the roof and the lights from night time Madrid make it magical.
    The next morning after a feed of french toast in a lovely cafe, we are ready for more Art appreciation. The Prado museum is next on our hit-list. It is raining heavily when we arrive and there is a queue the length of the building. We are not made of the same tough stuff as these tourists and can’t countenance joining. We approach a steward at the top of the queue and ask about the possibility of free entry in the evening. She kindly opens the barrier and lets us through to the ticket booth to pick up free passes for 6pm. We duck out of the rain and into a second hand shop. While Ruby and Colm entertained themselves dressing up I try to book tickets online for the highly rated illusion museum. The only tickets left for the entire weekend is for 9pm this evening so I book- unsure whether we will have the energy or appetite for it by that late hour!
    We have an afternoon siesta and have a quick walk in the Parc del Retiro to energise before of 6pm booking.
    The Prado museum is home to so many works of art, its impossible to see them all. We skip whole rooms full of masterpieces. The fact that we didn’t queue or pay to get in, gives us a lovely carefree disposition and we enjoy all we see. We take in works by Goya, El Greco, Caravaggio, Bosch, Rubens, Durer, Raphael and Velazquez and others. It is especially nice to see ‘Las Meninas’ because we had seen so many of Picasso’s studies of this painting in the his museum in Barcelona. Some of paintings we see by Velazquez and Goya are of particular interest to us as they feature in ‘Blood and Gold’ a BBC documentary about Spanish history we have recently watched. Ruby was especially good at spotting them in the museum.
    Our feet and eyes are tired when we emerge from Museo Prado and bed is on our minds. We make our way slowly towards our next tourist attraction, filling up on food and fizzy drinks on the way. When we come to the first photo opportunity in the illusion museum a wave of energy hits us and we pose, photograph and laugh our way around for the hour. We are full up with so many visual feasts that when we finally get to bed it feels so nice to close our eyes and go to sleep.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Doteyboaty
    The Royal Palace
    Mercado de San MiguelBuying Holy BiscuitsThe Palace ArmouryThe palace stairsJewelery Makers heaven

    Madrid

    24 Februari 2022, Spanyol ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    While Ronan and Regal settle into their new surroundings of the boatyard, Ruby, Colm and I take the train to Madrid.
    We arrive into the city centre station after dark and do our best to soak up the big city atmosphere while we walk the 20 minutes to our accommodation carrying our bags.
    Our apartment is in the centre of the old town and we start off the next morning, luggage free, on walking route suggested in ‘The Rough guide to Spain’. It brings us to different churches and plazas and we find the convent it mentions that sells biscuits. The biscuits are dry and a bit of a rip off at 10 euros but the experience is worth it. The nuns in the Convento de los Carboneras are an enclosed order and so we do the whole transaction through a rotating wooden shelf and never catch a glimpse of them. This mystery instills in us a momentary religious fervor and we spend the next 20 minutes in Religious shop. The shopkeeper is surprised at our interest in the Priests vestments, church statutes and mass paraphernalia and very kindly shows us the contents of several tiny portable mass kits.
    We continue ramble through Madrid and arrive at the enormous Palacio Real. Once inside we decide to go straight to the Armoury which is incredible - the Armour they have on display is more elaborate than anything we have seen or read about in fact or fiction. It is hard to imagine people moving in the suits not to mind doing battle in them.
    We continue into the main palace and are blown away by one amazing room after another - So many chandeliers, ceramics, gold, silk covered walls, tapestries, carpets, woodwork and plasterwork. Some of the rooms took years to complete. Photography is prohibited which turns out to be a blessing as I would have taken hundreds of pictures.
    We have a lovely Chinese meal and go to a Chinese jewellery making shop before returning to the apartment- we have more touristy things to do later this evening so we watch a few episodes of Brooklyn 99 and have a few chalky convent biscuits to renew our sightseeing strength.    Baca selengkapnya

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