Gibraltar is a very small place, only 6 square kilometres and home to 30,000 residents.  There is some excellent history as it has been held, at various times, by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Moors, the Spanish and now the English.  They have even found a scull of Neanderthal Man in St Michaels Cave and there has been some famous sea battles like the battles of Trafalgar and Algeciras.

The name Gibraltar comes from the invasion of the area by the Moors from north Africa and its leader Tarik, their word for mountain was Gibel, hence the area was called Gibel Tarik – Mountain of Tarik.  Gibel Tarik, together with its counterpart Gibel Mousa across the Gibraltar Straight in Morocco, form the two Pillars of Hercules.

For boaters, there are excellent facilities in Gibraltar with two main marinas and another at La Linea in Spain just across the border.  There is a well stocked chandlery, a very good supermarket, cheap fuel (by European standards!) and is served by international direct flights to London and Madrid.

A tour of “The Rock” is a must, there are 34 miles of tunnels built into the rock for shelter, storage and positioning of armaments where they broke through the rock face.  The tunnels were started by the British during the siege of Gibraltar 1779 – 1783 by the Spanish and expanded during the second World War.  There is also St Michaels Cave, a huge natural feature with enormous stalagmites and stalactites and a concert auditorium.

Then there are of course, the famous Apes of which it said that if they ever leave, the British will loose the Rock.  Being conscious of this, Winston Churchill had more brought in from north Africa when numbers dwindled to 4 or 12 depending on which tour guide you believe.  There are now over 250 of them and they are becoming a pest, venturing down to the town to pilfer food scraps.

Once Easter had passed and we had received our new fenders that were sent to Gibraltar, we did some final provisioning and filled up with fuel and set off for our next destination, The Balearic Islands.  It is amazing the number of commercial ships either waiting in the Bay of Algeciras or travelling through the Straights of Gibraltar.  When we left Gibraltar I brought up a list of AIS targets (basically all ships over 300 tonnes have to have AIS (Automatic Identification System) by law and other boats by choice, Buena Vista’s navigation system lists a maximum of 100 targets by closeness to your vessel and the list was full with shipping within a radius of 5 nautical miles!!

As the south of Spain didn’t interest us much, we decided to do this part of the trip as quickly as possible.  Not quite as quickly as we did though, the weather was perfect so having left Gibraltar we continued on for two nights at sea and arrived on the west coast of Ibiza at a small Cala (Spanish for Cove) Cala Tarida at lunchtime.

8th May
The Balearic Islands, Ilas Baleares in Spanish, consist of four main islands; Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca, plus a few smaller ones.  The name Balearics comes from the Roman name Insulea Baleares, which in turn is believed to have derived from the Phoenician Ball Laaron or “man who throws stones” as this was the islanders method of resisting attack!!

The cruising here is just what you would expect of the Mediterranean, lots of small picturesque little calas with beachside bar restaurants and perfectly clear water.  It is still early in the season so the weather is still changeable and that makes planning a bit more of a challenge.  Most anchorages are “open roadstead” anchorages, that is open to swell when the wind changes and so far we have had every possibility of wind direction in a short period of time!!

In Ibiza we cruised the western coast as the wind was mostly from the eastern sector, stopping at Cala Tarida, San Antonio and Puerto de Portinatx and hiring a car and touring the island.  Of the three large towns on Ibiza; IbizaTown (also know as Eivissa), San Antonio and  Puerto de Santa Eulalia, Puerto de Santa Eulalia is by far the best, still maintaining a bit of class in an area that is dominated by high rise apartments, large night clubs, lap dancing bars and bars showing endless English Football (soccer).

Although there is much history in the Balearics from the Catheginians, Phoenicians, Romans etc there isn’t much to show for it on the island and one thing we noticed when driving around the island is the complete lack of livestock.  No sheep, goats, cattle, horses ….. nothing but some feral cats.

With good weather, we left Ibiza for Mallorca.  The trip across to Mallorca was a casual affair taking about 6 hours to do the 50 nautical miles with flat seas and blue skies.

So far we have only visited two areas by boat; Cala Portals and Puerto el Arenal but we also hired a car and looked around the island, but there is more to come in the next few days before we move on to Menorca.  The first thing we noticed is that in Ibiza the tourists were predominantly British whereas in Mallorca they are predominantly German.

Mallorca is so different from Ibiza, much larger of course and it is rugged, lots of mountains, long stretches of sandy beach and some beautiful little towns, for example our favourite is Valldemossa which is very much like the villages in the Provence area of France.  The island is spectacularly beautiful, far exceeding our expectations and there is more agriculture there with citrus, olives, vineyards, an array of livestock and even some crops that looked like wheat.

Menorca also has one of the best natural harbours in the World at Mahon, strategically placed in the middle of the Western Mediterranean and valued as a naval port.

Therefore it has a very rich history indeed, being colonised by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Visigoths and Moors.  On top of that, it was invaded by Alfonse of Aragon in 1287, was sacked by pirates from Turkey in 1558, taken by the British in 1708, then by the French in 1756, back came the British in 1763, Spain in 1782, the British bounced back yet again in 1798 and finally it was given back to Spain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens.

The trip over was an easy affair of about 6 hours, although the breeze swung a bit in the last hour or so creating a bit of chop, something we have become used to being without.

Our first stop was in Cala en Porter, an absolutely delightful cala with steep cliff sides and a shallow sandy beach at the northern end.  There are plenty of homes around but not much else except the ubiquitous beach bar/restaurant, as a result it was very quiet.

Moving on to the major town in Menorca, Mahon, we found it is a sleepy town as the Balearics go although that maybe because the season was not up and running, but the harbour lived up to expectations, a narrow fortified entrance opening up into a long narrow harbour with good depth throughout.  No wonder everyone wanted it for a naval base. 

As we had done on the other islands, we hired a car.  We have found this is a much better way of sightseeing rather than simply cruise around the coast only seeing cala after cala.  With the trusty DK Guide Book and a map, you can make sure you see all the highlights.

You only need one day to get around everything of significance although of course you can spend much longer.  We visitied Ciutadella Menorca’s second largest town, which was like most other places we have seen, beautiful.  This is something hard to do on a boat as there are virtually no spares berths available.We also visited a the remains of a 1400BC stone village at Trepuco, to the south of Mahonand and an enourmous Spanish Fortress at La Molla built at the northern side of the harbour entrance..

As we had limited time and had to get to Barcelona, we also took the opportunity to see a couple of ports and calas on the northern coast of the island where we would not visit on Buena Vista.

This completes our cruise around The Balearic Islands as we leave for Barcelona tomorrow, we can summarise our experience as follows: they are fantastic cruising grounds and far exceeded our expectations.  Cost of living is not as high as we expected, except marina berths which by our standards are a bit expensive.  Most areas speak good English and the local people we have met (marina, car hire, restaurants etc) have been really helpful. 

Ibiza was our least favourite island and if we get the time to return, we would probably give it a miss.  Mallorca surprised us and we even loved Palma where we had been advised to avoid, the inland towns are a must not miss, particularly Valldemossa and Soller.  Menorca was the place with most class and history, two beautiful towns with excellent old buildings and lots to see.  It was also the best location and the most reasonably priced marina, very reasonable in fact.  The Marina Estrella, moored to the town wall with all facilities was €85 per night including all taxes, electricity and water, very nice staff too.  As a guide San Antonio in Ibiza was €125 per night and Puerto el Arenal €150 per night, these are all for 20 metres berths.   

The Cathedral in Palm de Malloca

17th May
Eventually, having seen everything we wanted to see on Mallorca, it was time to move to the next island in line, Menorca.  Menorca is a much flatter island than either Ibiza or Mallorca, is geologically the oldest of the Balearic islands and apparently has the greatest number of prehistoric remains in the Mediterranean.

Menorca has one of the best natural harbours in the World at Mahon, strategically placed in the middle of the Western Mediterranean and valued as a naval port.

Therefore it has a very rich history indeed, being colonised by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Visigoths and Moors.  On top of that, it was invaded by Alfonse of Aragon in 1287, was sacked by pirates from Turkey in 1558, taken by the British in 1708, then by the French in 1756, back came the British in 1763, Spain in 1782, the British bounced back yet again in 1798 and finally it was given back to Spain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens …. It hasn’t had an easy time!!

The trip over was an easy affair of about 6 hours and our first stop was Cala en Porter, an absolutely delightful cala with steep cliff sides and a shallow sandy beach at the northern end.  There are plenty of homes around but not much else except the ubiquitous beach bar/restaurant, as a result it was very quiet.  As we wanted a quick look around before heading for Barcelona, we only stayed one night in Cala en Porter before heading to the major town on Menorca, Mahon and a berth in the harbour.

Mahon is a sleepy town as the Balearics go, but the harbour lived up to expectations, a narrow fortified entrance opening up into a long narrow harbour with good depth throughout.  No wonder everyone wanted it for a naval base.   Also marina charges were far more reasonable than Ibiza and Mallorca, we had a harbour wall location right on the restaurant strip of €85 a night including water, electricity and WiFi.

We hired a car again visiting Ciutadella Menorca’s second largest town, a couple of calas on the north coast, a 1400BC stone village and a Spanish Fortress.  In what is becoming a common theme Ciutadella was a fantastic town with many old buildings, some seriously expensive real estate and a great harbour.  The 1400BC village was interesting, combined dwellings and look out’s called Talayots and a construction that looked like a mini Stonehenge.  Our final visit was to a vast Fortress called La Mola, built for Queen Isabella of Spain between 1850 and 1875.

This completed our cruise of the Balearic Islands and the general consensus was Menorca was the best and we would like to spend more time there.  It had a great relaxed way of life and enough attractions to keep you busy.  Mallorca was ruggedly beautiful and being the biggest island, there was lots to see.  Ibiza, we all agreed, could be missed from any future itinerary.

                                  The crystal clear waters of Cala en Porter Menorca

24th May
The final part of the Gibraltar & Spain cruise was a visit to the magnificent city of Barcelona.  After the relative calm and slow pace of the ‘out of season’ Balearic Islands the frenetic city of Barcelona appeared anything but ‘out of season’.

We managed to get a marina berth in Marina Port Vell, which is located in the Old Town, so therefore right in the middle of things, we were charged a reasonably rate of €100 a night, which was below their published rate for some reason.  Port Vell is part of Barceloneta, where the original settlement for Barcelona took place by early fishermen.

Barcelona is a must for anyone interested in architecture or photography, there are so many significant buildings, including Europe’s largest collection of buildings in the Art Nouveau or Modernism style.  We thought four days would be enough to take in all the important sites, but it would be easy to spend a couple of weeks here if your feet and legs held out!!  We would suggest one of the ‘hop on hop off’ tour bus services as the best way to see the City.  They take in all the major sites from 9am to 8pm each day, complete with commentary in umpteen different languages. 

If we described everything we saw here, it would need a separate ‘Travel Note’ of it’s own, there really is that much there.  Therefore we will only list our highlights, but first to those who haven’t been to Barcelona, it should be mentioned that the architect Antoni Gaudi is an integral part of the city.  He is to Barcelona what Michaelangelo is to Rome.

The Basilica Sagrada Familia is Gaudi’s most famous project, an amazing building started in 1882, it  became his life’s work until his death in 1926, even sleeping on site for 14 years and becoming a recluse.  It is a building of enormous size and amazing detail and still has years to go before the project will be finished, if it is ever truly finished.  They do have some form on taking some time to complete buildings, the Cathedral was started in 1298 and not finished until the 19th century!! 

Montjiuc is a hill with views over the whole of Barcelona, which is also home to the Palau Nacional, amongst other things, a huge palatial building that was built for the 1929 International Exhibition and is now home to MNAC the Museu Nacional d’Art Catlunya.

Poble Espanyol was also built for the 1929 International Exhibition to display different Spanish architectural styles expressed in 116 houses built around a town square.  It is also full of local artisans making leather goods, glass blowing, ceramics etc.  We thought this was going to be a quick look around but we ended up there for a few hours.

Parc Guell is another Gaudi project as is the Casa Mila, more commonly known as La Pedrara, 'the stone quarry'.  Both are modernist designs and contain amazing detail.  Then there is the Cathedral and Trish’s favourite building, the Palau de la Musica Catalana, a modernist building completed in 1908 but not by Gaudi. 

La Rambla is a major tree lined boulevard, supposedly Spain’s most famous, that is packed with tourists and locals at all hours.  It has cafes, restaurant, street vendors, buskers, artists, flower sellers, caged birds etc.  For anyone visiting, we were warned to keep your wallet close to you, pickpockets operate in this area.

There is still so much we didn’t get to see; Picasso & Maritime Museums, Art Galleries, Parks ….. the list goes on ….. oh well, something to come back for and we definitely will.

                                                                        The Sagrada Familia Barcelona