Boats

Boats
have always evoked a great sense of nostalgia in me. My
grandparents had one moored in Mallorca when I was a child and we
used to take family holidays there. Among my memories are ones of
my mother passing coconut macaroons through the kitchen hatch while
we were sunbathing on deck, and of sitting behind the captain’s
wheel eating jelly sweets. I’d be lying if I said that this
romantic view of boats hadn’t inspired my decision to book one for
a few days in Barcelona last summer.

The boat I stayed on was moored in Port Fòrum on the edge of
Barcelona. An area comprised of lots of concrete and the Parc del
Fòrum event venue, it is a far aesthetic cry from the crumbling
magnificence of Barcelona’s famous Gothic Quarter. However, there
is nothing quite like being among boats, each quay like a gently
swaying row of cottages. I found the area to have its own sense of
calm.

Before I visited, I’d had ideas of cocktail-bar hopping and
city-street wandering every day, but the pace of life on the boat
ended up directing the mood of my stay into something far more
relaxed. Book reading, enjoying homemade tapas and Spanish wine on
the deck and walking to the nearest beach rose high on the agenda.
I would eventually make it into the centre of Barcelona to see some
of the city’s sights, but never in the mornings.

@justinetrickett | justinetrickett.com