Cartagena, Spain 6/24/1936
Well, now I am able to write. That is a very strange thing. We read in the travel brochure that the average temperature here is 35°c and then I go and get a sore throat, well, the 35°c we have not had either, 20°c or 25°c is all they can manage here. Furthermore, it has been rainy weather for a couple of times. After the brochure it should no happen here at all And according to the men who live here it hasn’t been so in the last 5 or 6 years. The pain came quiet suddenly in the movies. Peter and I were in the theatre and apparently, I have gotten too old to go out and swing the toes in the evening. And how did it happen that the two old ones decided on such naughtiness? Yes, we have now at last found a useful nurse, a German musician, who plays the banjo and in his spare time he tries to make himself useful on board. He was really just supposed to be along to alicante, but it goes quite well with him so now he continues. On the water he gets seasick but keeps his good humor and in the harbor we have a lot of fun with him. May present “Vati”. He has been here in Spain for 3 years now and knows the language and the customs very well but the other day a Peter and I went through a fight. We had a visit of a Spaniard and when he didn’t leave even it was dinner time, I put the food on the table and Vati invited him with a friendly gesture:
?Le gusta? which means “Come and taste”, luckily he said “No thank you” it is an ordinary custom to invite and just as often as you are invited you are supposed to say “No thank you”, but of course you have to be sure that the one you invite is a Spaniard. We had the artist, who paints the handkerchiefs, and his wife on board when we sailed from Valencia to Gandia where we had a nice day together and got a whole Hundredweight of oranges put down in “Restmore”. Now the orange time has passed and we have started with peaches. Peach porridge and juicy marmalade 30c/ per kilo, that is nice. How was your ” Pentecost tour”? We are very anxious to hear how charming the 20 ladies a were, furthermore I think that Valdemar should have enough with them so you don’t need to wish Anna close by for to kiss her on her sunburned cheeks. The ladies’ fashion is silk… There is a German here who makes them but they don’t look like much. The silk scarfs are painted with oil colors and afterwards glass pearls, are shaken on top, I guess I haven’t written that they can be washed and ironed. Since the artist was along with us he painted the first letters of the crews names in the signal flags on different pieces of clothing. Yes, that was a fresh idea of Mrs. Dovenbush, if we just hadn’t given her your address. The Spaniards are now starting to show themselves from the other side less funny. Both here and in Alicante we haven’t been very happy for the harbormasters. We had to move from one place to the other and then they were asking 5 and in Alicante 10 pesetas, but in both places Peter went at the office and explained that we were not millionaires nor having summer vacation but a poor author who should earn his living on his way, and in both places they understood and we didn’t pay anything. The other day it was good weather and Peter showed up in a bathing suit and came right upon the dock to look at the lines, when suddenly there was an uniformed man with a rifle, they all have them, who said that “that kind of cloth dress or undress Was not allowed in Spain”. I have unfortunately not been able to discover if it was one from the Secret police or if it could have been a man from the association of Cartagena’s improvement who thought that Peter’s legs were too thin. You can be sure, Marie, that Lars remembers to say ‘Carrots”. how he says everything in German. And the other day I was sitting down in the cabin while he was out in the cockpit and the I heard a gentleman say to him “Parlez aovs Français?” and the youngster answered although in Danish” No, Lars doesn’t speak French”. Furthermore, I must announce that he now can stand in front of a tree and take care of a little jod. In Alicante we put both the youngsters tied in the dingy and the dingy tied to ‘Restmore” and there they had a lot af fun. Lars took very smart on the oar and when they finished the rowing they took the bailing can, of course they took water in the dingy instead of bailing it, but they were nice and peaceful. Peter is sitting happily with 2 pieces of chocolate which he got from a Belgian captain, who was here besides us. Peter and Vati went up to get water. There is no water in the town. They started talking and the first engineer said “Could you use some petroleum?” and Peter said “Yes” and he answered “Take the biggest can that you have”. It was 25 liters and filled to the brim. and brought aboard “Restmore” In the belief that you don’t understand Spanish I include a newspaper. The pictures are good enough but the writing is hair raising and imagination. The journalist had only talked with us for 5 minutes and spoke just a little bit of French and then he writes that we told him we had had horrible weather and that Lars was washed overboard from one wave and we couldn’t get hold on him since we were attached to the mast and that the next wave brought him back into “Restmore”. He describes me as slobby dressed so we were at a boiling point when we heard the translation. Now in spite of all the petroleum it is time to finish up with many loving greetings to you from L.A.P.E.
As soon as the wind turns we go to Malaga, address El Consulado de Dinamarce, Malaga