Rainbow Submarine

29.10. - 19.11.1981

Barcelona

They crossed the border along the coast. The actually border crossing was some hundred meters above in the mountains. A violent storm shook the bus and they were afraid to be blown off the road. None of the customs officers ventured out of their booth. Geigi packed up our passports and went to them.

In the next town, Port Bou, they met a yellow Mercedes bus of the German Federal Post Office. He was driven by a young German couple who wanted to drop out and were on their way to the south.

Finally they came to Barcelona.

They found a campground on Montjuic, a hill with an old fortress above the town.

They performed on the Ramblas and in the pedestrian zone, which was closed to traffic only during the business hours in the morning and in the evening.

On the Ramblas, they were often chased away by the police. Once they had just begun and a large crowd had gathered around them. Two policemen stood in the middle of the circle and ordered us to pack up and leave, because we weren't allowed to play there. To the bus-people and their audience it seemed very arbitrary and as pure harassment. They were frustrated and already packing up when suddenly the audience started discussing with the policemen. They scolded and said that they were now living in a democracy, and so on. But the policemen defied the crowd with all their authority and took a threatening position. Quickly the bus-people packed up their things and disappeared. Since then, they've always looked first to see if there was a police force around.

They had very little money and were happy about 600 peseta, which Hermann found on the street.

L' Arboç

They left town for a few days. Many had fallen ill, diarrhea, stomach aches and colds. They found a lake in the mountains and found their way there. It was a reservoir in a beautiful area. There they washed their laundry and rested for a while. The big city had become a strain. The noise, the narrowness and the dirt got them down. They didn't know where to go to the bathroom.

After a short time they drove back to get the money for the onward journey.

Barcelona

From Montjuic, the city was often in the haze of exhaust fumes and there was always a loud humming noise.

They took water from the wells in the streets. The water smelled like chlorine. Against the diarrhoea they drank hop blossom tea and packed themselves warmly.

They met Anna and Gabi, a young Spanish couple from Barcelona who lived in the old city.

The sky closed with dense clouds and autumn caught up with them again. At first they thought of their old plan to go to Mallorca, but the ferry crossing was too expensive and they decided to follow the coast south, maybe as far as Seville. There they planned to rent a house and hibernate.

Tarragona - Valencia

In Tarragona they played in a small Ramblas.

Two bicycles were stolen from the bus.

They met a guy who told them about the fight against the nearby nuclear power plant. In the twilight they passed by this facility illuminated with orange light ghostly.

In Valencia they "admired" the Franco monument that reminded them of the dictatorship that had not been overcome for so long. They were repeatedly prevented from performing by the police.

Frustrated, they moved on further south.

Cullera

At night, at full moon, they leave the main road and looked for a suitable place for the night. They end up in a rice field plantation. The moon reflected in the large expanses of water. It was a mysterious place. Then the rice fields suddenly stopped and was followed by densely packed orange plantations surrounded by high straw fences. All they could do was drive on, no space for them. Suddenly high dark towers piled up in front of them. They found themselves unexpectedly in an empty concrete tourist town. In each of the skyscrapers there was only one apartment illuminated, otherwise there was only street lighting. They stayed overnight at a car park near the beach with the invisible, quiet, noisy sea in the background.

In the next few days they picked oranges, tangerines and lemons in crates as they continued their journey.

Alicante

At first, the bus people lived on the outskirts of the city by the sea. Then Geigi and Gogo looted a detached uninhabited house. The prey was cookware, a little table and a lot of folding chairs. For fear of the police, they sought a new place a little further away from the city in the mountains. There they met an open truck with about twenty Scandinavian adventure tourists who drove to Morocco to cross the desert.

Baza

It pushed them further south.  

Towards evening they left the road to Granada and drove into a narrow path over a plateau. The sun was already low and shone reddish light over the brown treeless landscape. Only a sharp hill stood alone in the west.  In the south you could see a high black mountain range in the distance, the Sierra Nevada and the next destination of their journey. 

A little further away, they discovered an abandoned stone hut surrounded by the ruins of a former farmhouse. The hut was only used as a temporary stable for the sheep and they found remnants of straw and virgin wool. 

The well on the farm had dried up. They decided to spend the night anyway, because no one wanted to drive on. 

They parked the bus and got everything ready for the night. As is so often the case, the work was spread out and everyone knew what to do. They went to collect firewood, others started preparing the food and the rest explored the ruins as long as it was still bright. Often you could find something useful or discover something special, and it was always good to know where you were before nightfall. 

The sun became bigger and bigger and rolled as a huge bright red ball along the sharp hill until it finally disappeared behind the horizon. Then the sky quickly became dark and the first stars blinked on like far off signals. The landscape was black and it became cold. In the end, they were wrapped in blankets around the campfire, drinking coffee. They wanted to spend the night outside. 
Someone came up with the idea of writing a joint letter to the friends in Fulda. Their impressions came from the overwhelming feeling of being far away. Together they understood that they had crossed an inner boundary within their journey. 
The winter began and for all of them it was the first time that they could not snuggle into the warm nest of their home. A slight creep shook them and yet a strange calm, relaxed mood spread among them. On the black night they experienced the glittering sparkle of stars in the sky, a shower of shooting stars.

The morning was cold and in the dark corners behind the decayed walls lay white frost. They departed further south.