Europe May-August 2016
30.04.2016 Hamburg, Germany Hakuna Matata We rented a car and drove north into the wilderness of Schleswig-Holstein to talk with Maren, our long-suffering bookkeeper. Then back to Hamburg. As an anniversary present to ourselves we checked into the ‘Hotel Hafen Hamburg’ and got good tickets for ‘Der König der Löwen‘, (Lion King for the rest of us) show on the other side of the river. It’s the Ciiircle of Liiife! 01.05.2016 Schulzendorf, Germany One Year Later By coincidence, the three masted barquentine, s.v. ‘Atlantis’ sailed down the Elbe just as we were looking at the view out of the hotel room window in the morning. The ‘Atlantis’ is to be under the command of ourselves later in the month. Watch this space! Drove home to Schulzendorf and then Papa Schlumpf, Micki and Fabi turned up an hour later with a Wedding Anniversary celebratory dinner. 02.05.2016 Berlin, Germany Checkups A regular medical checkup for me at the Charite and a bit of emergency gardening for the house. 03.05.2016 Berlin, Germany The Wolfpack Rides Out The Harley D. needed servicing after spending many years in a garden shed. The idea is to take it down to Jesolo so that H can ride out with the Bella Chapter. I led the way to the garage with H wobbling along behind in full leathers looking very dangerous. 10-11.05.2016 Rostock, Germany More Training H needed to go to a training course in Rostock so we drove up there and stayed with Bella Chief Engineer Toralf in his rambling old farmhouse complex. The next day I explored the Rostock/Warnemunde area. While eating a fischbröchen in Warnemunde I spotted an old enemy. Yes, it was the very same seagull. We eyed each other suspiciously. I had a look at the ship museum there but had to rush through it. It is worth another visit. 12-14.05.2016 Berlin-Suhl-Venice Sausage Delivery It was time to drive down to Venice again. It’s not the quickest of trips being 1200km over the Alps. This time the Memsahib was on her Harley with me following. We stopped by Suhl in Thuringia to pick up Suzy, who is Pedro the Captain’s wife, and 150 Thuringer Bratwurst for an officer’s BBQ. Most of the way it rained but easing a little as we crossed the Brenner Pass. It was dry in the car though! After two days we arrived in Venice. Parked the car and took a vaporetto to a yacht converted to a hotel on Sacca Fisola island. We had a stroll and a pizza near St Mark’s. In the morning we watched the Bella arrive at the cruise terminal from the deck of our hotel/boat and we took the vaporetto back to the carpark and delivered wife and sausages to the captain. The Bella’s Angels were delivered to Jesolo and they had a roar around towards Trieste. That evening we had an excellent steak dinner in the Captain’s cabin and stayed overnight on the ship. 15-16.05.2016 Venice, Italy-Salzburg, Austria-Prague, Czech Republic-Suhl, Germany A European Pubcrawl There was a return trip to the storage place in Jesolo for the three bikes. Biker chick Martyn following around the lagoon by car to provide a taxi service back. Later in the day we left Venice driving to Salzburg for an overnight hotel stay. Then on to Prague where we lunched in the infamous ‘U Fleku’ brewery and consumed many pigs, ducks, schnapps and dark beers. Not necessarily in that order. Then we walked over the Charles Bridge just like regular tourists. Onward to Suhl, Thuringia where we dined on local wurst and more beers and schnapps staying overnight with Suzy. 17.05.2016 Suhl-Berlin Red in Tooth We drove from Thuringia back to Berlin stopping off at my dentist to have him check out a dodgy upper molar that had been troubling me for a few days. Five minutes later I was out of there with the tooth in a plastic bag. It turns out that the tooth had broken in two and was unrepairable. I go back in a couple of months for an implant. Until then I will be eating a lot of soups. 19-23.05.2016 Kiel, Germany to Bagenkop, Denmark to Sonderborg, Denmark and back to Kiel Birthday Baltic Boating We drove from Berlin to Kiel with Roland and Retha and checked in to the swanky ‘Hotel Kieler Yacht Club’. The Memsahib and I got a big room with a balcony so we could entertain. Siegfried and Renate also drove in from Berlin and Ian J brought Ian C, Liz and John C from Hamburg Airport. Michael and Lisa and Tom and Amanda came later by train and taxi. Gin and tonic and Berliner Knacker sausages substituted for dinner. After breakfast we drove out to Tiessenkai on the north side of the entrance to the Kiel Canal where our chartered tall ship ‘Atlantis’ was tied up. The rest of our invitees rolled up over the next couple of hours and we had 36 people all together including Mike & Jacqui, Colin & Belinda, Petra & Bernd, Tim & Rosie, Micki & Fabio, Carsten, Johnny & Alison, Julian, Mayk & Peter, Hilmar & Patricia, Lisette & Joe and photographers Anja & Steffen. Then we put out to sea to reach Denmark before dark. The night was in Bagenkop harbour on Langeland island. It was a cute but very dull place with almost nothing open. The natives were friendly enough though and happy to have a ship tied up that was slightly larger than the town. The next day we sailed westwards to Sonderborg. This was a livelier place with a microbrewery and some open shops. In any case, we made our own entertainment on the ship with Carsten on guitar and accordion and some enthusiastic but unskilful singing of sea songs from the rest of us in both English and German. From the harbour near the castle, Thai paper lanterns were launched into the night sky which was a bit unnerving when one bounced several times under some furled sails high in the rigging of the ‘Atlantis’ before very slowly continuing on over Sonderborg. No major fires were reported in the area. On Sunday we returned to Kiel so concluding an extremely memorable and extremely expensive weekend belatedly celebrating my 60th and our 1st Wedding Anniversary. We pass this way but once. On Sunday evening, those that didn’t go home moved on to a rainy Hamburg for a final night of beer drinking and singing in the Haifischbar and night in the Clipper Elb-Lodge next door. 24-25.06.2016 Schulzendorf, Germany Gentle Stroking It was a rare visit home. We tried sorting a few things out around the house but were distracted by Roland having a minor stroke and spending the night in the Vivantes Klinikum Neukölln. My guess is he has overdone it with the cruising which I can sympathise with. It has messed up his travel to Cyprus with Retha though. 30.05-02.06.2016 Rostock, Germany Return to HQ Another trip to Rostock for H to do some Leadership training. Rostock is quite a pretty place in the sunshine. The old buildings in the centre are all Hansastadt Dutch gables and the harbour has some old ships tied up as a kind of museum. There are bratwurst and fischbroetchen vendors everywhere and oompah musician playing in the streets. Children playing in the fountains. All very nice really for a poor East German port on the Baltic. There is still some Ossie-life coming through though at times but they are, these days, much like any provincial town in northern Europe. A typical woman on the shopping streets here is usually pregnant, generously proportioned and with festively coloured hair. Purple seems to be fashionable at the moment. It is probably the fashion in northern England this year as well. 03-05.05.2016 Lemgo, Germany Old Soldiers Never Die …They just Party On We drove from Rostock to Lemgo for Ian Jack’s 55th birthday bash. We stayed in Ian’s new camper van on his driveway. Some old squaddie mates of Ian’s turned up on the Friday night with wives and we had veggie food, beers and war stories in the garden. On the Saturday we had a walking tour of old Lemgo. They seem to have had a bit of a downer on witches in Lemgo in the 17th century. Not a great time to have a wart on the nose unless you like being stretched on the rack and tossed on a bonfire. The party was in a clubhouse for building professionals which Ian is a member of. Big vats of curry supplied. It seemed to end around four in the morning. It was getting light and everyone was sat on the floor around candles singing Kumbaya which was disturbing. On rising on the Sunday, near lunch time, the Memsahib fell off the camper step, which admittedly was high up, the camper being 4WD, and twisted her ankle. 06-10.2016 Lido di Jesolo Boat Building On our way to Venice we stopped off in Munich at our favourite clinic with a scanner. A friend of the Memsahib’s also called Heike works there. It was a torn ligament but it could have been worse and she was fitted out with a ski-boot thing and crutches. Just the thing for climbing a ladder onto a sailboat! Had some days trying to get our heads around the magnitude of the repairs that are needed for our upcoming travels. We ordered some bits and pieces but made no great progress. 11-12.06.2016 Venice, Italy Busman’s Holiday Aidabella was in town and we went around the lagoon to the cruise port for a visit and the crew lunch. There was nasty 50 knot squall came through in the afternoon which made everybody glad the Bella Wolfpack had not ridden out on their bikes. We stayed on for a sushi dinner and as we lent our car to Toralf we had to stay for drinks and then overnight. It was very nice not to have to get into the car to go to the bathroom. The Memsahib flew back to Berlin from Treviso in the afternoon to get a US work visa. 13.-24.06.2016 Lido di Jesolo Foul Play Progress was made with the antifouling. It is a nasty job but two coats of Primocon and two coats of Micron in a fetching navy blue have made it all look nice again. After four years in the boatyard Grapto was finally on the move. With a British Red Ensign and Italian and Venetian courtesy flags flying majestically she made the short voyage from the cradle into the water and was towed another 50 metres into a berth. This was Grapto’s last voyage under the “Red Duster” as she is now German-flagged but we had no actual German flag to hand. Being towed onto a berth felt a bit like we were the “Fighting Temeraire” although unlike that ship it is planned that Grapto will battle again. The reflagging was not really a “Brexit” protest, although it might have been if I had thought of it, it was just that a revised Part 1 registration suitable for my UK residency status was going to be expensive to arrange as all local marine surveyors qualified to take a tape-measure to the boat wanted several thousand euros to confirm what they could have found out from a catalogue. 25.-29.06.2016 Schulzendorf, Germany A Visit Home A flying visit back to the old homestead. Actually a driving visit with the Memsahib driving most of the 1200 kilometres in one day as I was feeling sorry for myself with cough and lack of sleep. One of the apartments we have been using as an office and guest quarters is now rented out to a chap called Denny and we had to drag the furniture into the basement to make room. 29.06.2016 Rostock, Germany Inspections and Servicing The Memsahib had to be in Rostock for a ship’s medical and a meeting so we took the opportunity to see if our Zodiac liferaft could be medically inspected at the same time. I thought that it was unlikely to come home with us again but we took it to Survitec-Zodiac anyway for a service and it looked in very excellent condition considering it’s been on the deck of a boat for 14 years. A new gas bottle, some flares and batteries and it was good to go. I only want to see the inside of it again though at its next service. 30.06.2016 Potsdam, Germany More Inspections and Servicing Having had a fairly spectacular common cold for 11 days I cracked and was persuaded to visit a doctor in Rostock. From arriving without an appointment (at a doctors I have never seen before); having a consultation; a blood test for infections; an X-ray to look for pneumonia then another consultation and picking up an antibiotic prescription and it was all over in less than 2 hours. I was more than impressed. In the evening we drove from Rostock to Potsdam. 01.07.2016 Jesolo, Italy Plain Sailing We collected some sails which had been left at a sailmakers in Potsdam for refurbishment and drove on the Venice. It’s a devil of a long way. 02.07.2016 Venice, Italy All Fired Up After an emergency breakfast EggMcMuffin at McDonalds I fitted a new silencer on the engine. The old one had been corroded by exhaust gases over the years and my 5-year old temporary fixes using epoxy were finally giving way. The engine started first time which amazed me but started overheating straight away which needs further investigation. It will probably turn out to be a busted up impeller as usual. We dragged a new set of sails out of the sail locker. They are actually quite old sails. They have never been used but they were badly stained from rusty eyelets on the sail bags. Who could have expected soft steel to be used to make sail bags! The Memsahib had to go back to work after a couple of months off so we drove over to the Cruise Ship Terminal in Venice and she starts 3 months trotting up and down the Adriatic. I stayed on board the first night while still in port. 03.07-17.08.2016 Jesolo, Italy The Summer of ‘16 Over the past couple of months Grapto has slowly been brought back to life and most things are now working. Weekends have usually been spent on Aidabella while in port. Grapto has had a number of visitors staying. Sister-in-law Micki and son Fabio who were on their way to the Aidabella, Hilmar and his friend Willi who were just passing by on a lads outing and Brother-in-law Frank and sons Mattias and Fabio, again, who stayed for a week and we were able to do some gentle sea trials of Grapto to Venice and Caorle. We have also had a number of trips travelling to Munich and Berlin for medical checkups. It turns out I will need an operation in Berlin in early September and with the expected recovery time this has messed up our timing to sail to Brazil this year. Nothing definite has been decided yet but returning to the Aegean before winter is likely now. |