Graptolite - The Grand Tour
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Wed 7 Oct 2009 14:47
wallow in Marmaris, Turkey while the skipper does a Grand Tour of Europe and
is currently in Germany.
On Friday 18th September I collected my wayward children, Holly and Tom from
Woking and drove up to Blackburn for my Dad's 80th birthday. The surprise
party was not really all that much of a surprise until my brother Duncan
turned up from Australia. Poor Dad's prepared speech about absent friends
and relatives had to be thrown away.
Back south on Sunday and I stayed some more with Mike and Jacqui then we had
a fine weekend's sailing on yacht 'Evelyn B' with Mike, Jacqui and Heike
doing yet another circumnavigation (around the Isle of Wight). Julian's boat
'Treble C' was spotted about a mile off Portsmouth and we hailed the Triple
J's, Julian, John C and Johnny Y as they passed by on their way to
Bembridge.
Then back up the motorway to Lancashire for another short stay with my Mum
and Dad and a few beers with John and Johnny then back south to West Sussex
staying with Julian and Wendy prior to a ferry crossing to Calais on October
1st. A long drive through France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany got me to
Heike's place at Betzdorf, near Cologne, then another long high-speed
autobahn drive the following day to Munich where the Pickup's Senior were
flying in for the Oktoberfest as a birthday treat. Or so they thought.
After a monster meal of beer, pig's feet, ducks and dumplings we did roll up
to the Oktoberfest for a quick look but then we were off to Salzberg in
Austria in warm and sunny autumnal weather. We stayed in the Hotel Sacher.
The chocolate Sachertorte here is not optional. Then we had a few days tour
of the Tyrolean Alps taking us down to Italy and Switzerland then back up
again through Austria and Germany. The last day was a trip up to the top of
the enormous Zugspitze in a very impressive cable car and then down again in
an equally impressive cogwheel train inside the mountain followed by a horse
and buggy ride up to the fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein.
I'm personally not so convinced about the Germanic health benefits of
getting baked while naked in a sauna or eating Bavarian delicacies that are
like great slabs of Spam and chopped up doughnuts, but apart from that this
part of the world is lovely. Our local guide Heike, who was dressed
fetchingly in a selection of Snow White dirndls for the entire trip, was
wonderful. Come to think of it, that's what she always wears. Except in the
sauna!
M (one of the seven dwarves)