Calais and Gravelines

The first part of our Cornwall odyssey took us across Belgium to Calais. In the picturesque main square of Ypres we lunched on the national dish, frites. We then visited Dad’s Uncle Tom’s grave at the Brandhoek New Military Cemetery. As ever, it was quite emotive.

 

We continued cross-country via Cassel and the V2 rocket bunkers at La Coupole d’Helfaut-Wizernes and the Eperleques forest. Ingrid and I then explored the extensive Vauban fortifications and port and beach at Gravelines. We stayed the night in a cheap and cheerful hotel on the beach in Calais with a view over the Channel to the classic white cliffs of Dover. A pleasant dinner was accompanied by a panoramic view of the North Sea and its passing shipping.

Next morning we were greeted with an all-enveloping sea fog. Not only could we not see England, we could hardly see any of France. Fortunately, unlike the ferries, the Channel Tunnel is unaffected by such conditions. The tunnel infrastructure was impressively efficient, so we were quickly loaded on to the train which promptly disappeared into the earth. Thoughts of the millions of tons of seawater above us exacerbated the already gnawing feeling of claustrophobia – I prefer the ferry. 30 minutes later we emerged safely in England.

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Molfetta

School has a mid-term break for carnival, although many use it as a ski week. After last year’s week in Sicily, we headed south again to Puglia to escape Luxembourg’s near zero winter temperatures. We took a cheapo Ryanair flight from Frankfurt-Hahn to Bari, where we hired Ingrid’s favourite car, the Fiat Cinque Cento. Our first stopover was the twin city to Fremantle, Molfetta, from where Mamma Fedele’s family hails.

We had a typical long, late and loud local Sunday lunch at a highly recommended restaurant by the sea. Ingrid’s prawns were almost Freo standard and my seafood pasta was excellent. To walk this off, we wandered around the harbour and the original, walled old town. It being Sunday of Carnevale week, the streets were full of children dressed in colourful costumes, a church procession carrying a gilded saint statue, street parties and the usual passegiata participants. For dinner we had one of the best pizzas we’ve had for a long time, followed by a late evening gelato – yumm!.

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More Cars

As if last Saturday's Porsche-fest weren't enough, this weekend we visited the Luxembourg "Old Timer" car show, hosted by a number of local car clubs. Shane was disgusted there are no 911's. However, there were plenty of truly classic race, rally and road cars on display. My favourite, the Fiat 124 Spyder, of course.

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Porsche Museum

On Saturday, I took a quick trip over to Stuttgart with Shane to visit the Porsche Museum. Minus 4°C and ice on the autobahn made the driving rather interesting. Shane is amongst the many who believe that the only true Porsches are the 911’s, so he was thrilled to see the first production version on display. A lackey later came along to clean off the drool.

Much to Shane’s disgust, I had to admit that the 928 is still my favourite production Porsche – 5.4 litre V8, 350 hp, 275 km/h, elegant and timeless styling and engine in the right place, to boot.

  

The 1971 Le Mans Porsche 917/20 featured such an unusually wide and rounded experimental bodywork that it apparently became referred to as “the pig”. In an amazing display of Teutonic wit and self-deprecation, it competed in bright pink livery with graphics depicting a butcher’s diagram of meat cuts.

  

A particularly interesting beastie was the 2013 limited production Hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder with a 608 hp combustion engine plus 286 hp electric motors. It does 0 to 100 km/h in 2.6 seconds and has a top speed of 345 km/h. It also looks rather hairy.

  

Despite all of the amazing machinery displayed, for me the prettiest car was this little 1500 cc Porsche 804 Formula 1 car driven by Dan Gurney to victory in the 1962 French Grand Prix. It looked like a toy car, but with a 185 hp 8 cylinder boxer engine it could do 270 km/h.

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Australia Day

Time to dust down the BBQ ready for the traditional celebrations.

Rime

Greeting us on our arrival back from Australia were -6°C overnight temperatures and freezing fog for a couple of days – bitterly cold, but very pretty. It was +44°C in Perth at the same time.

  

  

“Rime” – an accumulation of granular ice tufts formed by the freezing of supercooled water droplets on the windward side of a solid surface.

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