A Morning in Early Spring

Yesterday morning was one of those immaculate, crisp early Spring mornings which fill one with optimism, joie de vie and general euphoria. Unfortunately, this was not available to Ingrid as she had to spend the day at school at a seminar. On the way home from dropping her off in Haimhausen I took a couple of photos. Click here to view.

Talamone

Talamone

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to relive some very happy sailing memories. I spent two days and nights sailing with Gianmarco and Krantz in the Tyrrhenian between the Tuscan coast and Corsica. We had enormous fun doing this often together 25 to 30 years ago. I am happy to report that, except for the grey hair, nothing seems to have changed - still lots of exhaustive engineering discussions and bad puns. We were crewing on one of the radio escort boats for the 160 mile Tuscan Archipelago Double Handed Race for the Mini 650 class.

"Snipe" Bay, Talamone

After a very pleasant six hour train trip from Munich through the Alps to Bologna I had a meeting with Aldo about the motorboat project and then a lovely evening at home with him, Pucci and their daughter Stefania. Next morning we did the Bologna-Florence-Siena-Argentario road trip which we had done together so many times in the past. The highlight was our lunch of extra chunky roast suckling pig sandwiches at the usual roadside bar somewhere south of Siena. After a supermarket run at Orbetello (amazing how much food is needed for seven people for two full days) we were treated to an impressive dinner of local dishes and wines put on by the Circolo della Vela Talamone for the race competitors.



Gianmarco and Krantz, leaving Porto Santo Stefano

The race started in immaculate spring weather with a gentle but cool Scirocco allowing the fleet to set spinnakers for the long run up to the Isola di Capraia.

Sunset over Corsica

Here we watched the sun set over Corsica and had a sit down dinner of pasta, bruschetta and assorted cheeses together with a red brought from Romagna. We were a lot more comfortable than the crews on the diminutive 21 ft boats that we were escorting (our "chickens").  We then settled in to a paired three hour night watch system. Although the breeze was quite chilly, the night was not unpleasant, with a bright half moon and flat seas. An unofficial cooking competition arose as each pair took turns to cook something more spectacular for lunch and dinner. I stuck to dishwashing.

Lunch on board "Parbleu"

After the race we caught up with Alfredo, another friend from Romagna, whose boat was the first design on which I worked in the Sciomachen office. The prizegiving involved another excellent dinner provided by the Circolo della Vela Talamone at its amazing club house which is part of the town walls high above the bay. Interestingly, the first seven places were either foreign crews or women skippers, so the local lads were a bit embarrassed, as this is a famously tough type of racing.

Grand Soleil 46.3 "Parbleu"

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Spring is here!

Sunday was another beautiful day but reports were looming. After an early start I finally finished them in time for us to go for a cycle to have a late lunch. We cycled to the Olympic Rowing centre (from the 1972 olympics) where a lot of people were making the most of the sun then back to our local Schloss' beer garden.

Burghausen

With spring feeling like it is here, we decided to do a day trip to a Schloss (castle) that we have not seen.
A few weeks ago we bought a poster with 44 important Schloss/Haus to visit and we are now going to try and see each one:

We have already seen a number of them but we are now focussed on completing the list, well I am and Malcolm just goes along with it!

About a one and a half hours away is a place called Burghausen, whose old part of town is on a bend of the Salzach River that separates it from Austria. This is a medieval town with Europe's longest castle (1043 metres) on top of the ridge overlooking it. We went with our friends and their 3 month old beautiful little boy. 

After parking in the middle of town we walked up to the castle and walked around it and through its courtyards, enjoying the sun, then back down to the town for a late lunch. We then crossed into Austria to get a view back over the castle.

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More days in Italy.

After leaving Bologna, we headed up many winding roads to Fanano where Gianmarco and Cristina live. Yet again we got to taste great homemade local food. It was great to catch up with them. The next morning we went for a walk and also to a great local cheese factory/shop where we got to buy great parmesan.

We then headed to Lucca, a lovely old city that is surrounded by 12m high city walls built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The next morning we cycled around the top of these walls. Lucca was a delightful town to wander around. Malcolm climbed the two towers in the town, one of which had a group of holm oak tres for shade.

The next day we went to Parma which is well known for its food industry. We spent a long time trying to manoeuvre through the one way streets of the old town to our hotel so after half an hour we finally made it to the hotel which was about 100 metres from where we began. We discovered that it was also had a lovely old centre to walk around, window shop and sightsee. Parma's Duomo, which was built in the 11th and 12th centuries, was amazing inside.

On the way back to Munich we stopped at a supermarket then in the town of Mantova which we walked around, had lunch and visited the Basilica which has two golden vessels that are said to hold earth soaked by the blood of Christ.

When leaving Italy we stopped at the last possible place to have Italian pizza late at night before crossing through Austria then home.

Click here for more photos of our Italy trip.

Happy Birthday Aldo!

Whilst trying to decide on where to go for ski week we were invited to Aldo's (60th!) birthday party on the Sunday afternoon/evening of the first weekend. A great reason to visit Italy again (do we really need a reason ?!?).

Malcolm studied naval architecture in Southampton with Aldo many (30!) years ago and then worked with Aldo and his family in Bologna. They became close friends and it was great to catch up with him and his wife, Pucci. We soon realised that we are not that far away and must catch up more often.

Ravenna

 After arriving in Bologna late Friday night, we drove to Ravenna on Saturday morning for a visit. Even though Malcolm had lived here for many years and had been to the marina a number of times, he had not visited the town.
Ravenna is famous for its mosaics and the buildings that house them are Unesco-listed. We first went to Basilica Di Sant'Appolinare Nuovo which was built in the 5th and 6th centuries. The mosaics are from this time and are amazingly preserved and very beautiful. The are very detailed and large and take up the whole lengths of the south and north walls.

We then had lunch in a delightful enoteca where I got to taste piadina for the first time, which is a local type of flat bread. Delicious, I had mine with prosciutto and squacquerone cheese (an Italian fresh cream cheese).
After lunch we visited the Basilica Di San Vitale and a Mausoleum that was in  the same complex. They were also from the 6th century and although plain on the outside where both richly decorated with mosaics inside. 

 

The mosaics from the Mausoleum are the oldest in Ravenna: