Frustration is setting in. I think this has been the longest period of not travelling for a long time. Probably for the last 40 years or so. When we have left Tyrol on the last day of this year’s ski season on March 15, 2020, Corona or Covid19 has taken us in its nasty grip. Today, on May 13, 2020 – eight and a half weeks later I am sick of it. The highlight of these last two months was my visit of my parents last Sunday. Whereas it should have been my birthday (with a nice trip to Italy), another 40 days on skies, Max qualifying for the German ski championship, a first attempt at kiting in the far too cold Baltic Sea.
The beard is back – on our way back from Tyrol to Munich, when it became clear, that we had to be quarantined of two weeks I’ve pledged to not shave until I can have my first public beer again. Little did I know that two weeks was just the beginning. This picture was taken at the end of week four…
Instead – virtually every conversation, if not early, then late, ends up with Corona/Covid19. But let’s look at it positively: at least it’s not about Trump. Or the AfD (right-winged populist bullshitters). Whatever: I am so looking forward to the day when I can travel again with a good conscience. I hope it’ll be soon.
Travelling is a lot of fun. And a lot of the fun stems from meeting people. Interesting, funny, exciting, warm, skilful people; our paths cross, we share experiences, exchange thoughts, drink beer, whatever seems right at the time. In the Americas we’ve met a lot of great people and very little people I’d rather not meet. You notice that I’ve switched from the family “we” to a Daniel “I” in the negative part of the sentence: some people claim that I might be more – how shall I put it – prone to not wanting to embrace my fellow humans in more instances than other members of the family. OK, back to people – let’s take my fellow travellers in Brazil: fun seekers, sporty lads and lasses out to do what they love doing. Which seems generally true for travellers. However, there’s a breed of traveller around Asia (and I haven’t met these anywhere else), which make me puke:
I guess the dude feels the thousand years of spiritual enlightenment around Angkor Wat flowing through his veins right now. I hope there’s a trace of mushrooms in his blood, too. I sure hope the guy is not sober.
It is fair to say that we experienced much more on this trip than we had expected: new friends in Revelstoke and Jericoacoara, nature to the power of ten in Galapagos, raw volcanic power and landscaping in Hawaii, the joy of kite boarding and and… However, we were not prepared for a truly moving event in Japan’s Hiroshima – and the being moved included all members of the Breadbasket Team from six to 51. By sheer coincidence we had the chance to be in Hiroshima at the anniversary of the atomic bomb drop on August 6th, 1945. Just a few days earlier we had visited Pearl Harbor, where we learnt that US intelligence failed Continue reading “Hiroshima – 6 August 2016”→
The title of Jacob Forever’s Latino summer hit, which accompanied us everywhere in Cuba (and is now an entry in my all time favourites playlist), gives the Malecon, Havana’s legendary seaside promenade, a higher rating than I would.
However, Havana was one of the highlights of our journey. What a place! Beautiful buildings, nice restaurants, great bars, but above all a happening, happy vibe which makes it truly unique. Like any other big city with a not so well off population it has its downsides: petty theft, extremely friendly ladies (and I expect lads, too), who, as my old friend Don Antenno once put it during a legendary night, “won’t really love me” and a lot of other people who Continue reading “Havana – Hasta Que se Seque el Malecon”→
Being German I naturally pride myself of belonging to a nation that can organise things. In fact, in line with German modesty, I always thought we were the world champion in getting things done. Not necessarily the best in everything (just most things), but the best overall. Now, Japan puts a serious dent into my patriotic pride. Let’s play a little competition encompassing three disciplines: airport arrival process, train travel, hotel check-out (very appropriate to the start of the 2016 Rio Olympics).
Shinkansen – a valuable player in the Japanese team.
Let’s start with our arrival process in Tokyo’s Narita airport: my expectation was to see millions of little, hectic people running around nervously, an hour wait at immigration and some more thirty minutes at the baggage claim. Very far from the truth: everything was super relaxed, there was no wait at the approximately 20 open immigration counters and when we reached the baggage claim our bags trundled already on the conveyor belt. I don’t even want to compare this experience with Munich’s airport. Certainly a 1:0 Japan. In fact, even better: I don’t know how you feel about people’s behaviour around the baggage claims. I for myself am always surprised why people think that standing as close to the conveyor belt as possible, ideally with a trolley between themselves and the conveyor belt, is a good idea. If I am honest, it is usually one of these situations where I wish that Q had equipped myself with a vaporising wrist watch that I could point at these idiots and turn them into dust. No need for that in Narita: people waited calmly a couple of meters away from the claims area – this, unfortunately, puts Japan in the lead 2:0. Only 60 minutes into the game.
Next part: train travel. Step one: ticket acquisition. When we arrived at the railway ticket office I thought: bugger! There were at least 15 people ahead of me. Despite the fact that the single queue was served by Continue reading “Japan vs. Germany – 5:0”→
It has been a pleasure on this trip to follow Max’ transformation from small, enthusiastic boy into a social whatd’ya’callit dude. He showed signs of that already last year when he started ski racing and relatively quickly gained some respect for his skiing among the older ranks in the club. This continued in Revelstoke, where his drive and resilience to improve as a skier brought him a lot of sympathies from team mates, trainers and last, but not least, also some good results. That said, for us as parents it was a little bit more of the same, so I didn’t really register a massive change.
Handling a kite – not a problem for a 10 year old. All comes natural.
Later in the trip I wanted to take the opportunity to learn kiteboarding proper. Last year in Sweden I was struggling with everything, but got a taste and felt that this trip would be a good chance to learn a new skill at my almost biblical age. So we went to Jericoacoara in Brazil and Continue reading “From Boy to Dude – Max, the Kiter”→
When we planned this trip we knew we were going to get far. Little did we know, though, that we’d leave our home planet and visit Earth’s neighbour.
Our Jeep Wrangler turned into a spaceship. The friendly surfer attitude had to be dropped to ensure survival in a hostile environment.
We wanted to go up Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai’i. When we arrived at the bottom of the mountain we were wrapped in low hanging clouds – the prospect of driving up 4200m above sea level wasn’t too inviting. Luckily, about two thirds up we went through the clouds.
I still remember a conversation I had with our neighbour, Oscar, about kite surfing in Brazil. He mentioned a small place just North of Fortaleza and I made a little mental note of that. Months later, in Revelstoke, we’ve met Chris – a fantastic skier and, as it turned out, kite addict. Over quite a few discussions with a beer or two he made it clear to us, that if we wanted to kite surf, we would have to go to Jericoacoara. I think I will be eternally grateful to Chris for having sent us here.
Jeri beach with the sunset dune on the background: there’s always a big gathering up there
Our trip to Cuba has been fantastic: the life and atmosphere in Havana, sheer beauty in Vinales, recent history in Playa Larga (and yet another CIA meddling failing is just too much fun), time warp in Trinidad and, eventually, the Caribbean dream in Varadero.
The beach at Varadero is probably one of the best beaches in the world: fine, white sand – turquoise, clear water.
When we’ve planned our Cuba trip we weren’t sure about how things would work out. We’ve heard too many stories of travellers reporting food ranging from inedible to incredibly boring, cumbersome travelling, lots of hassling – Continue reading “Varadero – Caribbean Dream?!”→
Who's been here? 