The South of France - Finding Port Miou

The south of France has so many places to stay, anchor and marinas it's like we have gone from no choices to too many. Where do you want to go? We have 10 choices. How far today? Ten miles. These are choices we haven't had since Greece. The west coast of Italy is pretty rugged and has very few anchorages between Rome and La Spezia unless you head to Sardinia, Corsica and Elba. We got into the mode of 50 mile days and staying in marinas so we have a bit of catching up to do of just tooling around and letting the prevailing wind help us decide what to do.

We were sailing along under spinnaker, doing about 5 or 6 knots and the first place we had intended to stay didn't look all that attractive. The second place was open to swell from the south so we kept going. There was a beautiful anchorage but again it was open to swell to the south so we settled on a park called Port Miou. 

It is an incredibly narrow Harbour that is totally sheltered. Port Miou is a former rock quarry -- apparently the  hard white stone here was used to make the Suez Canal. They have put mooring balls down and you tie to a mooring and go stern to the rock walls tying on to hooks they have embedded into the wall. The Port guy comes out in his 20 foot boat and facilitates the process by grabbing the line off the back of your boat and slowly pulling it back to you with his boat -- sucking your stern towards the wall and keeping you from hitting the other boats in the process. So far the nay drawbacks are an endless procession of tripper boats with tourists on them cruising by, and the spring fed fresh water that lowers the temperature by about 5 degrees.

The real attraction of Port Miou is the cliff jumpinq. Ross must have jumped 20 times off the high point of about 12-15 meters or so. Marina lept off the next highest point. Jessie and I kept to the lower point of around 5 or 6 meters. Ross would jump off the lower step at the same time but he would go head first. Cheeky bugger!

Alongside the fun, we needed to do some marketing for food and also find a way to charge our batteries. Our relentless need to recharge our computers eats our house batteries alive. I need to come up with a couple of better systems for that this offseason. Probably a bigger alternator and better system for charging laptops will be in the cards for 2012.

The Kids Learn to be a Big Boat Bow-man

We decided to finally get our new spinnaker out and give it a try. Actually it's the same gennaker asymmetrical spinnaker we've had since September but we had a sock made for it in Israel by the excellent North Sails owner Easy Swissa. The spinnaker sock is a device that has a fiberglass throat attached to a long nylon tube with a series of ropes that allow you to hoist and douse the spinnaker with a lot less hassle.

Having done thousands of hoists and doused of the M242 spinnaker, you'd think this would be old hat for us. When you have a 1,000 square foot sail it can create huge loads, and they're intimidating. As a result, we haven't used our spinnaker that much. We need it though because in under 12 knots of breeze, if we go onto a broad reach the boat poops out and we end up powering. With the spinnaker up we can get about 75% of the wind speed converted to boat speed -- making going downwind in light air fairly reasonable.

We were tooling along at around 5 knots and on starboard tack. We had just setup the sail on the left side of the boat. The wind shifted a little bit and we needed to gybe or hit a fairly large stationary object that resembled a big rock with a light on it.

Now you might remember that Ross and Jess use their climbing harnesses as teenage jolly jumpers. Well it actually came in handy this time. We rigged the other spinnaker sheet, Ross kitted up with his harness, we put him onto a spare halyard and he swung out and attached the new sheet allowing us to gybe and avoid that large rock in the way.

The next hour downwind both he and Jess practiced the maneuver and greased it to perfection. I guess they're both now ready to be bowmen on TP52's. Cool. 

How Fast a Year Goes By

The morning of June 21st, 2010 went by in a blur. Tina, Angie, Sarah and Mike all pitching in to get us finally packed and out the door. I had pulled an all nighter painting and building walls for our tenants and we were just not quite ready. 

We climbed onto the airliner, collapsed and began our trip. Some of the milestones we've covered include:

•  13 Countries visited

•  5,000 + miles covered

•  3914 liters of diesel consumed

•  Four major road trips

•  Loads of new parts added to Tara

•  One Chicken Coop designed and built (it houses 13 chickens now)

•  Two visits by Granny Sharon

•  Zero visits from anyone else (we're coming back next year so start planning you weenies)

In addition to these milestones some of the places we have seen include:

•  London

•  Split

•  Venice

•  Dubrovnik

•  Corfu

•  Athens

•  The Acropolis and the Delphi Oracle

•  Mykonos, Ios, Kea, Poros, Paros, Corinth Canal, Simi, Rhodos, Paxos, Anti Paxos and many more Greek islands

•  The Turkish coastline

•  Cyprus

•  TelAviv

•  Jerusalem for Christmas

•  Masada

•  Swimming in the Dead Sea

•  Petra in Jordan

•  The Pyramids of Giza, Abu Simbel, Luxor, the Temple of Karnak, Oases in the Sahara, the Library of Alexandria

•  The Sicilian coast

•  Malta, Gozo, the war caves and blue lagoon

•  The volcano of Stromboli

•  Rome, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, Spanish Steps and Pompeii

•  Tuscany, Florence and Cortona

•  Germany, Remscheid, (zoo, castles, zip line parks, deer stalking)

•  The Italian Riviera

•  Monte Carlo

•  Nice, San Tropez and Toulon on the French Riviera

Along the way we have met many new friends and reconnected with old ones and family. We have stayed in communities that are really supportive and helpful to one another. We have experienced the kindness of locals that have helped us on our way and are continually reminded how much more similar we are than different.

We still have six weeks to go so hopefully we can add some more activities and experiences.

When we list it in this way it sure seems like we have accomplished a lot, but when you are into the day to day of school, work, boat maintenance, keeping the army fed and the like, to doesn't seem like we have accomplished too much. We have all caught up on our sleep, spent countless great hours together. The kids have grown both mentally and physically. Ross is pushing 6 feet tall and Jessie is getting curvy. All fun to see.

Probably the only regret we have is too much screen time. We have too many computers, iPods, iPads and movies. It would have been better to have tried to unplug a bit, though in today's world that may not be possible anymore.

If I were to change one thing it would have been to do what my friend Marcel did and head to the southern hemisphere in December for three or four months. This way we could have made summer last the entire year. Now that summer has returned we realize how special it is and we regret that we cannot spend more time here during this great time of year.

So, in summary, no regrets, would we do it again? Absolutely.

The Beginning of Charter Season - Definition of "Wankering"

You can tell that it is the beginning of charter season for a couple of reasons: crowds -- hey, where did all the people come from? Kids -- we are starting to see other kids around; and, my personal favourite: crazy anchoring techniques.

We had thought that we had seen it all but apparently there are always new ways to do things (or in this case ... Not do things). We were anchored very close to another Beneteau 50 in about 4 meters of water off this point and the wind was blowing around 12-15 knots -- fairly windy.  I was worried we were too close to the other Bene 50 when this 30 foot boat (brand new, probably charter) powers between us, turns around, drops the anchor in-between our two boats and starts to back up into the wind. The most basic concept about anchoring is that your boat always faces upwind (assuming your anchor is on the bow) and no amount of backing up can counteract the force of the wind.

At one point, as we were enjoying cocktail hour I asked "do you think they see the big white boat here?" meaning the one we are sitting on. They were about 10 feet away at the time. We surreptitiously got a fender at the ready and watched them catch the wind, spin around, smack into the side of the other Bene 50, pull themselves forward while jabbing the other boat with boathooks, drag their boat along the other boat's anchor chain and finally goose their motor so they didn't hit us.

Marina, always the good samaritan, hailed over whether they needed help. they yelled back they just had technical difficulties (Ross said "yeah, like not knowing anything about anchoring") and they moved a couple of boat lengths away and actually got their anchor to hold. The next tense moment for us came when the 4 people on board that boat piled into the smallest dinghy we've ever seen with a 2hp engine and headed into town at dusk. The boat was nearly submerged. You know you're overloaded when 6 inch waves obscure their boat from view. Come to think of it I didn't see any activity on their boat this morning. Hope they made it back.

The French Riviera

Our first couple of days on the French Riviera have been great. Starting in Nice with my Stanley Cup hangover, we were able to sail much of the next day to the port of San Tropez. It was quite windy and we were beating into the wind but we didn't really care. We tacked up the shore and into the bay around San Tropez. 

We anchored out in the bay just to the east of the marina and spent the night. The next morning we all piled into the dinghy and went into the city, a lovely town on a promontory. Again the yachts here are incredible, for example, we saw a 114 foot long catamaran and it looked small in comparison to the sailboat beside it. We sorted out my new internet stick and got some groceries, tried out our French and then hopped back in the dinghy for the long power back to Tara.

Ross in his "Jolly Jumper"

We pulled up our anchor and pulled out the sails and pointed the bow west along the coast. We stopped at this anchorage called Anse de Gau, near a marina and town and among a number of other cruisers. Clearly summer is getting here because the number of boats out is increasing exponentially. We swam around the boat, played our volleyball game where the guy who touches the ball last before it heads into the water gets to jump in to retrieve the ball. Happily it was Marina that needed to jump in more than the rest of us. Ross is so entertained and he is kept busy with his 'hoist me up the spinnaker halyard and drop me 8 meters into the water trick'. The rest of us used the halyard as a rope swing into the water.

The other reason to get our Internet stick is to check the weather, our favourite site being windfinder.com. Windfinder shows a couple of days of 25-30 knots and when it blows hard we like to be in a safe place.

We chose the Harbour of Hyeres on a salt marsh on the mainland coast. The marinas in France operate a little differently, you need to come into a dock, register and then they give you a slip. They also don't have guys help you on the dock the way they do elsewhere in Europe. We came in and got our slip (of course not before the boat behind yells at me to move forward so he can get it -- blocking our way out and wanting 60 feet of room for his 28 foot boat ... Grrrr ... Effing Frenchmen ). anyway we got our slip early in the morning and went to the beach. A very nice day without much wind ... Until about 6pm. 

The wind arrived about the same time as a group of Charterers so we took our beers on deck and watched the carnage as possibly sober, definitely inexperienced, and NOOB factor (No Owner On Board) yachts came in to tie up in 20+ knots of side wind. Some executed perfectly, others not so much. Our favourite was the guy that pulled in, threw the line to shore, was tied up and then realized that the end of the line wasn't tied onto the boat as they drifted away towards the next clump of boats. Comedy in it's purest form.

The best part of day 1 was the remarkable find of the parts we needed for our BBQ. So we bought them and now have a fully functional gas BBQ on the back of Tara. We grilled up hamburgers for dinner to celebrate. So far we have grilled every day!

Day two in the Marina was a maintenance day. The bow of your boat gets stained from the mooring lines -- they sit in dirt on the bottom and that gets transferred to the bow of the boat. So Marina and I got out the cut polish and cleaned it up along with the cockpit and transom. This is when you begin to realize the size of the boat ... It's big and takes a lot of work it keep clean and waxed. We ran out of gas after the starboard side, we will need to do the port side in the next few days.

Jessie met some friends at Hyeres and we tried to hook up with them at an anchorage (15 miles the wrong way) but alas, while we were there, we never found them ... Bummer. So we turned the boat back towards Hyeres and then anchored off Isle de Porquerolles in a beautiful bay. 

Showering off the transom.

The 2 days of 20+ knots has stirred up the water and dropped the surface temperature down a couple of degrees. That's enough to keep Marina and I happily on the boat but the kids were game. They were trying to clean off the propellor of some barnacles but unfortunately a jelly fish floated by and boom, Ross was out of the water like he was shot from a cannon. He is OK jumping off a 10 meter cliff, or off the side of the boat when we are doing 5 knots, but a 5 cm round jelly turns him from Superman into Clark Kent.

A couple of minutes after the kids got out of the water we were standing at the back of the boat and there was the jelly ... I quipped "he's a pretty strong swimmer to have made it from the middle of the boat to the transom in less than 5 minutes. Killers of the sea those jellies," and everyone had a laugh. Ross knows he has an unfounded fear but he will work through it I am certain. Meanwhile, Jess and I are fearful of fish nipping at us if we jump from the boat when it is moving. I guess everyone has their phobia.

Monte Carlo to Anse de la Salis (off Nice - France)

The distances off the coast of France are quite small ... There are lots of marinas and anchorages to go to in distances of 20 to 30 miles. Unlike Italy where the distances are more like 50 miles apart and where there are really very few places to anchor. This is a welcome change because the kids prefer to be at anchor and our sailing kitty likes saving the 70 to 100 euros a night for moorage. High season rates kick in July 1 and are minimum 100 euros a night so if we aren't careful we can go through our entire months' budget on moorage (assuming we don't eat, drink, use fuel, or anything else that costs money) .... not to mention house taxes are due the first week of July. Yikes!

The kids and Marina dropped me off in the Nice Harbour and I took the dinghy to shore on a quest for an Internet stick and some food. I found a place but they were sold out. Finally got to a SFR store and got an Internet stick. It amazes me how big a disparity in telecoms cost there is across Europe. In France it was 125 euros for a stick and 1 gig of transfer. In Italy, a stick and 5 gig was 29 euros, in Malta it was 49 euros. Greece was 49 euros but they blocked Skype, Turkey was 75 euros but gave 4 gig transfer and they only count uploads. Israel was about $100 with about 3 gigs of transfer. So about a 5x difference in price ... across a fairly close proximity. No wonder the EU is regulating these companies, all of whom make healthy profits.

After all that I got back to the boat with an internet stick and some food too and we left for an anchorage about 10 miles out of town. We settled in and I lit up my Internet stick and ... it wouldn't work. I tried everything, different computers to no avail. In desperation I pulled out my iPad and actually connected to a beach restaurant on the shore's WiFi. Being resourceful, I pulled out our WiFi repeater and poached the Internet all night (merci beaucoup Plage Keller). We were treated to a local fireworks show that night too.

While I did watch the entire game it wasn't very fulfilling. One, then two, then the killer third goal while we were on the PP, you could tell it wasn't going to be. Twice in my lifetime the Canucks have made it to the 7th game of the finals and come up short. It is so gutting that I may not watch hockey for a while next season. It would have been different with Samuelson, Hamhuis, Raymond,a healthy Kessler, Henrik and Edler. The bright side was Bieksa, Salo, Hansen and Tanev, the big question mark is Luongo. Maybe in 2012 we can win it all. They certainly could have used the 3 wasted games against Chicago and Nashville to add to their energy reserves against the Bruins.

Bottom line, it hurts to be a Canucks fan.

Visiting 007 on his Home Turf - Monaco!

We powered out of San Remo towards Monaco. I don't know about you but I had always thought Monaco was small but I was surprised to find out how small. Think Coal Harbour to about Main Street. The terrain is nearly vertical so it goes up quite high with an interesting mix of new skyscrapers and old buildings.

We had arranged to stay at YCM (Royal YC de Monaco) but it turns out the entire port is administered by one authority. We had to drop Marina off to find out what was happening because the radio wasn't working (actually the radio worked fine, it was the human element on either end that was having trouble with communication). When we called in to the port guys the second time waiting for our slip, they said they couldn't see us. We gave them our exact coordinates (near the Optis sailing in the harbour) and the guy said .. (no lie) "oh the little sailboat"' and in Monaco, that was true, our 50 footer is a little boat.

We got off the boat and did some exploring as a family. The two things that struck us about Monte Carlo were the size of the boats: 100 footers were small, and the unbelievable cars: Ferraris, Lambos, Aston Martins, Maseratis, Porsches, Beamers, MB's, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, new and old but all in immaculate shape.

Marina and I went to the casino but shied away from the 20 euro cover charge, opting for a coffee and a beer for 20 euros instead. We engaged in people watching for an hour or so, me nursing my $20 beer, Marina her $10 coffee. Monaco is a place to be seen. It reminded us a bit of Vegas, with more old world charm, part Ritz Carlton and part working harbour. A curious mix.

As we have said before, while we like 5 star, we can only take so much, so we got up early and decided to head to an anchorage just west of Nice. Monaco is really set up for the big money .. 50 meter boats, loads of cash to drop while the crew deals with the boat the owner flys in on the helicopter. Then head to the casino to drop some coin into the Royal coffers. It's not exactly the shoestring budget cruising that we are doing.

In reality there was another big draw to get us going to France. We couldn't find internet service in Monaco and the internet sticks they sold would only work for Monaco, not France. What I really wanted was to get a French Internet stick so I could watch game 7 of the Stanley cup finals. I stayed up for every game watching the games through my Slingbox. So off we left at 10am for France to begin our journey towards Spain.

Loano to San Remo

Our last stop in Italy was San Remo. It has an older marina and the boats are really big. We had the pleasure of sailing most of the way to San Remo. It is so much more pleasant when you head downwind ... The wind seems lighter, the boat is more upright and the big bonus of being able to point the bow directly where you want to go.

We arrived at San Remo in the early afternoon and were directed between a couple of 80 footers. The electrical hookup was a 64 amp connection -- ours is a 16 amp connection and we have adapters for 32 and 48 amps ... But the 64 amp connection is about the size of my leg. I think we could probably run the house off of a 64 amp service. Thankfully, the ormeggiatore had an adapter and we had water and power. A few minutes after our arrival we were treated to some entertainment when a guy fell off his passerale into the water. He was yelling at the ormeggiatore and they were rolling their eyes.. It's not like they pushed him in or anything ... But if you fall in, you might as well blame someone for it, and the hired help is as good a group to blame as anyone.

The kids were in love with their computer screens so Marina and I walked to town to get some cash and check it out. We were caught in a bit of a rainstorm and most shops were closed, but you could tell that San Remo is a really nice place.

The next morning we were off to do some marketing and came back to the boat around 10:30 to wake the kids and get a move on. The next stop is Monte Carlo, home of Princess Grace, 007, and the Gran Prix. Should be great. Arrivaderci Italia. We had a great time.

Marina de Verazza to Loano and the Caves of Toirano

Our budget analyst decided that one night at Verazzo was the right number so we better head out and sailed 40 or so miles up the coast. Navigation is pretty easy here, keep the shore on the right, stay a mile off shore is our strategy and most of the time it works just fine. We continue to use Sea Clear charts and also rely heavily on Rod Heikel's books for Harbour charts. He has only steered us wrong once and we caught it early enough before we ran into the sand.

Loano is the beginning of the Italian Riviera -- the water is getting warmer, clearer, bluer and the bathing suits are coming out. The marina is huge and under development, probably about a thousand berths, with the majority being for boats 40+feet long. We had planned to stay for two nights, primarily to wait out some weather. We ended up staying three nights because we liked the place.

Staying in such a large marina means you must do a lot of walking. With Marina's neck hurting we kept it pretty quiet. I ended up walking to town by myself and with each of Marina, Jess and Ross, then did it again the next day. Nobody could understand why I was tired....might have been the 10K walking to and from town with everyone.

One of the cool things to do in Loano is to visit the caves at Troiano. These caves are massive and very cool to visit. We ended up trying to catch a bus to the caves and went into a bakery to get a snack and ask directions.

The bakery lady asked a customer with better English skills and then another customer offered us a ride to the caves. We arrived about an hour before they opened up (for the afternoon, not the morning ... I know, what a shock)  so we had a chance to sit down and eat some lunch. We were a bit disappointed that the tours were guided but the moment you go inside you understand why.

If the tours weren't guided they would lose some people plus the stalactites would all be broken off for souvenirs. And since they grow about 1 cm every 50 years, the caves would be destroyed fairly quickly. 

Tara breaks out of Porto Lotti

Here we are nearly a month after pulling into La Spezia. Porto Lotti is a beautiful, well run marina that has great amenities. The problem with these type of places is that they can be hard to leave.

We chose Porto Lotti because it has a good location and had stuff Marina and the kids could do when I spent three weeks in Vancouver for work ... Things like a tennis court, swimming pool plus a soccer pitch. 

Wait a second ... did you say work ... what the heck is that all about ???? Well, there was this proposal to BC Hydro and I went back to give the team a hand.

Saying goodbye to Matt

Anyway, we left Porto Lotti fairly early for us .. Around 10:30.  We had planned to drop a hook at Portofino but the wind didn't look favourable on windfinder.com, so we sought out a nearby marina called Marina de Varazza. 

Posh is an understatement for this place and at 113 Euros is one of the more expensive we have encountered along the way. The staff were totally friendly and very helpful. When you are treated well you don't mind paying. Talk about a massive marina. I would guess 1000+ boats are there plus there is a boatyard that was working on a couple of 50+ meter long boats. To give some perspective, I think the biggest boat in Vancouver is Jimmy Pattison's Nova Spirit and it is probably 40 or so meters. Here, a 40 meter boat is a mid sized boat. At 15 meters we have a big boat for Vancouver and a nice mid-sized cruiser for the Med.

Somehow in the night, Marina hurt her neck and got a crick in it. She couldn't move her head side to side without a lot of pain. So, being self sufficient she researched it on the internet and we walked down to the local Pharmacia and bought her a neck brace that immobilized her neck and gave it some time to get better.

Even infirm Marina is a trooper so we kept going and she kept teaching.

The kids are closing in on the end of school but it seems the closer they get to the end the less they want to work. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a grunt for everyone but the prize at the end is in sight.

Road Trip to Switzerland and Germany

Well...Matt had to go back to Vancouver for almost 3 weeks so we had to alter plans. At first it was a bit of a disappointment (I know...what losers we are...we’ve had 10 months of traveling the Med and we’re disappointed that we’ll lose out on 3 weeks?), however, we soon got over that, well, not really Matt who had to leave but for Ross, Jessie and me, we altered plans and expectations and although we had to give Corsica and Sardinia a pass, we decided a road trip was in order! I am very fortunate to have my mom’s sisters and their families live in Switzerland and Germany. So...it was time to re-visit my aunts, uncles and cousins – and we were welcomed and treated so amazingly well.

Our little...and I mean little car, that does not go too fast but we got to 150 km/h on the Autobahn reliably got us there!

First we drive about 7 hours to a tiny alpine village in Switzerland, called Lantsh-Lenz, about half an hour from Chur. My Auntie Iris, my mum’s sister, and Uncle Valley and my cousin Peter, arranged for a lovely, cozy apartment for us to stay in – one room with beds for all and a wee kitchen with table and chairs, and even a little balcony. It was less than 100 meters from my aunt and uncle's house. 

Enjoying Peter's yummy pasta!

We arrived, enjoyed an excellent pasta meal made by my cousin Peter, who by fortunate luck was visiting his parents for a few days, and then the next day we hiked up to Vastenos. Vastenos is a piece of property, used for farming in the past, about 40 minute hike up, up, up the hill, behind the forests and onto open rolling fields with the very old, wood barn/house at the top. 

The view up at Vastenos....its gorgeous!

The view is spectacular, a mountain stream provides fresh running water (and the fridge for wine and beer) and we had a “grill” – Swiss English for BBQ. My cousin Peter had a friend with his family join in and it was great.

Everyone in the barn enjoying a good meal at Vastenos

We stayed one more night and had a cup of tea together the next morning before heading out, to Germany where my mum’s other sister, Auntie Kay, lives in Remscheid. 

Uncle Valley, Ross, Marina, Peter at the back, Auntie Iris
and Jessie up at Vastenos

Sadly, my Uncle Fred passed away a few years ago, but their daughter (my cousin Vera) came from a town on the Baltic Sea in East Germany to stay for a few days with us too. 

Vera and Ross Grilling

And my other cousin, Eva, and her husband Achim, also came for an evening “grill” – I’m practically glowing writing about it, how special “family” is and how wonderfully welcome we were. 

Marina with Achim and Eva

When Vera had to go home, her son Philip arrived (he’s 22) and Ross had some appreciated testosterone in the house! Out came the air rifle, computer games and computer talk, swimming and deer chasing. 

Philip and Ross enjoying the air rifle. 

The deer ate all the young rose buds in my aunt’s beautifully cared for garden. I played a couple hours, maybe more, tennis with Dirk – who is extended family and went to the Caribbean with us many many years ago – and my muscles, unworked for a while, felt the pain for the next 3 days – it was a good hit!

All of us went to an Adventure/Challenge Tree Climbing place called Klettergarten (literal translation climbing garden) on what we thought was the last day. It was terrific! Platforms, cables, tires, ropes, rope ladders, rope nets, and more...with a zip-line finish! Everything was about 10 – 15 meters above ground (of course we were harnessed in) passing from tree platform to tree platform, and we had lots of fun! Ross and Philip led on while Jessie, Estella and finally I, brought up the rear.

Ross, Jessie, Philip, Marina and Estella

Then...we were supposed to leave the next morning, but Auntie Kay just had a thought, “too bad we didn’t tell Matt to come back via Dusseldorf to spend a day or two here”, and everyone agreed. So, onto Skype and a few hours later and some organizing from Matt’s side, he decided to come to Remscheid before we go back to the boat. So poor Auntie Kay has us in her house for a few more days...which we find lovely! We are learning about Bonzai Trees and still chasing deer, every day, several times a day. The fence man comes on Thursday to hopefully solve the problem. Almost as fun as the chicken coop!

The ladies after an afternoon in the hair salon! 

It was very fun to have Matt arrive! Jessie and I went to the airport in Dusseldorf using the new Garmin GPS car navigation system that I bought (a new toy for me!) and only took one wrong turn (it takes a while to get used to the way directions are given out). Matt was totally pooped out, having traveled over 24 hours. 

Back at the house we had a snack, a glass of wine and then to bed. The next day was very relaxing, although we did get out and do a little shopping mall excursion, and then a very fun grill (that’s German for BBQ) with Dirk and Bettina at Kay’s house. 

Matt, Dirk and Bettina

Started off with Lemon Drops and finished with wine after midnight...what a nice way to end our time here.

The next morning we all slept in a little and then took on the task of packing the car...the picture speaks for itself.

We were going to stop half way but between Matt and I there was enough energy to drive the whole way, which took about 13 hours (including a few breaks). Back “home” on Tara around midnight and happy.