Day 26, 01.11.2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina, H was busy so in the morning I went out on the streets of Buenos Aires by myself with bike. Mostly around the Casco Historico with its excellent neoclassical, art-nouveau and art-deco buildings and also around Puerto Madero with its derelict docklands turned entertainment/business centre. There were several demonstrations …
Day 25, 31.10.2018, Montevideo, Uruguay, We were last in Montevideo four years ago and that time we rented a car to look at the coast and countryside but it was not the most inspiring of trips. This time we stuck to the city on foot. Montevideo , at least the old part of city, is, …
Day 21, 27.10.2018, Rio de Janeiro, A great day out. H had arranged a driver and guide to speed things up. First stop was the train going up Corcovado to see the iconic Cristo Redentor. We had a celebratory caiprinha at the top. As it was getting dark we dashed on to the Sugarloaf mountain …
Day 19, 25.10.2018, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, Arrived in warm and sunny Salvador de Bahia. We decided against a bike ride as time was short but the topography of this town is unforgiving so it was for the best. We walked through the big tourist tat market near the port called Mercado Modelo. As usual …
Day 11, 17.10.2018, Mindelo, Cape Verde, Arrived in Mindelo but expect to be staying here longer than anticipated while some ship repairs are worked on. I took my bike around the streets of Mindelo until it got dark. The island of Sao Vincente looks a bit like one of the drier Canary islands but with …
Day 8, 14.10.2018, Funchal, Madeira, For those of you following the weather and this blog, you will know that we have crossed just ahead of the track of Hurricane Leslie and have been running down its southern flank. It’s been a bit rough but nobody has had to be tied to the wheel in soaking …
Day 6, 12.10.2018, Atlantic off Portugal, Leixoes, Porto has had to be abandoned as a destination. The port is closed. There was a nasty storm last night as we came around Finisterre. 60 knot winds at times, maybe Beaufort 10 or even 11. It shook up the beer in the fridge let me tell you. …
Day 5, 11.10.2018, La Coruña, Spain, My third time to La Coruña. The first time was with Dan and Ian after a rough Biscay crossing early September 2007. We didn’t do much. Just wandered the streets a little and rested up. The second time was in August of 2017 with Heike on the AIDAbella enroute from …
Day 2, 08.10.2018, North Sea, Heike has been on the Baltic Sea run with AIDAaura for the past few weeks. For the last 10 days, Roland, Heike’s father, and Freddie, Retha’s daughter, have been along for the ride but their trip was over so I collected them from the ship drove them to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof …
Day 1, 07.10.2018, Hamburg-Altona, I rented a big Audi today at Schönefeld Airport in Berlin for a one-way trip to Hamburg to join the AIDAaura. This car had a head-up display with data projected on to the windscreen like a fighter plane. Streaking along no-speed-limit Autobahns at nearly 200 km/hour, or Mach 0.2 as we …
We have a trip coming up in a couple of weeks that will take us by sea from Hamburg to the fjords of Patagonia and then island hopping across the South Pacific to Sydney. This is cruise-ship work for Heike but I’m going along this time as a stowaway. Slurping cocktails on the pool-deck is not …
During early May 2018 we relaunched Graptolite at Porto Turistico di Jesolo and Heike and I together with friend Hilmar set off south down the Adriatic to a new home in Greece. It was about 700NM and we had a few overnight stops in Croatia and had an overnight passage skirting around the 12 mile …