Launch of Alinghi's cat

Impressive pics from yesterday's transport of Alinghi's cat from its hangar for its christening in Lake Geneva.  Another 90ft x 90ft monster to race against Oracle's one next February 2010.  

Venue will be finally disclosed August 8th.  Valencia has limited options to be chosen (if any)...winds are pretty unstable in that month there and Oracle knows the field very good.  I bet for Dubai (Turkey has been rumoured, too).     

Anyhow, hope this mess gets over soon and we have a conventional Cup in 2012-13...I doubt it will be ever be again in Valencia...that's the main thing that drives me nuts...with better planning from Alinghi and the Spanish team/politicians...we would have had the Cup again in Valencia...grrrrr

Grandpas' visit

at the Aumeister Biergarten

Odeonsplatz

Kaisergarten

Mick first two months

Lago di Como

There are lots of magnificient places in Europe. One of them is without doubt the Lake Como in the Lombardy. 

 

Sabine with George Clooney's house in her back

Nic invited us over this past weekend to his parents beatiful place directly on the shoreline at Torno.  Impressive house indeed.  We loved it.  

XXI Trofeo Peñon de Ifach

As mentioned earlier, I had to pass on the initial regattas of the season (due to obvious reasons...e.g. Mick birth at 5:34am on April 10th found the B-Crew (my dad & co) in front of Tagomago fighting with an upcoming gale at the past Ruta de la Sal)).  

That's why I was very much looking forward to our first real test with the A-Crew at one of the best regattas of the season, the prestigious XXI Trofeo Peñon de Ifach.  A two leg regatta, Calpe-Formentera-Calpe, with a great rest day in beatiful Formentera. 

Competition was tough, very good sailors indeed, but I think with the learnings of this edition and some serious training, we'll be much better next time. (standings if interested here).  We also faced some heavy duty waves with Beaufort 6 winds on the second leg that round up three days of great sailing in all possible conditions. 

Can't wait for the next one.

Los Marqueses - Three generations

Mick - first two months

First ride with his burley

herewith some pics from Mick's first two months on the road (land, sea and air) with us...we don't sleep much, but it is definitely a fantastic experience.

 

First sailing trip Denia to Calpe

Flying with your own bed is a piece of cake

Trekking with my bugaboo and the help of Ludwig is also fun

Malta

Prime Minister residence in Valletta

some snapshots from May (biz) trips...umm...only from Malta as I placed in facebook the ones from Andorra (yes, again...first time going there out of the ski season...beatiful spring scenery) and Bern.  Pretty nice island with lots of history (actually Malta consists of six islands, being Malta and Gozo the largest)...I think I will sail to here one day...

Great lunch place in St Julians

the impressive natural port of Valletta

Facebook is killing the Blog-star

urrg, I need to pay attention...facebook is definitely keeping me out of posting more...it is indeed a great platform with much more interaction than this blog...ummm...anyhow...will try to keep it up...there are still good blog stories coming :-)

Why we miss Rue Montorgueil

No matter the (great) places will be living in the next years, we'll always remember and miss the vibe in our awesome market street Rue Montorgueil.  Right in the middle of Paris, but still with a lot of charm, a cool bobo (bourgeouis bohemian) attitude and sort of off-the-radar from the tourist crowds in the Marais or Quartier Latin, the rue Montorgueil and adyacent streets are our favourite area of Paris.  Four years living there (in nummer 92) that we'll never forget. 

and here the latest coolest video from the street:

Make The Girl Dance "Baby Baby Baby" ( official video )
Uploaded by placeblancherec - Explore more music videos.

Nursing in Black Africa

Very proud of my mother doing voluntary nursing work these days at the Albert Schweitzer   hospital in Lambarene, Gabon.   Very jealous as well of my dad, who is currently visiting her. That part of black Africa must be amazing. 

A Sunday afternoon...

...sometimes I love our place...(more than usual I mean)...

btw, April has been the sunniest and warmest in Germany ever...keep it on, May!

first days hanging out with Mick

Still on the getting to know each other phase, but things are going quite smoothly with Mick (btw such a cutie!).  So smoothly that the midwife told us that Mick was a baby "for beginners", i.e. easy going, long sleeper, limited hassle...hope it stays like this!! 

Herewith some pics from the first outtings with him (first beergarden visit and first lunch outside)

Mick coming home

About to go to pick up Sabine and Mick from the maternity clinic. First day home...now the reality of the new situation will definitely kick-in.  Looking forward!

here some of the pics taken by the clinic photograph. pretty cute ones.  and here the official one in the clinic website. 

pics from Ruta de la Sal 2009

Like in the past four years, this edition of the regatta Ruta de la Sal has faced cold and tough weather conditions. Eastern not the best time to visit Spain, I would say!   

In average the boats have needed 12 hours more than usual to reach Ibiza (the change of course to end in San Antonio this time made the race 5nm longer, i.e. just ~45minutes, thus the tricky winds made up for the rest). 

The small crew onboard ESP-6315 mastered the challenge. Hut up, dad!

Germany's Next Top Model

With Sarina and Mandy

Stefan and Melanie called me to come over to the Seehaus beergarten on Wednesday evening (Sabine's and Mick's maternity clinic is conveniently located not only close to home but to the Seehaus and Chinese Tower beergartens :-) .  Once there I bumped into three of the current candidates at Heidi Klum's Germany's Next Top Model, a huge hit in German television although no one claims to watch it.  Me neither  :-)

Although they didn't want to tell me, my theory of these three being together in Munich is that they have made it into the Top 3 finals (Sara was the third one - the show is not shown live). We'll find out in 4 weeks...

Mick Léon is here!

Fantastic weekend. Mick Léon arrived a couple of days early. All went perfect. A really cute boy.  

Quite big with his 4100gr and 58cm long...but apptly his size now is not correlated with his size later on. A pity .-)

Sabine and myself are extremely happy. A new exciting phase in our lives started on 10.4.2009..

Start of the sailing season 2009

The spring has arrived and so has the sailing season. The Salty Route starts in 5 days. 

Due to obvious reasons, I am going to pass this edition, but our vessel, ESP-6315, will be at the start with the B-crew.  

Wish them good and fair winds! Go go go

Game over...

...for a conventional 33rd edition of the America's Cup and for Valencia as the host venue.  After almost two years of one of the most exciting editions ever, the whole momentum desafortunately is gone through BMW-Oracle's move into the courts.  

Last Thursday, the NY Court of Appeals finally decided in favor of Oracle. As a result, Alinghi and BMW Oracle will now face each other, earliest 10 months from now, in a venue that Alinghi will choose and in a vessel that BOR will choose (most likely its huge trimaran). 

Only way out would be an agreement between Alinghi and Oracle to allow for a conventional Cup in 2010 or 2011. Apptly there are 19 teams hoping for this (I doubt this number big time...the current financial crisis has hit most teams).  But knowing that we are facing personal egos here (Bertarelli vs Ellison & Coutts), an agreement is as likely as an elephant flying in the sky...

Ellison never made it so far at the America's Cup...a dumm move from Bertarelli and the Spanish team allowed for this...a pity to have wasted the magnificient momentum of the past edition...and a bigger pity for Valencia...

At least we enjoyed the cup tremendously last time...if someone had told me years ago that the America's Cup, THE sailing event worldwide, would take place in my home town I would have declared him/her totally nuts...(here some links to the highlights, nite life, and the round robins)

It was aaaaaawesooooooome...

Still playing around with all the footage and pics from our recent powder trip...it was aaaaaaawesooooooome, it was deeeeeeeeeep!  

this teaser is was based on Claim, the best ski film ever, or so it claims  ;-)  we watched it over and over at Longhorn

Next year: The Monashees??

As Dani yells into the camara in the last scene of the Freeriding in Whistler video, we are playing with the idea of trying out the Monashees next season...one of the reasons is the following (amateur) video that we found during one of the early morning breakfasts & surfing in Whistler...it starts slowly but after one minute the action kicks in...steep & deeeeep

open runs are nice, but gladed ones with its pillows, trees and meadows are way way better...bring it on, ride on!

Freeriding in Whistler

herewith the footage from the other days in Whistler, BC including our two days catskiing in the backcountry with the great folks from Powder Mountain Catskiing, our fancy b-day dinner at Bearfoot Bistro (one of Canada's best restaurants), skiing through the Village at nite and some apres-ski snapshots at Longhorn Saloon...pretty much just Dani and myself appeared on it...ummm...not sure where the others where....ups....sorry guys... ;-)

all in all, one of the best ski weeks ever...pow pow pow!

Spanish Powderfreaks

Heliskiing off Whistler

Last Thursday with clear blue skies and 82+ cm of new snow we had an awesome heliskiing day...magnificient...it was deep, man! (internal joke ;-)

This year we went with Whistler Heliskiing, the largest outfit in town. Compared to the cozy 15 people (three groups of five) from Coast Range Heliskiing, Whistler Heli brings four to five times as many people to the tops. But if you take the Ultimate Run option, you end up in fiver groups and far from the others...thus, just as with Coast Range (and without the long drive to Pemberton...90 minutes more sleep in the morning then!)

Catskiing in British Columbia

Vow, vow, vow...months looking forward to my skiing trip with Dani, Benedict, Guilermo and Javier, and of biting my nails since it has been a bad snow year in Whistler, BC...but once here it snowed 82cm during the first three days...awesome deeeeeeeeep powder...

More pics and commentary to follow, here just some snapshots from our first catskiing experience...heliski is nice...catskiing is the way forward, though :-)

btw amazing pics taken by pro Mike Crane...our best pics ever

Sensational powder day in Brauneck

Ecstasy with my new fat skis mantras

vow, awesome powder day in Brauneck. 50cm of new snow. Sensational!  

Brauneck is the closest decent ski resort to Munich, just 55km away.  Normally, it does not have very good snow (highest peak is only 1,700m), but this weekend it was the place with most new snow in Bavaria and neighbouring Austria. Excellent. 

Stefan at the door of the "Strasser-Alm" hut

With Eise & Isa at our lunch & obstler break (a pity they were both on a diet!!)

First carnival ball of the season

Although not a big carnival location, if you know where to go there is actually lot on offer for the carnival season in Munich. This Friday 13th (!) along with Heidi, Julie and Julia we went to a ball at a great location, the National Bavarian Museum. China was the main theme. 

 it was snowing big time when we left

Erotic lecture

Through Michi's heads-up, yesterday we spent a different evening enjoying dinner at fancy Nektar while our acquaintance and German actress Alexandra Kamp portraited an erotic lecture. It is actually not easy to read "hard core" stuff, but she did a great job and just with her voice managed to recreate perfectly the different roles and people of her readings. It was definitely good fun.

84 days 03 hours 9 minutes

Last Sunday, Frenchmen Michel Desjoyeaux and his vessel Foncia arrived first at the finish line of the Vendee Globe single-handed non-stop regatta. He has delivered an extraordinary performance in an extremely tough regatta (from 30 starters only 11 remain in the race), trashing the old record by more than three days despite having to turn back to port and loosing 41 hours at the start of the race.

Hut up to a great sailor. A truly hero, but not only he, all other participants, too.

PS: meanwhile, the Volvo Ocean Race rests in China after one of the hardest legs ever. Leg 4 Singapore to Qingdao has featured a full blown hurricane that has chattered the fleet... three boats DNF (did not finish) and are unlikely to be repaired in time for next leg. heavy duty.

awesome wrap up of the leg on board of Ericsson 4:

Guy Salter's take on the leg from Singapore to Qingdao aboard Ericsson 4. Video copyright Ericsson Racing Team

Kitzbühel weekend

Despite the long trip back, we couldn't resist a short notice invite to spend the weekend in beautiful Kitzbühel. The weather forecast expected sun and with the last days snowfall the skiing condition were sensational. Thus, not to be missed!!

The ski huts in Kitz have extremely good food...although sometimes quite basic...here the famous bacon&eggs from the Schroll hut

Bogota

Awesome colonial houses in La Candelaria

And I thought the travelling was going to recede a bit this year...well, not so far. I am this week in Bogota for business. Not much time to do some sightseeing, besides evenings/nights. The traffic is also horrendous, thus it is pretty cumbersome to move around town during daylight (from the business district (around calle 100) it tooks us 90 minutes to get to the colonial old downtown at rush hour...and just 20 min after dinner)...

La Catedral Prima de Bogota

Major coincidence that Diego's brother, Abel, happens to be here (he is preparing an economical report for the Wall Street Journal. three months stay for a 24 page report. not bad). Juan Carlos, my sales rep here, took us out for a fancy dinner at cool Nazca in the G district. After visiting the old town with its bohemian, run down and backpacker feeling, it was a great constrast. (btw, the old town district La Candelaria is awesome, The place to go and stay, not exactly Antigua but close enough)

Globalization!

During dinner a bomb exploded six blocks away from us, at the fancy residential T district... I had no idea, but apparently the FARC guerilla is placing every now and then bombs in the capital to increase the pressure and state their presence (one or two per year in the past times). Not good, but something similar happens in Spain with ETA and the Spanish can't be bothered...

After a business lunch at La Fragata on top of the World Trade Center. Great views.

anyway, tonite heading to Parque de la 93 for dinner and drinks. Last night in Colombia. Tomorrow evening catching the plane to be back in an apptly quite white Munich...some skiing on the weekend then??!?!? :-)

With Abel at Nazca

Pics from Stanton

some snapshots from a great skiing weekend in St Anton, or Stanton for the English speakers...

The Valluga gondola emerging through the sea of clouds

At last - ski season opener

Believe it or not I am about to go skiing for the first time this season. Crazy stuff if compared to last year when around this time my ski days account was about 14 days... ok, ok, last year was exceptional.

anyway, lots of catching up to be done, so St Anton, Valluga, Mooserwirt, Funky Chicken here we goooo!

Winter scenes

The high pressure area in the center of Europe has brought quite cold temperatures but lots of sun to Munich. Perfect weather to ski or to go trekking in the mountains around town. Here some pics from Blomberg from this past Saturday.

Art in the forest

Back from paradise

Cape Town and its magical Table Mountain at sunset

Back in freezing Munich after spending 10 days in beatiful South Africa. Always worth the trip, besides that it was great for us to be able to visit friends along our route of Cape Town, Plettenberg Bay and Cannon Rocks (Eastern Cape). Back now to real life. snif snif :-)

Amazing scenery in the Robberg Peninsula

more pics here

sensational location and atmosphere at Constantia Uitsig