How did I get here

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Welcome!

Hi! If you’re here, you probably know me, but if you don’t, hi, I’m Ole Eichhorn. I’m on an [ongoing] journey and wanted to post a few thoughts and a lot of pictures here, as an easy way to share. Your comments are eagerly solicited; please email me at ole.eichhorn@gmail.com. And you may ask yourself …

This blog began as a travelogue of my visit to Italy and Spain in September 2021, following my participation in the 2021 International Moth World Championship sailing regatta, in Malcesine, Italy. (Separate blog, for sharing separately.)

In May 2022 I visited Spain and Portugal, via Zurich and Amsterdam, on business and pleasure. Too much fun, combined with some Covid-related non-fun.

And then in October 2022 I competed in the J/70 World Championship … in Monaco. An 11th hour experience not to have missed… Woo hoo.

In June 2023, I took a little cruise, my first, to Greece and Italy, ending in Spain. Incredible. To be repeated soon and often.

And most recently, In Sept 2023 I competed in the 505-Class World Championship in San Francisco (separate blog, for sharing to a separate group). Many disasters but overall a wonderful experience.

Where will I go next : and how did I get there!

Chronological index of recent posts (from the cruise … the 505 World’s posts are here):

And oh by the way, for you RSS people: there is a feed…

Home! (to San Diego)

And so we flew home … or at least, we flew to San Diego, amost home.

BAR -> MUN -> SAN

And we ended up poolside at La Jolla shores. Another excellent trip! Time to reload for the next one …

L’ aquarium

One more day in Barcelona before heading back … what to do … how about visiting the Aquarium? A nice little ramble down La Rambla to the waterfront.

Destination in view from our balcony

The Gothic cathedral in all it’s glory

Beautiful architecture everywhere

And sculpture!

The park at the water

And there it is – L’acquarium

Well that was fun, how about lunch?

In the Plaza Reial … perfect place to hang out and peoplewatch

Yes, please

How great is that?

And some cool entertainment too:

Excellent. How did we get here? 🙂

Touring Barcelona

All great things must come to an end, as did this cruise; we disembarked our little yacht, said an appreciative goodbye, and moved into the Vivadora Hotel, in the Gothic district. Yay.

View of Barcelona city from the Mont Juic

The Arena – formerly a bull ring, now a shopping mall.

La Sagrada Familia – Gaudi’s masterpiece, still under construction.

And still impressive and amazing.

Onward into the Gothic Quarter:

Nice!

La Plaza – amazing public spaces here…

Tapas dinner in the quarter … wow …

What an amazing day to wrap up an amazing trip!

Transit to Barcelona

Leaving Cagliari we spent our only entire day at sea, in transit to Barcelona. I can’t record what happened, we were simply down the whole day. Probably by the pool, possibly there were massages involved, who can say 🙂

Likely we ate at some point, and drank all through.

It’s possible we saw Palma (capital of Majorca) on the way in, but no photos record the moments.

And so to the end of our cruise, but the start of a little interlude in Barcelona.

(For those keeping score – probably only me – my third visit in three years …)

Dinner at Amphora

For our “last night” at sea, we chose to have dinner at Amphora, the “nice” restaurant aboard our little yacht. It was excellent.

After, the ship’s crew gave a performance!

Quite a lot of fun – for them and us … 🙂

Cagliari, Sardinia

Next up and last intermediate stop of the cruise, Cagliari, Sardinia. Just like Sicilians, Sardinians view their Island as a separate entity, not [really] part of Italy.

Good morning, Sardinia!

Entering the [big, commercial] port of Cagliari. Picturesque it is not.

The old town is better…

How many almost-Italian versions of architecture are there?

Eminently walkable, though hilly.

Entrance to the “mall”.

View back to the port, showing our little yacht and a big commercial ferry.

Lunch! … wow.

And yes, pizza, amazing 🙂

Incredible buildings in great shape.

Not much traffic – Cagliari moves at a slow pace.

Nice.

Pool day

On the second day of Trapani, we rested. And hung out by the pool. And did very little except “vacation”.

Of course, every day begins with cookies and [real Italian] coffee in “the yacht club”.

You want salt? Real sea salt? Real, pink, Sicilian sea salt?

You’ve got it!

Whooosh

A cool interlude, watching the hydrofoil ferries zip across the bay.

Dinner at Cuadro 44, a Spanish Tapas restaurant aboard ship. Quite honestly not amazing, though the setting (and company) were unbeatable.

Up to Erice

On a high mountain overlooking Trapani lies the old town of Erice. How or why anyone would build a place in such a forbidding summit, history does not record, but it was so. And we took a bus up there – and cable car down – to see it.

The way up does yield a nice view of Trapani, jutting out into the Mediterranean.

Beautiful vistas along the way.

Entering Erice.

A city of rocks and stone.

With a beautiful Gothic church. Spanish Gothic doesn’t have anything on Sicilian Gothic 🙂

Beautiful inside, too.

Twisty little passages, all different…

And on one end of town, a pretty garden.

Amazing view down to Trapani and the Islands off shore.

The ancient keep.

Yes of course, pastries for lunch. And yes of course, that is marzipan.

Time to take the cable car down!

Amazing views – whee!

And so back to the real world – of Trapani 🙂

On to Trapani

From Messina we steamed West across the top of Sicily to Trapani, the NorthWest corner, the only city where we were to stay for two days. It’s a cute port, a bit of fallen glory I would say, as the importance of its Tuna fisheries have diminished.