LAST POST

And so I start to lower the Bucket on 3 months of tripping around ‘UP OVER’, including Dubai, England, France, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium & the lovely LA LA LAND, where my brain was most of the time.  The really weird thing is, that trying to recall dates & events, they seemed to be months earlier & the time frames were totally blurred.  I came over here full of ideas, no real planning, just a schedule built around Le Tour de Drugs & competing in several Triathlons.

None of that happened,  so I went from Plan A to Plan ……. ‘I have no idea’, eventually settling on plan ‘F’ & watching as many events as I could, starting with the World Long Distance Champs in Belfort, France & finishing with the ITU race in Stockholm.  Really enjoyed that, loved all the IM races & cast a critical ( ex-Race Organisers ) eye over the management.  All of them were significantly different, with highs & lows, but they all had great atmosphere & energy.  Cities & places hold no great interest for me & I am more interested in who/what the people are.  Once you get to know any Nationality, there is not a lot of difference in the way they live & raise their families & for those who seem odd, it doesn’t matter, because they are just different.

Spent the last 3 days in Vienna, packing, preparing the Motorhome for shipping, a jog around the Palace, followed by some decadent ice cream & chocolate treats.  You could get very large over here on the sweets & the staple diets of meats for breakfast, big meals at midday & late night snacks.  Sat night & Szabi’s twin sister Orsi arrived from Hungary to celebrate their 28^th birthday on Mon, so we went out Ten Pin Bowling, which I had tried once about 45yrs ago in Hawaii. Was OK for a while, then the ‘bias’ wore off, the shoulder went out, arthritis curled the hand & my left knee went further left.  Apart from that, no problem, but I am sticking to Lawn Bowls ….. more civilized !

Arose Sun’ morning to leave at 9am for London & Cranham Motorhomes ( via Germany/Belgium/France ), to sort out a few minor repairs & the TomTom, which had worked all through Europe, froze as I drove out of town !  So I returned ( hello it’s me again ) & my IT wizard Szabi, reloaded it into my ( new ) computer, reset the ‘drums’ & I left, again.  I had allowed a spare day for travel, repairs, shipping & Flt connections, for a trip that was 11.5 to Calais, 1.5 on the Ferry ( + connection time ) & 2hrs from Dover to London, 17hrs approx’.  Actually took 29hrs, with 3 pile-ups on the motorways, the  first was 10k long & in between the chaos, there was continual road works, that have to be done before winter.  For those that don’t know, most of Germany has no speed limit.  If you think that works, forget it.  The crashes are bigger & the delays are longer.  Ever looked in a rear vision mirror at night & wondered if the headlights were approaching at 130 or 200 kph ? And then the truck in front of you ( there are thousands ), pulls out as you start to overtake !  Not much fun.  Disembarked the Ferry in Dover & had to switch the brain to driving on the other side …… damn, just got used to that. Had a couple of shaky moments, but kept saying, left, left & started to get back to ‘normal’.  Filled the fuel tank, 104 English Pounds, wow, think I might park it for a bit, or slow down …. now there’s a thought.

Anyway, made it to Cranham’s late Mon’ in one crinkled piece & we set Tues for maintenance & I settled down for the night, in my first ‘campsite’ outside the gate, that I used on arrival …….. but the sun was shining this time !   Staff at Cranham’s  were excellent, not only sorting out the problems, apart from one that has to be done in NZ & washed the vehicle on completion. The boss ( Ian ), then solved my shipping payment problem for me ( long story ), by paying them & I reimbursed him.  Then to top it all off, he changed a delivery date, took me in convoy with another vehicle bound for NZ, into the Southampton Docks, then delivered me to Heathrow.  That’s what I call service !  Sitting in Heathrow, typing this on Word, as the cheapskates here only give you 45 min’s free Wifi & I have several hours to kill.  Was in the middle of an email & my time cut-out, but they have plenty of sockets that you can charge the battery from !  Thanks for nothing.

Now in Dubai after 6 hr fairly comfortable flight, with plenty of chatter going on, helping to pass the time.  Brisk walk through the terminal ( massive ), up escalators, on to a train, more escalators, security check in, then plug in for power & instant free Wifi for 5 min, before more escalators & another security check in, going through all the bags, weird !   30 min late taking off for the 12 hrs to Melbourne, but the pilot said he would catch up.  Tried Wifi onboard, but you have to pay ……. of course.

Arrived in Melbourne fairly shattered.  Have not slept for 2 days, can not sleep on the plane sitting up, but had a young family with 2 kids, alongside me & they kept me amused. Tough on the parents though & I felt sorry for the mother, who was out on her feet.  Last Flt to Auckland was great, had the row to myself, ate breakfast, stretched out & woke up as the plane was landing. Not many pics taken going home, too busy & too tired

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Well finally arrived home & have spent several days getting rid of Jet Lag, waking at 3am & unbelievably, gone down with the Flu, which is the way I started the trip in Europe, laid up for 3 weeks.  Started Physio with a full assessment of body motion & back to playing Bowls, but way off the mark.  May take a week to get the mojo back.

My thanks to Cranham’s for their support as I returned home & although I was very disappointed missing Le Tour & not competing in any Triathlons, I certainly saw lot & met some wonderful people.  Very lucky to have my Hungarian angels looking after me in Vienna.  It is almost certain I would have come home within a week of arrival, if I did not have some care during the first 3 weeks of sickness.  Learnt a lot & would do things a lot different with today’s knowledge.  Hope you have enjoyed some of the Blog & I look forward to getting healthy for the 30th IMNZ.   Haere ra.

DREARY DRESDEN

What a disappointment, did not enjoy the City vibe. We particularly wanted to visit Dresden because it is ( supposedly ) being rebuilt from the ground up, after being leveled in the war & Kitti is a Master Architect.  Some ‘nice’ old buildings, but the whole City Centre is black, as the stones are left to age. Overcast weather didn’t help & the people seemed depressed.  Maybe we caught them on a bad day ?   Anyway, took some ‘dramatic’ pics, so it couldn’t have been all bad & we went out for a big, pork bone feed, covered in crackling ( been awhile since I had that ), potato salad & the usual black beer !  Yeah, I know, it’s really good for you. Price was reasonable & a Hot Air Balloon, took off in front of us, so out came the camera  …… bonus !

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STOCKHOLM – The RACE

Last Triathlon viewing for the trip & it was a spectators dream.  1 Lap Swim, with viewing along both sides from the wharves, 9 Laps Bike & 4 Laps Run, on the same course.  Doesn’t get any better.  The feature of the Women’s event, was the outstanding running of Gwen Jorgenson who has now improved her Swim skills to be in-touch on the Bike & simply cleared away. Credit to Andrea Hewitt, she had a crack at winning the event with a solo bike break away after Lap 7, but her running legs are not up to her usual standard.

Great to watch the 3 best males in the World racing head-to-head & they sure are impressive ! Both Brownlee’s run on their toes & the strain on their lower legs must be immense, while Gomez cruises perfectly, but doesn’t look like a sprinter.  The bend I was standing at was a nightmare for amateurs, with a metal plate on the outside & the wrong camber through the centre. First time around & the young dutch girl rode straight into the wall & later the South African girl was picking herself up, speaking in a language that made me blush. True !!  One of the men did the same & knew the same dialect, so they must belong to the same Club …….. The Marshals had no idea & only the crowd saved what would have been a major pile-up, with the girls bike laying in the middle of a blind bend. Some very wide eyed girls coming around the corner !!  There is no doubt that the top tier athletes are at a different level & the Kiwi men also struggled, but we are under-performing regularly & there has to be a solution.

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WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL COPENHAGEN

Left Stockholm late Sun’ night to get a running start for the long trip back to Wien.  Slept several hours at a truck stop and left at dawn for Copenhagen, which is joined to Sweden by a massive bridge.   Nearly died when the lady at the toll gate said 94 Euro’s !  Then we passed over another bridge & that was ‘only’ 50 Euro’s. The 3rd bridge was free. Glad we weren’t coming the other way !  Now I know why half the statues look like gold  ……. they are ! The city could fairly be described as the poor cousin of Stockholm.  Everything is there, but it is not quite the same standard or vibrancy & I don’t think that it will get back to ” Wonderful, Wonderful, Copenhagen “, that Danny Kaye used to sing & as a kid, I used to think was so romantic.  Another dream shattered !!  Roamed the town for several hours ( my camera now fixed ) & decided to move through Berlin, without stopping, towards Dresden. Turned randomly off the motorway, towards the sea & spent our last night at a 4 star Camp, very nice, but almost deserted, as they all close for winter in 3 weeks & never took any pics, but Szabi got Wonder Women changing in the Phone Booth, which also provides 5 mins free Wifi, wow !  Had a dip in the (advertised ), 27* pool & promptly went countersunk, as it was about 18* !!!

PS : Picked up my 2nd European parking ticket in Denmark ( 1st in Wien on Day 1 ). Have attached a single pic at the bottom of the page, so you will know that when you visit, parking in a paddock, with gravel roads, surrounded by blackberries & trash, is not allowed.  They must be looking for work, but it may come in handy if I run out of toilet paper. This Kiwi has wings !

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DENMARK CARPARK

KARLSTAD and OREBRO – Pit Stops

Halfway stops, on the way back to Sweden for the ITU RACE 7 in Stockholm, we stuck a pin in the Smart Phone map, stopped briefly at Karlstad, Lake Vanern, the biggest lake in Sweden & pulled into Camp Gustavsvik, in Orebro for the night.  Whoa ……. 5 star !  OK, we’ve earned a treat.  Did I really believe it would be much different ?  Cost more, facilities were prettier, but we still struggled with Wifi, had to keep pushing a button to have shower water & paid extra for anything else.  Two bonuses, free swim in the public pool ( after 30 min’s of sorting out the entry ) & a full free car wash system, which took about an hour to clean, as we removed the grime & de-bugged the front of the vehicle. Those bugs are hard to get off, when they collide at 130kph+ !!  Looked like a new one & perfect for promoting IMNZ in ………. ‘Stockholm the Beautiful’ city.  Another equipment failure as the camera battery died, so Szabi/Kitti hired bikes & took over recording the tour pic’s & until I replace it.  Say’s he saw Elvis alive & well & took a pic of his camp site to prove it.

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STOCKHOLM the BEAUTIFUL

No doubt about it, Stockholm is a beautiful city. Problem was, every time you turned around, there was another perfect building or perfect sight.  By day two, I didn’t want to go to a new area, because I knew there was another million pic’s on offer. The presentation of the city buildings, waterways, boats & food places, is outstanding & the tourists are packing the streets. But it is also the most expensive city in Scandinavia, as it fights with Copenhagen to be the BEST.  Spent Sat morning roaming the waterfront areas & the Aft’ watching the Elite women ( Andrea/Kate ), ITU Race 7, Olympic Distance.  Next morning, watched parts of the AG races ( Olympic /Sprint ), from the Motorhome & went for a swim with them, while they were warming up.  First time I have worn my wetsuit since arrival ( about 19* ).  Couldn’t believe that a lot of them were doing freestyle !

Checked out the city Centre area, very busy, then watched the Elite men at 3:30pm, ( Tony/Ryan/Martin ).  Good racing, but the Kiwi’s are struggling.  Very lucky with the parking, as we turned off the Race course & found a ” empty wharf ” !   AG race viewing out the window to the left & Elite event passing by on the right within 1K.  There was a Parking Meter there, but it said free to all Kiwi’s ……. I think, didn’t have my glasses on. Two more, separate Kiwi expats said hello, attracted by the IMNZ branding & a lot of people stopping to talk.  Don’t think they believed anyone from NZ made it that far.  You can just about recognize the country of origin by the way the women dress.  Everyone seems to follow the local glamour style of the areas.  Most of them speak some English & it is me that is the problem.

Finished the weekend with a great Italian meal & a black beer ……. bloody perfect mate.

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NORWAY BONUS

Wandered down the scenic route from Kalmar, turning off at Ljungby & Camp Bolmen deep in the forest, full of dedicated fishermen.  Old style camp, adequate, boats/canoes/ fishing gear for hire, but not a lot to see, with a cool breeze coming off the lake.  Finally got the chance to do some exercise & went for a jog along a dirt track around the lake. Achilles still pinging, but felt good to be moving at some sort of pace & I slept late, so the body was happy.

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Continued on in the direction of Norway, with plans for an overnight stop in the wild, before crossing the border & turned down a side road to campers paradise, just on sunset.  Free camping at Lake NO NAME. Lovely in the evening & stunning in the morning.  Woke up, couldn’t see a thing, with a total white out across the lake & for the next 2 hrs, I watched the scene unravel trough the fog.  Took a million pics, but relax, I only kept a ‘100’ ( or less ), so you may not fall asleep looking at them ?

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Left our little lake paradise & loaded the TomTom with Oslo city centre, as we had no idea where to stay. That was fun, Yeah right, as we stumbled through twisted streets with no roundabouts, blocked by tourist buses, cars & pedestrians, who just wandered.  Finally found some parking at 3 Euro per hr, didn’t pay, but stayed long enough to get some harbour pics & beat the warden by 10 secs.  Moved 2K out to a large Park, full of nude bronze statues, made in fine detail.  Interesting, but a little weird.  More fun watching the tourist working out their camera angles !  Walked back into town, saw the local sights in very crowded streets as the Election is due shortly & there were temporary buildings & pamphlet waving party members, looking for voters.  Very solid, well presented &  finished  buildings here.  A lot of the European houses in other towns, have the finishing falling off & just left, so it was good to see how tidy everything is.  Streets are still littered with butts though.  Picked up the biggest medium Pizza’s on the way back ( had to fold it to fit the box ) & got badly lost trying to find the Camp site, driving up a one lane ‘mountain’, getting more stressed at each turn. However there was a huge site at the top, overlooking the city, so we filled our bellies, showered & attacked the internet, missing for 4 days.

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KALMAR the TOWN

After a hectic 24 hrs playing Media photographers, we crawled out of bed in a daze to check out the town highlights, prior to the Awards Banquet at Noon. Lot, lot quieter than yesterday & I think they will hibernate till next summer.  Large castle type fortress is the focal point, with many large grand buildings around the sea frontage, but this is a small town. The people here go out of their way to help you & I never saw a angry or offensive person in 2 days.  Good to walk down the road & people smile & say hello.  How do we spread the love ?  Next end destination Oslo, Norway with a week to stop enroute & view the country, before the two day, Stockholm ITU Tri next weekend.

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KALMAR IRONMAN

Kalmar, pre-race visit to Media HQ for my Press Pass & yes, official photographer. Email request by IMNZ & granted by IM Sweden.  What a difference access  makes to getting pics’ !  Just a positive, ” Excuse me “, as you hit the wall of spectators & it opens up like the Red Sea.  Had to jump a few fences though, to find clear air, but absolutely loved it. The ‘Pro Media’ on the other hand, looked as bored as hell, but I was like a kid in a candy store !  Started Race Day at 5am in the Transition, getting pics & talking to those competitors who’s eyes weren’t glazed over with fear or uncertainty !  Came across one distraught English lady who’s bike had been ‘stolen’.  Tried to calm her down & get her to relax & focus on the rest of her prep’ & she was good for 5mins, then stormed off.  Difficult for the Officials to find any bike, as they are all covered until each owner arrives in the morning.  Heard later that she had racked it in the wrong place. Number on the bike, matching number on the Rack, not difficult, must have been stressed for 2 days at least.  While I think about it, the other classic I saw was a guy going out on to the road after 2hrs of swimming, asking for a bike mechanic.  Nothing major, his back tyre was flat & he didn’t have a spare !  Yep, there is one in every village, now we have two !!

Weather had eased a little from yesterday, Sun trying to break through & wind gentle, but windy, shortly after.  Always calm early on, but it is us slow guys that get hammered in the afternoon !  Parted the crowd to the Start pontoon & some lady in a wetsuit spewed in front of me.  That helped, looked like the Spectator River Dance display, for a moment !  Good sized start of almost 2000 swimmers standing in waist high water, ready for a 2 Lap course.  You just know that is going to be a problem over here as many of the Swimmers do breast stroke or poor freestyle & the Leaders weren’t taking any prisoners as they cut through the tail enders.  I am fairly certain that will change for next year. As I couldn’t be everywhere & being smarter than the average, amateur Media newbie, I also had Szabi taking pics from another vantage point, so if it looks like I ran a lot, forget it.  The Ramsay shuffle is alive & well !

The SWIM was significant, with Brit’ Jodie Swallow demolishing the whole field, to become the first woman ( to my knowledge ) to lead out of the water. Had a good chat to her & Kiwi Britta Martin afterwards afterwards as the last competitors came over the line & she is one tough lady when it comes to any competition. Most of her training consists of races & that seems to work for her, as she is getting better results each year. Britta was very disappointed with what I thought was a great result & she said she felt sluggish from the start.  She was the only Kiwi racing & her partner Robin ( they live in Nelson ) & I were the only Kiwi spectators.  Love to see them both racing in IMNZ next year, after Kona.

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The RUN and BIKE

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The FINISH and Pedro Gomes had his first Official ( after winning Spain 3 weeks earlier ) IM win.  He hammered the Bike & even with a ’emergency’ pit stop 4K from the finish, was never in danger.

The AWARDS – Pedro Gomes (Por) 8:19, David Plese (Slo) 8:22, Anton Blokhim (Ukr) 8:27.  –  Jodie Swallow (Gbr) 8:54, Eva Nystrom (Swe) 9:18, Britta Martin (NZ) 9:22.

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Good relaxed party atmosphere. Loud music ( selection from the Finishline ), lots of happy ex-IM virgins & a great spread of raw fish, chicken in a local sauce, mixed salads & ice cream.  The event is growing & will be a major race in future, with a fast course, only slowed by tough wind, but still record times.

GENERAL – The people of Kalmar & the Staff & Officials, were absolutely outstanding.  The locals went out of their way to help you & nothing was too difficult for the Organizers. The event screens Worldwide this weekend & I hope it is covered in NZ.

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Chasing Ferries

Left Wien late Wed night & headed for Poland & the Ferry to Sweden ( 950K ).  Charged across the Czech Republic border around 11pm, after buying our mandatory Toll ticket ( 15 Euro ) & the horizon turned into a rainbow.  Thought we were in Vegas for a minute !   Casino’s, strip Clubs, Hotels ( with free rooms ! ).  Hmm, wonder how they make any money there ?   And the roads turned into judder bars.  So bad, I thought the rear axle had broken.  So we shuddered on for another hour, called it quits & pulled into a service station/truck stop & curled up for the rest of the night.  Most impressed by the facilities as I had that biased  view of the country as Third World, when in fact they were equal to, or better than all the other places I had been.  Breakfast around 9am ( we are on holiday ) & 15K later we crossed into Poland, where the shuddering stopped, but the roads turned into channels at normal car width, slightly narrower than the Motorhome, so we swayed along until we hit the new motoway.  Unfortunately that hadn’t been completed, so we went & visited a few local towns, along with a few thousand other motorist, for 2 hrs.

Arrived in the Polish port of Gydnia early, so we headed for a local tourist beach ( Sopot ) that Kitti knew off, having been here on a University trip, 4yrs earlier.  Great venue, but the temperature had been dropping rapidly since leaving Wien & also the onset of autumn. However as a sprightly 68yr old, I figured I could handle a swim in the Baltic sea, even though nobody else was.  Very brisk, would be a fair description & it only took 30mins to get my fingers working again!  Annual holiday, so the beach was crowded & it was interesting to sit back & look at the varied mix of humanity & styles.  They look like a very hardy group & once again I was surprised by the standard of living. Prices were also very good & I still have no idea why the costs in UE member countries differ so much.

Caught the Stena Vision ferry at 9pm for the overnight sail to Karlskrona, arriving at 9am. Good way to beat the road travel & get some sleep, as it knocked off 5hrs travel via road.  Very nice ship, as you will see in the pics & everthing you need.  Four berth heated cabin was small, but had shower/toilet, so just like “ home “ for us !  Checked out all the facilities, connected to the internet & cleared 100+ emails, gave up on FB, as it was too slow & Szabi went off to beat the kids on the games machines.  Must have been a good night’s sleep, as I don’t remember anything & woke up feeling DIVINE.  Yes, I went back to sea for my 69^th birthday, hoping that the ship didn’t celebrate by going Anyway Up.  Felt good standing on the bow, wind the hair ( there is some left on my chest ) & salt in my varicose veins, screaming “  Rose, Rose “ ……  oh sorry that was the Titanic.  So there we were in Sweden, low lying , overcast & cool, with only a 65K drive to Kalmar & IM Sweden.  For some reason the TomTom decided to take us on a scenic, 40K hike & it was magic. Some beautiful scenery, immaculate houses, very narrow roads of course, but smooth as a babies bum.  Didn’t want to go back to the woosh, woosh, motorway & arrived in Kalmar ( pop 40,000 ) at Noon, weather clearing, but windy & looking forward to planning & following another European IM.

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