France

After a busy period Piet and Mary went to the house in France for a 10 day break. At the last moment they finally managed to align this trip with their friend Jan, after many, many earlier attempts. Jan and his fiancee Gwen have a house in the Pyrenean foothills, near Perpignan. Unfortunately she couldn't make it, as she was stuck in Houston for work. So they drove to the house in Bassey on Wednesday night (in their new car!), and after a short stopover continued further south on Friday morning. They agreed to meet at a winery in the Cote de Roussillon, where Jan, and other Shell friends Ron and Helen, where already tasting. They joined and after a few stops ended up at Jan's house, high on a hill above the town of Ceret. The day was rounded off with a Catalonian dinner. The next day Piet tested his new racing bike with a loop to Col de la Brousse, whilst Mary and the others visited the local market. In the afternoon they did a hike around the area, and the evening was focussed on wine and music, with the Eurovision Song Contest as central theme.

The next day Jan and the others went to Barcelona for the F1 Grand Prix, and Piet and Mary went on a trip to memory lane, to Mary's old fieldwork area near the coast, centred around Banyuls sur Mer. Unfortunately it was very cold and windy, and a planned hike in the area was foregone, and replaced with a short walk around the Banyuls harbour. The drive back to Bassey was a real nightmare; it was the end of the Ascension Day weekend, poor weather, and all French were returning home from the Mediterranean. A drive that should have taken 5 hours lasted almost 10 hours, with all side roads blocked as well.

The next week was spend in the usual French mode: cycling, working in the garden and some short hikes in the mountains, to test Mary's body for the summer. Also Beau's stable and field were prepared for the return late June. Fully recharged they returned home, to Beau and the girls.

Mary and Jan discussing wine at Thunevin-Calvet

Piet with his new bike, after a ride through the Pyrenees


Collioure

 In Banyuls sur Mer, Mary's old fieldwork area

Refuge du Carrelet, in Parc des Ecrins

There was still lots of snow in Parc des Ecrins

Retie

Retie is a small, sleepy town in the Kempen, northern Belgium. The peace is normally only disturbed if there is a performance by Raymond van het Groenewoud, or if there is 'koers', a cycling race. We went there for the latter, to watch our nephew Max participate in a local under-18 race. He is now training with a larger and stronger team than the previous two years, and therefore has possibilities to be selected for classic races: he will race Brabantse Pijl, early May. Retie was a regular 'laps around the church' criterium, with 15 laps of a bit more than 5 km each. 

Max did very well in Retie, as he managed to position himself in the leading group at the beginning of the race, and helped driving the pace so high, that none of the other racers managed to get back. This group of 12 raced the 81 km with a staggering average speed of 41 km/hr, and in the end Max placed 10th. Below are some impressions from the race.

Start of the race, the leading group is being formed

Max is driving the pace

Max is trying to stay with the leaders

Final sprint of the leading group

Wine in 4 countries

Piet went on his traditional yearly trip with his friends from Utrecht, under the excuse of the wine and dine society 'Het Derde Glas'. This time an ambitious program was put together, with stops in four countries.

They left early Wednesday morning from Utrecht with a rented minibus, and drove to the famous German wine region along the Moselle river, for a late morning visit to Sybille Kuntz in Lieser. They are selling traditional white wines, in stylish long and narrow bottles. After a purchase ‘with the handbrake on’ the trip continued to the Alsace, in France, where an appointment with the Kamm family in Dambach-la-Ville was scheduled. After several phone calls the father finally turned up, for a tasting of mediocre wines. The promising ‘vin nature’ (no use of any additions during the vinification process) turned out to be somewhat disappointing, with the conclusion that additives are not so bad after all. Due to the delays the logistics of the arrival in Martigny, Switzerland had to be changed en route by phone, and after some corrective driving a late dinner was enjoyed at restaurant Belvedere, high above the city. The upside was that the anticipated evening walk (300 m height difference in 2 km!) was done by car. The food was good, but the wines were a huge disappointment, strengthening the pre-trip decision to skip any visit to a Swiss winery.

The first tasting at Sybille Kuntz

On Thursday morning they crossed the Grand St. Bernard pass through snow-covered mountains, and descended into Italy for a visit with Ottin, in Aosta. This is a beautiful valley, which looks like Switzerland, but with much better wines. Owner Elio Ottin took his time to showcase his products, and after a large purchase the trip continued towards Alba. An impressive lunch was enjoyed at Marcelin, in Monta, with Michelin-star quality food and presentation (and it has been noted for future trips!). Here a common theme of the trip started: excellent English was spoken by our hostess; this was repeated at all subsequent visits. Something the French winemakers can only dream of! Around the corner the two sons of winery Chiesa, a small family business in the Roero region, received the troops with Italian hospitality as they tried to supplement their wines with more food. Roero is one of the Piemontese appelations, at a level just below the more famous Barolo and Barbaresco wines. As the Chiesa brothers were talkative, and there was a lot of discussion, last minute adjustments had to be made to the program. After a few calls Adriano, just outside of Alba, was willing to stay open in the early evening. Here a combination of Barbaresco wines and hazelnuts was for sale, the latter also supplied to the enormous Ferrero Rocher factory in Alba. In the evening dinner was arranged at Larossa, a promising restaurant with a Michelin star. This turned out to be a huge disappointment, with pretentious food, and likewise waiters. The rockbottom lowlight of the evening was a risotto with an edible gold leaf cover, something they will still remember 25 years from now!

Arrival at Chiesa

The Barbaresco vineyards are explained at Adriano

The next day started with a Barolo morning, in Verduno, firstly enjoying the views from the hilltop, and secondly enjoying the wines from Fratelli Alessandria. The next stop at G.D. Vajra was a lot more commercial, with a proper hostess, a tour and a tasting room with a view. In the end both houses sold nice Barolo’s, and that is the most important! Lunch was ‘valeur sur’ on the terrace of Schiavenza, in Serralunga, with a view of the hills, covered in sticks with leafless vines. The trip continued along winding roads to Ca del Baio, in Barbaresco, which was visited 5 years earlier as well. Business had definitely improved, as a Ukrainian-Canadian group was leaving, and a huge Swiss delegation just arrived. There was no holding back, all the wines were opened and sampled, and a large purchase was made. Next stop was at Borgo Maragliano, in Loazzolo, a remote village to the southeast of Alba. The bus, now loaded with many bottles, had to work hard along narrow, steep roads. They were received by Sylvia, the lady of the house, who kept on stating how bad things are in Italy (bureaucracy), and how good in north-western Europe (Leeuwarden, of all places, and the Champagne, obviously). To attract more visitors they were building a massive viewing platform / tasting room, just outside the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Piemontese vineyard hills. They produce sparkling wines only, mainly using the Metodo Classico (same as Champagne, but not allowed to call it that way). Sylvia was extremely hospitable and talkative, and managed to convince Het Derde Glas, notorious Champagne lovers, to buy a significant number of bottles. Although the distance back to Alba is only 10 km ‘as the crow flies’, it was a long, winding and tiring one hour drive back. Dinner was held at Caffe Umberto, an Enecoteca (wineshop) and restaurant, which was a lot better than the previous night (and with a very, very extensive winelist!).

View over the vineyards from Verduno

Tasting Barolo wines at Fratelli Alessandria

Choice at G.D. Vajra

 Barolo is a beautiful region, even in cloudy weather

View from Borgo Maragliano

True Italian hospitality at Borgo Maragliano

After two days in Italy a long drive back was made on the Saturday, with essential stops at Theulot Juillot in Mercurey, Burgundy, who were also visited in 2017 (value for money white and reds), and two more in the south-eastern Champagne region. The first house was Barfontarc, a cooperation in the village of Baroville (with farmers in Fontaine and Arconville also contributing grapes, so guess where the name is coming from). They had an extensive gamma for tasting, and a marketing influence on their bottles: good for the eye, and a bit pricey. On the other side of the spectrum was Laval, a small Champagne producer in the village of Bligny. No fancy bottles, and very cheap. Close by, at hotel Val Moret, the trip ended, and it was decided to carry out the most important session straight away: the sorting. The van was emptied, and in an organised fashion the nearly 600 bottles were distributed from producers to piles of boxes for each expedition member. This took around 2 hours, and a lot of carrying and lifting. Once the van was reloaded a final dinner was enjoyed; tired but satisfied. The next morning, they drove smoothly back to Utrecht, where Piet left his bottles with one of his friends. And the success of the trip will be concluded in the months to come: ‘the proof of the pudding is in the drinking’!

Waiting at Theullot Juillot, in Mercurey, Burgundy

 Luring visitors inside at Barfontarc

The sorting is starting at Val Moret

Port Harcourt (II)

Piet went to Port Harcourt, Nigeria, with three collegues for a project he is working on currently. It was the second time he visited (see post of 27 April 2016), and little had changed. It was nice to meet up with friends and the social part of the trip was definitely the best. Port Harcourt remained a chaotic, dirty city, heaving with people, motorbikes and Nigerian tuk-tuks, making the Shell camp a peaceful oasis. The main difference was the air quality, which has deteriorated significantly and is a real concern for the people living there. This is apparently caused by the nearby local refinery, forest fires, and military action against illegal oil theft, resulting in a lot of soot in the air. Piet and his colleagues were lucky, as the raining season had just started, and the air was relatively fresh.

Transport was still with mini buses and armed escort, with limited opportunity to take some pictures. Some impressions are shown below. On the way back they landed in a typical Nigerian scene: an electrical problem had caused an issue with the runway lights a few days earlier, and in the end the Air France pilot refused to take off in the evening. There was a lot of confusion, and near midnight they were put in hotel in town, and finally the flight left 10 AM the next day. As a consequence Piet was home Saturday evening late, to start his City-Piet-City half marathon the next day. This was not an ideal preparation, but he managed to finish in 1 hr 54 min, in a personal record (although it was his second half marathon only!).

A horse in the Shell camp, the Port Harcourt Residential Area

The local shop in the Shell camp

Port Harcourt, on the way to the airport

Lot's of little markets on the street

Street scene

All pictures were taken from the mini bus

 It is very lively in Port Harcourt

Piet passing the 10 km point near our house

Libreville

Piet added another African country to his list; he had to visit Gabon last week. Shell has been present for almost 60 years in Gabon, but late 2017 sold all of its oil fields to another company. The offshore exploration blocks, part of Piet's responsibility, are now the only Shell assets. The new Shell office is manned with a Gabonese administrative assistant only, and all the work is done from The Hague. Piet had to go for a few meetings with the Ministry, in the capital Libreville. This is a safe and uninspiring city on the Atlantic coast. In the evenings Piet managed a few short walks along the beach (see pictures below), with many small streams flowing sewage and other waste into the ocean. So it was not strange that nobody was swimming!

The meetings were in French, and Piet benefitted from all his time spend in France. But his geological education hasn't really prepared him to negotiate legal text in French! With the Shell lawyer on call from The Hague they managed, and he left with the signed agreement he came for in the first place. And he had to manage a lot of patience....

Playing football on Libreville beach

View from the Shell office

View towards Libreville

It looks idyllic!

Snow and rain

After Christmas we went for a week to France for a break after a busy period for all of us, and to do some skiing. In the end only Paula came along, as Dorien had to finish a university project on 'steel and concrete', and had planned a survival race. Also Lars was busy with a work-related project. Paula needed a break from a very intense 4 months on the board of Proteus, and initially slept 12 hours a night in The Hague. This was followed by a relaxing week with bit of skiing, reading and no responsibilities. Unfortunately Mary had to decide to skip the skiing, as she is still recovering from her Achilles problems, and spent the days reading, doing easy walks, and taking care of some outstanding indoor tasks in the house.

When we arrived there was a thick layer of fresh snow in the village, accompagnied with beautiful weather. The next 2 days it snowed a lot; Piet and Paula went skiing on Alpe d'Huez. In the resort they were playing catch-up to keep the slopes in shape, as the fresh snow kept covering the pistes. Paula also met up with her friend Tim, who was staying in a nearby village. Then the weather changed dramatically: the wind picked up, the temperature rose, and it started raining heavily. The result was that the resort was closed for 1.5 day, there were many land- and mudslides in the region, and we took a forced break from skiing. 

Once the resort was open the snow conditions had deteriorated somewhat, but as there was so much snow beforehand it was still fine to ski. Especially the last day, which we got as a bonus to compensate for the resort closure was great, with blue skies, near-zero temperatures and no wind.

After a smooth drive we arrived back in The Netherlands, and heard on the car radio that Dorien and friends made national news: at the survival race they participated it was very cold, especially due to the strong easterly wind, and many people suffered from hypothermia, Dorien among them. She fell in one of the streams they had to cross, was wet up to her neck, and had to abandon to get warmed up again. Luckily all was well in the end, but the race managed to get onto the 8 PM news on television!

 Fresh snow in the valley on our arrival

Village horse Swallow is happy to see us

The entry road to our village during the rains: do not cross!

View on Marmotte 1, Alpe d'Huez

Arrival at Alpette from Montfrais

Paula on the Olympique piste

The last day, at the Herpie skilift

Our village in winter sun


Bonus pictures: Beau on the beach, during Christmas


Walking back to the stable

Lars and Dorien at the Slopend winter training weekend

Another milestone

The family reached another milestone: Paula completed her Batchelor of Applied Earth Sciences, and we all attended the ceremony at the University where she received her certificate, with cum laude. Paula is currently in a gap year, and has a full time job on the board of her rowing club Proteus, being responsible for all the material. She hasn't decided yet what she will do for her Master program, but there is still time.

All students had to present a very short overview of their final project, demonstrating the width of the BSc program. Mary's parents were also present, and afterwards we did a tour of Delft, starting at Dorien's new room, at crawling distance from her faculty. She then showed the obstacle course of her survival club Slopend, where she is one of the trainers now. The afternoon was completed with a grand tour of Proteus by Paula. As board member she has access to everything, and especially the number, size and costs of the boats were impressive. In the evening the girls had their own social engagements, so all the 'old' people' drove back to The Hague to start their own celebrations.

Paula in the lecture hall, waiting for the start of the ceremony

 Paula presenting a short overview of her final project

Paula and her grandparents in the maintenance room at Proteus