Medellin and coming to terms with our new life

Hi to all,

Firstly some possibly positive news re TT3. We have been contacted by a classic yacht broker in the UK who has a client quite interested in flying to Turkey to inspect the old girl. This may come to nothing, but there seems little doubt that having her on the market at a very cheap price in the Med is the way to go. And it's not expensive to fly to Turkey from the UK.

With the benefit of time for deep reflection, we've changed our thinking inasmuch as the decision to ship her to the Med was correct, as even at a cheap price, it was unlikely that any sale would be forthcoming in Asia. At least now we have some hope. And our decision to leave Turkey was also correct for a variety of reasons. With a seeming inability to get replies from the yard regarding a finishing work schedule and financial information - much less a launching date - we were bleeding cash with accommodation and car hire and being slowly driven mad. We must add that we have no idea even now how this state of affairs came to pass. Add to that the physical effects at our age of all the work we had done when we first hauled out plus the emotional trauma of trying to deal with the yard, and we had only one alternative - which we took. It is disappointing that all this means that we would miss sailing through Greece and then Malta before Sicily, but again we had to have regard to the wider picture, and the priority of our health and well-being.

We continued to enjoy being with Josie and Reinhard in Werneck. Reinhard took us to an adjacent village to buy direct from the farm some asparagus but alas the season was over. So we continued to another village where there was a car ferry (miniature version of Opua) across the River Main. We sat in the sun watching the little ferry coming and going and also visited a campsite on the river where there were some motorhomes. While were there at least 2 very large motorized fully laden barges passed by. Complete with owners spacious accommodation and a crane for lifting the owner's car on and off at various places. It seemed like a very pleasant way of life. The barges were massive - we estimated at least 200' long.

All too soon though, it became time for us to take a sad goodbye to Werneck and Josie and Reinhard. They drove us to the Wurzburg Bahnhof and there was a sad farewell on the station platform. The train arrived more or less on time and we boarded with our 2 x 23kg cases plus our smaller carry on luggage. Only problem was we were at the wrong end of the train, having earlier perused a diagram earlier on the platform. But it didn't matter and we were soon at Frankfurt Airport. Once again a wonderful quiet ride in one of these beautiful trains. Makes you not want to really get off!

We recall the many fascinating conversations that we had with Reinhard, covering family history and history generally including that of the Nazi era. Reinhard has written books about his family with photos of long ago ancestors and historical and biographical notes. Very very impressive. One thing that irrationally stands out - we told Reinhard and Josie about the classic "Grand Prix of Gibraltar" by that great British actor and comedian, Peter Ustinov. We mentioned the interview with the French team manager, Monsieur Orgini, when he was asked about all the beautiful girls in the French pits. He said "well, they are friends of the drivers (!), and as our pits are next to the Germans, perhaps they may cause the Germans to be a little less efficient!!". Reinhard enjoyed that.

The only regret about the German visit was that we didn't go to Stuttgart (Sindelfingen) to visit the Daimler-Benz Museum there. But we really didn't have the energy for another train ride and back. Maybe some time in the future we will return to do that.

Frankfurt Airport is very time consuming to process oneselves through and an alternative (where possible) should be found as it takes an inordinate amount of time just to get to the gate on time. Nothing worked efficiently and this combined with the German predilection for correct procedure made for a long process indeed. You need to allow LOTS of time. However, after about 3 hours we did finally get to the gate and then the fun really began. We boarded our LATAM Dreamliner with Rolls Royce engines for the flight to Madrid, and half an hour late after leaving the gate, started the long taxi to the runway. However, when we were almost there we inexplicably stopped and after a time became aware that the reason was that smoke had been observed coming from both engines. Of course we immediately thought about what we'd read about Air NZ with 2 engine failures in flight and having to have most of their RR powered Dreamliners grounded for some time while the engines were modified in Singapore. This process may still be continuing. Did nothing for our confidence. To further upset our equilibrium, several excitable Latin passengers were demanding to be allowed to leave the aircraft. So the aircraft was parked a short distance away and a gangway was brought alongside whereupon thankfully they left. Then of course all the hold baggage had to be sorted so that theirs could be removed as well. In the meantime some Lufthansa engineers began examining the aircraft and some 2 hours later they said there was no problem and that the small amount of smoke was "normal". Once they had signed the aircraft off we proceeded once more and took off with yours truly keeping an anxious eye on the port engine!! The flight was uneventful and we landed at Madrid some 4 hours late around 0200. We had met a very pleasant Spanish lady who was sitting next to us in our bulkhead seats and she very kindly guided us through the airport. There was a 15 minute train ride (standing up) before we could get our bags and fall into a taxi - knackered again! We were staying at a budget but very new hotel roughly half way between the airport and the city. We were pleased to finally fall into bed and sleep. Fortunately there was no time difference to cope with.

We had 2 nights and one full day so, in spite of feeling like staying in bed, we had a sparse 2 x 4.50 Euro breakfast and headed for the metro station to go to town. Again we were helped by a very pleasant young Spanish couple to extract our tickets from the automatic machine. The train was only about 30 minutes into the city. Off we got at the main Estacion Sol and then about 6 levels up and back into the sunshine. Lots of attractive and well maintained old buildings - some quite spectacular. Then we wandered the back streets where we came upon a very enticing restaurant where we had a great lunch and 2 glasses each of an excellent Spanish rose. Then more wandering and we found another restaurant offering Calamari at a good price so we filled our faces again. By this time we were well and truly past it so headed underground once more to get the train back. However, inadvertently we caught an express which did not stop at our station and so we had to go to the end of the line from where we caught another train back to our stop. After about an hour's sleep, we staggered downstairs for a very indifferent meal in the hotel cafeteria - then back to bed again.   

Our flight to Medellin the next day had a 1600 departure time but with Frankfurt fresh in our minds, we decided to leave the hotel at 1000 to ensure that we had plenty of time. By a great coincidence our taxi driver was a Colombian who had lived in Spain for a number of years. He spoke good English too so we had a good ride to the airport. However, Madrid was a totally different situation and everything operated seamlessly. So much so that we had time on our hands so found another good restaurant where we spent the best part of 2 hours with 2 more glasses of Spanish rose. We were flying Iberia (the Spanish national airline) and had 2 exit row seats on their own so there was plenty of legroom.  These seats had cost us another 58 Euros each over the ticket cost but worth it for the 10 hour flight. We left the Portuguese coast between Lisbon and Porto and then slept as there wasn't anything to see. Crossed the Venezuelan coast just east of Lake Maracaibo and ran into heavy high level cloud which persisted most of the way to Medellin. However, landed without incident at Medellin Airport which is 6,000' above sea level at 1930 local time and Noelia (our property agent) had arranged for us to be met. Soon we were on our way into the city, although not to our apartment as it was let. So we had arranged through another real estate acquaintance to lease a smaller apartment in the Suramericana district - not as salubrious as Envigado but quite OK and right next door to the Exito Colombia supermarket. No food, tea, coffee or anything in the apartment and the supermarket was closed, so we staggered along the road with David Garcia who had arranged our apartment to a small local restaurant where we had some Colombian food which kept the wolf from the door!

Next day (23/06) we spent up large in Exito and felt a little more "at home".

However, the events of the past 3 weeks or so were catching up on both of us with a vengeance and we spent a fairly miserable weekend not feeling well, quite emotional at times and generally out of sorts. But we are slowly coming to terms with everything that has happened. At least we have only pre-empted our arrival in Medellin by around 12 months from our original plan!

On Monday we contacted our lawyer, Astrid, and arranged an appointment to catch up and start our permanent residency applications. One amusing note - we had inadvertently made another unintended phone call to Astrid and she rang back not knowing who had rung. Jim answered the phone and neither Astrid nor Jim realized who we were talking to. Astrid said "do you need a lawyer?" and Jim replied "no, we already had one!!!" We had a bit of a laugh over that.  Also we talked again to Noelia, and Jean has also been in contact with 2 of our neighbours in our Envigado Jardines de la Maria building. We will catch up with everyone over the next few days.

Tuesday we went to Astrid's apartment opposite the Vizcaya Mall in Poblado where we regaled her with our Turkish experiences, and discussed our upcoming residency applications. Then we repaired across the road with Astrid to a restaurant where we had been before for lunch. Jim had a "sin alcohol" beer with lemon juice and a salt caked rim which was an interesting taste experience!! Then we took our leave of Astrid and went to meet Noelia and her liitle daughter, Luna, in her apartment not far away. Jean had been following Luna's progress since she was born 11 months ago so lots of catching up again and then back to our place. Much to do now with dealing with our apartment and the residency applications. We hope to be able to move into our apartment in the Jardines de la Maria building in early September.

We've had another visit to Astrid (our lawyer) today to further discuss our residency applications and also visited a Notary again! Prior to that we were in Poblado and witnessed the great jubilation of many Colombians at the Colombian Soccer Team's victory in the World Cup against Senegal. Many people wearing yellow shirts yahooing in the streets, loud music and yellow, red and blue balloons everywhere.  The exuberance was infectious.

More news soon - we are attaching some relevant  photos

Cheers and lotsaluv from us in Medellin.............

Jim and Jean

www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com 

P.S. If you go to our blogsite (www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com) there will be some further photos

Photos as below:
003 - A Turkish Gulet on the hard - they pull them on skids across a public road

015 - TT3 on the ship the day of unloading

034 - TT3 on the homemade "travelift" at the Hakan Yatcilik Boatyard, Fethiye

036 - Levent - the owner of the yard - our nemesis

043 - Jean and Reinhard outside a church in Hassburg

045 - Jean in Reinhard's and Josie's front garden with the roses

046 - the old Bishop's Palace in Werneck

052 - ditto from the park side

054 - Jean and Josie in front of an unusual flowering tree

061 - Palace gardens