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Principality of Monaco
Damn camera is still playing up. I have found a semi-solution though. Take the photo upside down. Stupid, but it works. In the immortal words of Bill Lawry, it is the perfect way to describe the last race of the America´s Cup. But first things first.
After leaving Budapest, it was a day of transport as I trained from there to Zurich, onto Milan, then Ventimiglia and finally Nice for a day as I again caught up with Brendan. I first had a look around Monaco and visted the aquarium there which was pretty amazing, then met up with Brendan and the crew for a few drinks before crashing on his boat.
Next morning I was on the train again and made the trip along the coast towards Barcelona via a night stop in a little town called Perpignan. Not recommended. That´s all i´ll say about that one.
Then it was into Barcelona and first task was to head to the bar to watch the Team NZ race. Unfortunately I proved to be bad luck and our spinnaker blew out when in the lead and effectively ended the race. Then it was off to the airport to meet the girls, who as girls do, were 2 hours late. But not their fault, this time. We made it back
Jaws!
Behind glass. Plus he was fairly small. to the hostel about 2am and crashed into bed.
The next day, my plan was to watch the All Blacks game vs Australia, so the girls went and did a bit of sightseeing as I watched a truly forgetable match, and I left before I could stretch my curse onto the next America's Cup Race. Unfortunately it was too late and Team NZ were down 4-2 in the race to 5. But I met up with the girls and we headed out to the Olympic Park, where the Olympics were held in 1992, and we got some amazing views of the city and the coastline. Then I took them into Parc Guell, which they both absolutely loved due to the crazy childlike architecture. It was a very Spanish dinner of Steak and Eggs before crashing for the night.
Our next day started to sum our trip thus far. Problems with transport. Our plan was to check out La Sagrada Familia then head to Valencia in time for the 7th race of the America's Cup and watch the great Team NZ comeback. The first part went smoothly, then we arrived at the train station to see half of Spain
Soaring Sea Turtle
Hopefully I will be able to see a couple of these in the sea one day. there aswell. Neat. So we ended up on a train 3 hours later than hoped for and in 1st class (that part not that much of a problem, except on the wallet), and luckily got a text telling us that strong winds had postponed the 7th race. Phew.
We arrived and found our hostel and headed straight down to the waterfront, where despite what I had heard about the amount of money spent on it, the cup village was not noticably anymore impressive than Auckland. But it was cool seeing the amount of Kiwi stuff all around and feeling the patriotism as we realised that the Kiwi syndicate was easily the best supported from arguably the country the furthest away.
The following day was a lay day for the yachting so we wandered the old town and checked out the sights to see, before we encountered yet more transport difficulties. This time a bridge had collapsed between here and Madrid. Our next destination. Neat. So after several hours of queues to learn this, we missioned to the bus station and got ourselves booked in. Just after we had spent 250 Euros each on the EU Railpass.
The
next day will live long in my memory just for the pure drama. We went straight down to the waterfront, and down to the 'Kiwi' side of the wharf and waved out Dean Barker and his boys as they headed out to the course. We headed into the 'Woolshed', the adopted Kiwi headquarters, and got front row seats. The action for the first 3 legs was cut and thrust and the Kiwis had the edge until the final mark, when it looked like the sailing genius of Brad Butterworth had sown it up for Alinghi by taking a 150m lead and forcing TNZ to concede a penalty turn. We had just accepted the inevitable when a huge wind shift occured and the Kiwis started to rein in the metres at a huge rate. The crowd rose and started cheering every metre. And when the Kiwis overtook, by god it was deafening. As it got down to 100m to go and we were 60m infront, and we started the penalty turn. Every Kiwi was screaming for every inch around, and as we completed the turn, we were still in front. But the momentum was with Alinghi and as they crossed the
Right half of Barcelona from Olympic Park
As you can see, right on the sea. The beaches are further round to the right though. finish line, nobody knew who had won. For a good 30 seconds until they panned to the Alinghi boat, everyone was standing in a stunned silence with hoarse voices and outright confusion. Then the reality sunk in that we had just missed out. By one second. Gutted.
We were incredibly proud of our boys though and every one of us headed out to see them come back in. Their faces and body language said everything, and if they had managed to pull it out of bag, who knows? They would have had the momentum and confidence and the Cup could be heading back to Auckland. Next time. And fingers crossed I will be there to see it.
After the presentation, we missioned it to the bus station and after some ungainly running with my backpack, we made it with 3 minutes to spare and we were on our way to Madrid.
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