2008 Odyssey

We travel to Japan, the UK, France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Russia. What a trip!

This was our first big European trip post retirement … well for the first time anyway.

We started at Narita and saw an amazing Japanese garden. Amazingly it took another decade before we spent a lot more time in Japan and just love the place, the people and the culture.

Paris was next on the list. We stayed with friends and the highlights included dinner in an avant garde restaurant on ther West Bank, Versailles and the incredible Musee d’Orsay.

From there we headed south to Vezelay and the famous Nuits St.Georges before the spectacular Chamonix Mont Blanc. The tunnel emerges near Ivrea where I worked at Olivetti and we made it to Verona where we stayed in a Knights Templar monastery.

Lots of Italy to explore including Venice. Apart from the beautiful countryside one highlight was the sommelier tour of the Zonin musuem.

We went to Heidelberg via Austria and enjoyed the 40th anniversary of Jim Clark’s passing at the circuit. I asked the mayor what he thought of Bernie Ecclestone and his comments were not printable! Back to Italy for a lot of fun and then to Monaco for the GP Historique. Race Face was the result and was published the following year.

St Petersburg was incredible. We beat the tourist boats by a week and pretty much had the place to ourselves. We’ve sent lots of friends to our private guide and to the B&B where we stayed and remain in touch with Tatiana and Natalia. What a week!

And then England and Scotland and catching up with friends and family.

All brilliant!