"Hopping the World" drabbles by Richard Hunt
Prague
Hopping the world #36
Prague is a lovely city. You should go.
I was there to celebrate a lucrative contract that I had negotiated.
I flew to Prague arriving mid afternoon.
“My secretary will meet you.” George, the boss, had told me.
She was waiting, auburn hair, a superb figure and a lovely blue silk dress.
“I’ve booked you into a hotel.” She smiled.
After dinner she said “I will take you to your hotel now.”
We arrived. “I’ll come in and check that everything is all right.”
“No need.” I said.
“George expects me to.” She insisted, and came up to my room.
Cape Reinga
Hopping the World #35
We are on a four week coach tour of New Zealand, North then South Island. Today we are going to the Northernmost part. A long drive from where we were staying, but well worth it - and there was 100 mile beach to look forward to on the way back.
Our Māori driver gave a commentary all the way.
There was the lighthouse and there the ocean, where the Tasman sea, flowing northwards met the Pacific Ocean, flowing north at an angle. A permanent white standing wave, metres high stretched north into the distance.
“It’s always there.” Our driver told us.
Autobahn
Hopping the World #34
We’re in Paris.
We need to get to Frankfurt.
We have a car, it’s only 280 miles, we’ve driven a lot further than that in a day.
We? My dear wife and I.
Paris, Reims, Metz, Saarbrucken, Frankfurt. I started driving, there is a 130kph (80mph) limit in France. The border and the Autobahn FOUR lanes, no speed limit. My wife driving now - 100mph, well, I would do that myself … 110mph.
“Got to keep up with the traffic” She says.
It’s pouring rain now AND downhill … 130mph.
“You’re doing 140mph!!!” I gasp.
“Just keeping up with the traffic!”
Mount Cook and the Fox Glacier
Hopping the World #33
I’ve never been in a helicopter before … much less sat in the front. But here we are, Agnes and I in the front with the pilot. Two Germans sit in the seats behind us.
Up and away, climbing rapidly.
A valley suddenly opens below us, falling away scarily.
Up again, the mountain is over 12000 feet high. We fly round the peak then down to the Fox Glacier.
Landing on the snow and out for a walk - we had been warned and had snow boots.
We offer the front seats to the Germans for the return flight.
They accept.
Clonmacnoise
Hopping the World #32
Peace, perfect peace.
We came into the disused monastery grounds, past those giant Celtic crosses and up to the top of the grassy hill.
A view across the green fields, down to the Shannon, wide at this point, and across to the fields stretching away in the distance.
15 miles away is Athlone and the school to which my grandfather went with Eammon deValera.
My three year old daughter is toddling after a sheep. No idea why. The sheep doesn’t look happy and bleats.
We are here, my whole family and I. We are happy and we are at peace.
Covent Garden
Hopping the World #31
Not like you know it today.
6am and we have arrived and parked at the south end. Loads of stalls … at this end all vegetables.
We start walking round. Stalls are ranged East to West. My uncle shows me how to test carrots, potatoes, cauliflowers for freshness. We stop at a stall, “Reliable produce here.” He buys and I watch sacks being taken off to our lorry.
Now we have come to fruit. Men carrying piles of baskets on their heads.
Buying finished, we go back to the south end for breakfast.
Then back to the shop to unload.
The Valley of 1000 waterfalls
Hopping the World #30
In what was western Croatia. Part of my lecture/sales tour behind the Iron Curtain.
“So where are the waterfalls?” I asked at reception.
A gorgeous looking young lady near me said - French accent, “I was asking the same question.”
“Best after dark,” the receptionist said. “The moon will be up tonight. Help you see the steps.”
…
Down we went in the dark, holding hands to steady ourselves. Gorgeous dress, lovely perfume.
We sat by the lake and listened …
Back up the steps, holding hands to steady ourselves.
“I will be glad of my bed” she said, “won’t you?”
Perth
Hopping the World #29
Straight to bed when we got to our hotel. A long flight with a stopover ‘for decontamination’ in Bangkok. We had to leave the plane, goodness knows what chemical they used!
We slept well. Next day we went to see where the Yacht race from Sydney finishes, then to Perth centre.
Sitting outside a coffee shop, we looked round.
The thing that surprised us was that all the single storey shops and houses had tall false fronts, like you see in Western Movies! It looked weird.
Our next flight to Ayers Rock was later that afternoon. Back to our hotel.
Ireland - 1
Hopping the World #28
My daughter had a project on drumlins… hill formations left by the ice age.
There is a string of them just south of the Irish border with the north.
Driving westwards, just south of the border, we proceeded along the string.
At every Drumlin, we stopped and took soil samples.
North west, end of the string, Kinlough, was overtaken by a Garda car and forced to stop. A second Garda car stopped close behind us.
“What are you doing?”
“Collecting soil samples.” We said.
“Show me.”
“We thought you were planting bombs, we have dug up every hole you made!”
Chalon sur Saone
Hopping the world #27
We had been in Riva del Garda.
We (Stuart, my colleague, and I) drove the van down via the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Quite an experience! But we had to drive it back.
We decided to drive back through France on the Autoroute.
Too far to drive in one, so we stopped at Chalon, found a hotel and parked.
The most charming young girl greeted us at the door. Gorgeously dressed in a blouse and a light summer skirt.
She joined us for dinner at Stuart’s invitation.
Next morning he was ‘too tired to drive’. He slept and I drove.
Fair???
Uluru
Hopping the World #26
5am is a ridiculous time to get up when you are on holiday, but that is what we did!
‘Sunrise over Ayers Rock’
We arrived by coach in good time to see this spectacle. Shortly after 6am what a spectacle it was!!!
Cameras clicked, videos rolled!!!
Then a tour round the base of the rock.
“You can climb the rock if you really want to - you start here - but it is sacred to the Aborigines and they ask that you do not.”
So we did not.
We stayed with the coach by a hot food van serving …
Kangaroo Steaks!!!
Heidelberg
Hopping the World #25
It had been a good day. My lecture on ‘Can you believe the results you get from any instrument?’ had been awarded the ‘Accolade d’Or’. My manager was well pleased and suggested a trip to anywhere nearby.
Heidelberg was quite a distance - 90km - but there we went - five of us, next day.
I love singing.
On the west bank of the Neckar, looking across, I could only think of Mario Lanza and ‘The Student Prince’.
So I started singing, ‘Overhead the moon is beaming’.
The others joined in, I harmonised.
We finished to applause from the small crowd who gathered!
Paris
Hopping the world #24
I’m going to finish this series with my favourite place in all the world.
Paris.
Not the Eiffel Tower, not the Louvre, not Montmartre, not Notre Dame …
Place Saint Michel.
A magical place. The place where lovers meet. A place of peace.
Stand, face the fountain and relax.
Behind you the bustle of traffic, the Seine. To your right a little street with cute shops, over there the Eiffel Tower. To your left a profusion of restaurants … French cuisine … Greek cooking … even English restaurants. Ahead, the fountain.
Here is peace.
Forget your worries.
You are home.
Catching on in Cairns
Hopping the World #23
One day we went to a large area enclosed by 15 metre high wire-netting. I wanted to learn to throw a boomerang.
Easy, you say. Think again.
The man in charge let me throw one first. It hit the wire and fell to the ground.
He showed me the profiling, how to hold it, how to throw it.
‘You are trying to frighten prey towards you, so that you can shoot it or catch it.’
I threw and threw and eventually got it right. The boomerang came back to me.
Delighted, I bought a boomerang - and still have it.
More in Cairns
Hopping the world #22
Next day was a beautiful day, so we took a train ride up into the rain forest.
A village was at the top and a cable car back down. The village was entirely populated with native Australians. They welcomed us warmly as we walked around.
Then, suddenly, it rained torrents. Soaked, we went into a shop and bought plastic coats and umbrellas.
Coming out, ready for anything, it had stopped raining! We explored more. Then it rained torrents again!
When we had seen enough, we took a great ride back down in a cable car high over the tree tops.
Cairns
Hopping the World #21
Cairns is a great place from which to see the Barrier Reef.
We chose a boat with a ‘glass’ bottom and ‘glass’ sides, below the waterline. Of course we sat right down at the bottom.
The small group of us in the boat were driven out to sea, eastwards.
We got to the Reef, there were fish of many colours, blues and greens, swimming along with us … a great big turtle, then the reef itself, rocky and covered with brightly coloured algae, sea grasses and mangroves, roots waving as the water moved.
And there is more in Cairns …
Earthquake
Hopping the World #20
We are visiting Iceland, staying in Reykjavik.
We have swum in a volcanically heated pool, we have walked across the mid-Atlantic ridge.
At Geyser, surprisingly, there is a geyser! It sends a massive column of water at least 150 feet into the air about once every minute. Youth play ‘dare’ near it.
Back in the hotel after really nice meal, bed …
11:30pm, the whole room shakes for about 2 minutes.
Earthquake, 8.4 on the Richter scale.
Next day numerous aftershocks. The whole city shakes. It makes you feel drunk as you walk.
Iceland is a REALLY interesting place.
La Piste des Maures, France
Hopping the World #19
Driving from Toulon on the A57, towards Cannes. It means going North to the A8. Traffic is dense.
Patrick, my colleague, driving, spots a sign.
“Let’s go via the coast over the Piste des Maures, where they hold the road race.”
On to a narrow road which climbs rapidly into the Maures Mountain range. I think he has acrophobia.
“God, Richard, it is very high, the road is very narrow.”
Narrower as we crossed a 3km long ridge with a drop of 250 metes each side.
But we survived to eat a delicious lunch in a cafe above the beach!
Barcelona
Hopping the World #18
I was here for work, staying in an hotel at the top of Ramblas,
A building, attributed to Gaudi, called Concretos was opposite, and Sagrada Familia just a few steps away.
A delight to walk down Ramblas every evening, past all the stalls, down to the harbour where the boat which allegedly took Christopher Columbus to America is moored.
A Flamenco dance display, arranged for us, castanets, swirling dresses.
And the work was not too demanding!
The only drawback was that it was in the time of Franco. You had to be careful what you said.
There were ears everywhere!
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
Hopping the World #17
I came to San Francisco for work. The offices of our agent were in Berkeley, on the east side of the bay. The whole San Francisco skyline over to the west.
Having found my hotel, I got a bus across the Bay Bridge then took the streetcar up and over to the waterfront.
It was easy to find the Dock of the Bay - and there were few people there.
I just wanted to sit, as in the Otis Redding song, and I did.
Bay bridge to my left, Alcatraz Island to my right.
And I watched the tide coming in!!!!!
