Venice

Im on my way to Venice on a work flight with a short stay in Mestre. Good memories of a trip with a great crowd two years ago come to my mind! If a day is cancelled during a Bassano meeting, it is always nice to go sightseeing in Venice, specially if there is such a great company to travel with! We´ve beaten Guido and his friends to the Piazza di San Marco, as those guys got lost on the way a few times ;) but finally we met there and took a few photos.

Training in Spring Time

My daily training for the Wings for Life World Run takes me through the beautiful colours of European spring. So nice when the sun is out!

Wings for Life World Run May 4th

I go running every day, either outside or on board (when I work) to train for the Wings for Life World Run. It will start at 10 GMT on May 4th in locations all around the world! I will start in Darmstadt, Germany, the city where I studied Graphic Design and where I also started my flying career.
Take off is in Kranichsteiner Str, and I used to live just around the corner - I hope to see many of my friends around on that day, let´s all run together, have a good time and support spinal cord research, so all our friends will be able to walk and fly no matter what!

Malabo, equatorial Guinea, Timezone UTC +1

After the pilots went on strike for three full days, all our schedules changed dramatically. Instead of visiting Gin and his factory in Seoul, I ended up in Malabo. Equatorial Guinea is on the west coast of Africa, and the capital Malabo is on Bioko island. I had to be a bit careful with my photos, as it is forbidden to take pictures of official buildings, and the presidential palace was right next to our crew hotel...
From the cockpit I could see the big volcano in the middle of the island, about 3000m high. The next day, the top of the mountain stayed covered in clouds, as humidity is quite high, but temperatures were pleasant, around 30 C. Guess I was lucky that it didn´t start raining while I was at the beach.
For sure the timing isn´t quite German, but people are happy and friendly, and you can get far with Spanish and French. Except for two fishermen and three other hotel guests, I didnt meet anybody else on the beach. It was a "natural beach", rather dark volcanic sand than the white carribbean feeling, and it wasn´t cleaned. Quite a lot of plastic items were there, but also an incredible variety of almost perfect shells! Jamie, I have to take you here one day, with lots of empty suitcases ;))) much better than anywhere else Ive been to before, because here nobody seems to be interested.
I was aware that Malaria is around, so I checked my room and wore a long sleeve white shirt and sprayed myself with "Anti-Brumm" - so far I seem to be well, seems to have worked alright.