Happy New Year – 2007 Letter to family & friends

Dear friends,

The New Year saw us in Nevis, with great fireworks lighting the sky from the Four Seasons resort. On this occasion, we left early to help Anton Mosimann turn 60 in style at the Dorchester in London and the next day help Bill Brake celebrate his 75th birthday on his country estate in South Kent.

From there, we flew to Switzerland to assist the birth of our third grandchild and heir, Matteo Luca, a stout lad of 52 cm and 4,5 kg, on February 27.

After that, we flew right back to the US, first to Los Angeles where we caught up with a number of friends we had not seen/visited for a while, and later to San Francisco where we did the same. The most spectacular visit was to the Ridge winery in Sonoma County where we saw many of the old wines of 80 years and more still in use…

For the rest of the letter, please click on “read more” below

Pictures covering 2007 will be loaded hopefully before Christmas….

From there, a direct flight to Hong Kong, and once again we stayed at the still spectacular Peninsula, where we spent our honeymoon nearly 40 years ago… Then it was off to Guilin and its stunning mountains, this time in the mist. We had been there many moons before, but in the wrong season, when the weather was fine and clear, so just regular mountains. Industrialization had left many scars – the easiest to see was the fact there was no water in the Li River; we had to travel by car for one hour to get to the boats taking us to the tour that 15 years before had started at the entrance of the Hotel…

Shanghai had become the metropolis everyone had described. Skyscrapers everywhere, traffic galore, and pretty bad pollution. We left hoping for some peace and quiet in Thailand, but we got hell there; we never thought it could get so hot in Chiang Mai, well over 40 C. The same in Phuket and again in Bangkok. Global warming must have reached there, too. At these temperatures, even pools and the sea are no longer a relief – I would have preferred to be in Antarctica… Whilst Uschi left for home at the end of April, I headed East to Japan spending time in Tokyo and Kobe/Osaka.

Summer was spent mostly in Switzerland, in Germany and a short trip to Northern Italy.

The major event of 2007 came in October. With another couple, Susy and Adi Schulthess, we made a 2 weeks plus trip to Kyushu and Kyoto in Japan. This is the third such trip to Japan we have undertaken together, with a comfortable van, and always with the same driver, Mohri-san. We started in *censored*uoka, then headed to Nagasaki, Unzen, Amakusa, Kumamoto, Mount Aso, Beppu, Yufuin, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Ibusuki; all this added up to 2150 km in a Nissan El Grand van, one way rental. Then a flight to Osaka Itami airport and the same type of van, with a different but fully English-speaking driver, who took us to Kyoto for a 3-day stay and sight seeing and shopping tour around the Shinmonzen Street and Teramachi area. He was so knowledgeable, we nicknamed him Mr. Google. After that, the Schulthess couple returned home, and we continued to Osaka, Kobe and later to Naruto, on the island of Shikoku, to see the finalization of the Sistine Chapel – a 1:1 copy, in porcelain plates, of Michelangelo’s original in the Vatican, housed in The Otsuka Museum of Art, TOMA, along with some 1000 of the world’s most famous masterpieces. For further details, please go to the website: http://www.otsuka-global.com/sr/museum/index.html (Museum) .

We stayed at their brand new Hotel Ridge, a jewel of a boutique hotel serenely overlooking the Onaruto suspension bridge and the famous whirlpools where the Pacific hits the Inland sea and the southern coast of Awaji island. The bathwater comes from a natural spring, and dinner is served in a renovated Taisho (1920’s) period Hakone guest house that was brought down to Tokushima, lovingly renovated, and expertly rebuilt on the ridge next to the hotel. The food, needless to say, was prepared by a master chef trained for years in Belgium, France and Switzerland, who runs a renowned Naruto restaurant and whose services are called upon whenever needed at the hotel.

On the way to Tokyo, we dropped in at Nagoya where a friend had already been hospitalized for several months with a blood clot which had led to a stroke and then to complications with his leg. We then continued by bullet train to Tokyo, where we met up with a bevy of friends to wind up our visit savoring the favorite dishes in most of our former pet hangouts. The day flight home was extremely long, we thought, but we found all in good order, clean and even the weather was still good.

No sooner back in Switzerland, I took a short trip to Lisbon to visit Julio de Sousa who managed the justly famous Portuguese restaurant at EXPO 70 in Osaka. It was kind of symptomatic that the fine driver who met our flight from Kyushu at Osaka airport drove us to Kyoto chose the back highway. Therefore, we all of a sudden saw the landmark EXPO sun symbol appear in the driving rain, still standing proudly after 37 years… Uschi and I nearly started to cry of emotion – we had been at EXPO 80-90 times as I had close links through the Pepsi Cola Pavilion. The driver is the one we nick-named Mr. Google for his fabled knowledge of Kyoto as well as Japanese and general history.

Not to be outdone, Uschi joined Alexandra for a short trip to London at the end of November for some last minute Christmas shopping, a play at the Cambridge Theater, and a great dinner at Mosimann’s. Nic dutifully babysat the three young kids at their home whilst yours truly was the solitary straw widower in La Tour…

December 10th is departure for us to Nevis, via Paris, Saint Martin. Nic, Alexandra and the three grand children will join us there on December 15th and stay for the entire Holidays – hopefully, Keana at 2 ¾ years will learn to swim as Leonie did 2 years ago at the same age.

Uschi and I will stay on in Nevis till late in March, perhaps taking a trip to the US or to a neighboring island, in order have a change of venue or to meet some friends and buy some foodstuffs.

In closing, Uschi joins me in wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a most wonderful, happy, successful and healthy New Year of the Rat 2008 – yes, it will be my year!

Willi & Uschi

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