Not only do I miss Alex, the water and the sun, but I also miss sitting in peace, reflecting on life, writing, contemplating in peace and quietness surrounded by nature. I've come to a lot of conclusions during my time off the boat, a time well needed for both Alex and I, and I cannot wait to put these new learnings and understandings into real life practice once I'm back with my man. 

I can admit that life on the boat hasn't been easy at all times, I'm sure most of you can understand. Living so tight with another person, even if you are very much in love with each other, tend to create tension and stress and unnecessary pressure to both the relationship and your individual lives. For us, it was absolutely needed that we had this little break apart, to get to evaluate the things that really are important, and if we wish to continue with our journey, figure out what way to go to make things run smoother in the future. To live on a small boat with your partner for two years is only one thing that can make you want to kill each other from time to time, add to that the fact that we had a hard time selling Alex's old boat, the new one proved to be a larger (and more expensive) mission than what we had expected, and that we literally been locked up in between two islands for far too many months because of the sales and buying process of the two boats..

Life could've definitely been easier and we've had to realize that we've chosen the hard way in many aspects. There are always things one could have done differently, and either you choose to look back with regrets or you make sure to use the lessons of your mistakes as insightful guides to push you forward, back on track, into the right direction. 

That's basically where we are at the moment, trying to learn from our mistakes, make the best out of what we have on hand. This pause we've had these past four weeks, or is it five now, has been very good to us. Hard at times of course, but that's the way you learn I believe. All things that are worth fighting for does naturally come with a good dose of pain and suffering, how else would we know they are important.

I love these shots from Antigua Classic Regatta that I took a few months back... makes me miss the sea even more. Professional and private reasons has kept me in Europe longer than expected and I still have some things to deal with here before I can go back home. I should def be back on the boat no later than after the weekend. Can't wait, one complete month away from Alex and our peaceful life on water has been difficult and challenging in many different ways.

Someone asked me what Spanish tapas restaurant it was that I posted photos from in this Berlin post. It's called Bar Raval and is located in Kreuzberg. Run by Spanish, the food is authentic, the service relaxed and it got me feeling like I was actually sitting in Raval, Barcelona, for a short while. 

Food and fruit markets are not quite the colorful and impressive for the senses as in the tropics. Except for the difference in surroundings and climate, it somehow gives another appeal to the experience when you know that the fruits have literally been picked from the rainforest or garden, just around the corner or up in the hills. It is a pleasure nonetheless to stroll around the market streets of London and inhale the scents of cilantro, satsumas, fresh fish, strawberries and parsley in a curious melange. The mangos looks tempting but I can't bother to try them. Having tasted and fallen in love with the Antiguan ones, I'll better stay away from anything this far from the equator to avoid getting disappointed. The sweet European cherries were delicious though, something you won't so easily find in the West Indies.

After four days of rain, the sun is back with us again. Getting reports from Antigua that it is inhumanly hot and humid over there as the hurricane season just started so I'm enjoying these chillier and more refreshing winds for as long as I can.

The United Kingdom celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's 60th year on the throne this past weekend. A good friend of mine invited us to a gorgeous royal themed party in a beautiful penthouse next to the river Thames where the Queen received peoples salutes from the royal barge. A maritime parade was held of 1,000 boats from around the Commonwealth, the largest flotilla seen on the river in 350 years. A pity that the weather showed its worse side, would have loved to catch some better photos of the Queen and the royal barge MS Spirit of Chartwell. Despite the distance and blurriness, you can see Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla - Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William - Duke of Cambridge; Catherine - Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry on my photo of the barge. Thanks to Timur for the invite and to Noha for an amazing party.

Soundtrack of the day. Images taken at my favorite brasserie in Notting Hill.

Feels very strange to be writing in this World Tour blog about my personal travels in Europe, when the sole purpose of this blog was to tell stories about Alex and my sailing journey around the world. The option would be to keep it quiet here until I get back to the boat, but we have elected these London/Berlin/Europe updates are better than nothing during this little break. I hope you all agree? I have tried to get Alex to send me some images of his boat work for a few weeks now but you all know how much he loves spending time with the computer... hopefully he'll get his mind around it sometime soon.