Flavia 50 Trieste - Sort of a Blog

[LanciAlan]

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[LanciAlan]

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[LanciAlan]

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[LanciAlan]

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[fensaddler]

Enough pictures for a very fine book there!  I suggest young man, that you should be turning this blog into a very fine report for VL upon your return home - copy date is the 12th of next month for publication in November's issue!

[fay66]

Great photos, do you have a list of the participants and who owns what? is Frank Dehler from Germany among the numbers with his 2000 Berlina? as it sounds like something Frank would attend when not planning his Club Vincenzo Lancia Trips.

Although I love all Flavia/2000 the one photo that doesn't do it for me is the Vignale with the whitewall tyres, Vignale's are a particular favourite, but to my mind the whitewall tyres just don't seem to go with the car as far as I'm concerned, no doubt others will disagree with me

Brian
8227

[LanciAlan]

You are so controversial Brian ... you really should be more sensitive to the feelings of the owner of that car - especially since you don't even know them!

Yes there is a participant list but I better not publish it - I am already afraid that the cars I have pictured will turn up for sale of eBay as a job lot!

And no Frank Dechler was not there but I made many new friends from the UK, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and Italy.

Friday 24 September - Supplement

Following lunch, which involved various wines and several courses (more anon) and a tour of the wine producer place we had a choice to visit a retail shopping outlet in nearby Palma Nova or have a tour of the town. One of our hosts, Andrea Nistri also informed us that he proposed to conduct an exploratory urology investigation at his garage on the Flavia coupe of participant Bill Houghton-Brown whose car was heating more (or cooling less effectively) than it should.

I elected for the latter (garage urology) option and following a sort of "wine mixed with peach juice" reception on the marina at Palma Nova we all went our separate ways, with Bill and myself following Andrea in a 3-car convoy through the light rain that had now descended to his workshop where we spent a very pleasant hour urologising  Bill's car's cooling system and with the results of which Bill declared himself to be well pleased - if only, by his own admission, in his head. You can see the hi-tech urology equipment  - various tubes, nozzles, a bucket and an operating mat - lying around in the background. The umbrella was for the rain and did not form part of the experiment although Andrea did wear surgical boots.

As well as being a doctor  specialising in human urology (for real), Andrea is also a well-known Fulvia expert of iconic proportions who dispenses Fulvia wisdom on the website www.viva-lancia.com (see the Fulvia FAQ page). Andrea has also been the maestro responsible for the success of this Flavia event as conceived by Angela Verschoor and we are greatly indebted to both of them and their colleagues Maurizio and Tiziano for their wonderful welcome, organisation and assistance throughout.

After a refreshing lemonade in Andrea's apartment and a brief introduction to Mrs Andrea as she came in from work, we three made our way directly to the restaurant for our evening meal as there was not time to travel via the hotel in Grado. This restaurant too was on the premises of a local wine producer (the peach juice reception guy from earlier) whose family had owned the estate for generations. As we three arived early, we were honured with a private viewing of a fascinating Lancia "secret object" and a tour of the small family chapel nearby.

Dinner, like every other meal as it was now becoming clear, involved 4 or 5 courses and 2 or 3 wines and sometimes took as many hours. The meals so far have been predominantly of freshly-caught local fish in considerable variety and all very tasty indeed, if a little frequent and lengthy! Who could complain really!

While we dined, an electric storm came down from the Alps, enlivening our meal with flashes of lightening and thunderclaps and drenching the smokers outside (of whom I was not one on this occasion). The warm rain continued to fall heavily as we made our way back to the cars parked in the large open-sided barn and drove back along the causeway to the hotel in Grado, punctuated by occasional flashes of lightening.

[LanciAlan]

Saturday 25 September - Island Boat Trip, Duino Castle and Trieste

Today's first outing was by waterbus from Grado marina to a nearby smaller island where, before we could even revive from our hotel breakfasts, another 4-course spread featuring the loal frutti del mare was served. Brian Scott-Quinn from my table pronounced himself unable to eat seafood but was soon seen tucking into a plate of marinated sardines or the like on the basis that these were "fish" not "seafood" which he said was the term for "crustaceans" (sea creatures with exoskeletons)  and invertebrates (with none). I reserved judgment on that one and laid into my squid and shellfish melange.

In the afternoon we uninstalled ourselves from the Astoria Hotel in Grado to a second hotel in Trieste. Running late as usual and having been last into the garage the night before (and therefore first out), I had left the key in the car in case it needed to be moved. When I arrived, Peter Bristow was about to move the car out of the way and I adopted him as my passenger for the afternoon. Not a good start however as, while waiting in line to exit the carpark, the car cut out and would not re-start until everyone had left.

After the carpark incident, Peter, was decidedly more edgy once I told him I was low on fuel ..... especially when the red light on the fuel gauge came on just a few minutes later.

En route to Trieste we visited the castle of Duino and its ruined predecessor castle nearby - both on spectacular rocky promontories. The castle is the home of the Thurn-Taxis family of which the current head of house Prince Charles has opened the castle to public viewing. This lot had a monopoly on postal delivery services throughout Europe back in the days and their yellow horse-drawn mail coaches which later also carried passengers are said to be the origin of the yellow mail service livery still found  in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and also the origin of the term "taxi" as well as the combination of both legacies in the "yellow cab" concept. I'm not too sure myself about the latter 2.

The traffic of busy  built-up Trieste required more concentration than the relaxed resort atmosphere of Grado and we all had to step up our concentration and navigation efforts to make our way to the NH Hotel (formerly Jolly Hotel) located almost at the centre of this busy historic city port. Then the car performed its "mysterious sudden death" trick again as we queued in heavy city traffic waiting to enter the hotel carpark. This has happened once or twice lately and the fix simply involves reefing open the fusebox (conveniently located in the glovebox) to adjust a few fuses and restore life to the ignition and related circuits. After I took possession of a junction box with a red traffic light against me (I thought the line of oncoming cars were parked!) we successfully entered the car park and Peter gratefully removed himself from my company!

Dinner (see further above for the general specification) was provided in an elegant hotel nearby and we passed the main square en route where we would display our cars the following day. Following dinner, some presentations were made to the organisers and I won a prize for the longest-travelled participant (1200 miles so far) - others had come from further away but had brought their cars on the train or by trailer for some of the way.

My brother in law Brendan had re-joined us today as promised  following his work commitments in Frankfurt and Oxford (via London and Stansted) and we took a walk around the lively bars and cafes of the main square and grand canal area, finding a life-size bronze statue of James Joyce on one of the bridges.

[LanciAlan]

Sunday 26 September - Castle Miramare and Car Display in Piazza Unita Italia

Details to follow but here are the pics and a summary:

Morning visit to Miramare Castle built by Maximillian the governor of this area who was also apointed Emperor of Mexico until they shot him. Andrea gave us the detail before we toured the castle and gardens.

Lunch at Tre Noci restaurant (see further above for the general specification) ....

Afternoon return to Trieste to display cars in main square. I accidentally took a picture of cars with Brendan without realising he was in it.

Gala dinner in Lighthouse restaurant, speeches, presentations, thanks,  etc.

[LanciAlan]

Monday 27 September - Departure: Italy and Austria

More pictures to come and I'll fill in the detail but here is a summary

Farewells and departures from Trieste in convoy with Angela again. Didn't go over the Grossglockner pass again partly due to the look of the weather and partly due to my delaying our departure and at lunchtime. Did a mini-pass instead before heading for the AutoZug (car/sleeper train) in Austria that would take us overnight to Dusseldorf, Germany. Fine pizzas and beers in the station diner with Bert, Pia, Roy and Margret while waiting for the train.

Both our computers died on the train and the camera with them as I was writing up Friday and Saturday's blog. Found a plug in a tiny washroom but it died too after a few minutes. Haven't slept on a train since inter-railing in 1986 or thereabouts. There were 4 people in our 6-berth compartment which was fine.

Drove about 240 miles today.

[LanciAlan]

Tuesday 28 September: Germany, Belgium, France, UK and Home to Ireland

Got breakfast on the train before arrival in Dusseldorf at 7.30 - an hour later than scheduled. The unloading took a while too as other car carriages and passengers had joined during the night in Munich, including about 40 bikers whose bikes were individually lashed to the train at 4 points and took an age to unload.

A lighter if unfortunate moment in the proceedings was when one elderly lady couldn't find her car on the train. Turned out either she had boarded the wrong train after loading her car in Munich or else her car had been mistakenly sent to Hamburg (where it would presumably cause particular trouble to unloading the train  there without the keys!).

We got out of rainy, misty Dusseldorf in morning rush hour quite well but then took the wrong direction on a motorway. All these delays meant we were not going to be in Holyhead for the 5pm ferry so my sister Sue researched and booked a later one for us by exchanges of text messages as we drove.

Meanwhile we headed for Calais and the Euro Tunnel - a journey of about 350 miles from Dusseldorf which we made in about 5 hours by 1pm. We were loaded and across the channel in less than 70 minutes from time of arrival -  a significant time saving on the boat crossing and not too dear either.You stay with your car on this train which has closed carriages.

Once in the UK we texted Sue again for the AA and RAC websites prognosis on the M25 roadworks and traffic situation and made a good call on whether to go east or west of London. We had a good nourishing BK lunch at Oxford services and fuelled up the car for the last time - over €60 for 40 litres (€1.50 a litre). We had paid between €1.27 and €1.47 for petrol on he continent (cheaper in Austria than in Belgium, Italy or Germany) but that was for 98 octane as opposed to the 95 octane we have at home. They had it in Oxford too but for more like €1.70 a litre!

Pressing on up the M40, M6 and then over to the A55 in north Wales the traffic moved well and we had no delays before making Holyhead at 8.30.

I am writing this final instalment on the ferry home to Dublin. The car (aka "Philip") ran faultlessly throughout the 2200 miles we covered in the past 8 days and delivered about 300 miles to a 50 litre/10 gallon tank which is 30mpg .... all done at cruising speeds of 75 to 80 with the odd burst to 85 or 90 for which the engine is very eager. The only casualties were the light in the clock and the air-horn hose!

Thanks to John, Colm and Dave for their support in preparing the car over the past year or so!

Also looking forward to keeping in touch with new Lancia friends met at this great event!

I'll add the remaining pics when I can extract them from  our phones and from other people's cameras.

And I can post a few vids to Youtube

[fay66]

"You are so controversial Brian ... you really should be more sensitive to the feelings of the owner of that car - especially since you don't even know them!"

It wasn't my intention to offend anyone and I did say no doubt others would disagree, but I generally don't think whitewall tyres do anything for most cars, and as I was around when whitewalls were fitted to new cars, mainly as an option, I don't remember them being fitted in vast numbers.

Anyway, I do know some Dutch Lancia Club Members, it's possible I might know the owner
I've just looked up my photos of a Vignale to see if I could see if it's the same one that was on Frank Dehlers 4th European meeting, when we went to Lake Orta and Fobello back in 1997, unfortunately I can't see the registration Number.
Great photos so keep clicking.

Brian
8227

[LanciAlan]

Here are Dietmar's pictures ....

www.movitcars.com/flavia50guarda

www.movitcars.com/flavia50guartogar
 
www.movitcars.com/flavia50gradaqupalm
 

[DavidLaver]

Much as I'd love to disagree with Brian - and much as I do like whitewalls - not on that car.

My positive is that I'd forgotten how stylish the headlining is in a Flavia. 

David

[HF_Dave]

Well done Alan, I see from the pics you all had a great time. Really sorry I missed this one, maybe I might make the Fulvia 50th in 2013  if the car is finished by then ?