This post is all about trains, tracks, and digital-automation thereof. So, ideally, the 14-minute mix of Trans Europe Express should be listened to while reading this not-so-short post, IMHO…

Read on: OK, let’s go!…

Our north-to-south-to-north tour of Sardinia was coming to its logical end. But one final thing I really need to tell you about is the hotel we stayed at on our last night. It was the Hotel Cala di Volpe, situated in the bay of the same name – here.

First – disclaimer! In a post that will be published on Friday, I say that I ain’t bothered at all about where I stay on my many trips around the world – just the basics are sufficient. Er, oops. It’s not that simple. For sometimes I do fully appreciate get carried away by the digs we stay at – especially when they’re as good as those on our last night in Sardinia!…

Cala di Volpe – yes, it’s posh. But also very interesting – for different reasons.

For example: here you can learn a lot about (up-)market segmentation and creating and increasing the interest level in a place for a targeted demographic. Next door is Porto Cervo village. From a distance it looks like just another humble fishing village. But on closer inspection, it turns out to be one of the world’s most expensive, exclusive resorts! Once a few millionaires started moving there, a whole load of other millionaires followed them, turning the whole area into a prestigious playground of the rich, which in turn attracted more and more ever-posher things like shops, hotels, services, whatever…

But back to the hotel…

It’s architecture is unique: never seen anything like it. Its labyrinth bends and twists make you lose your mind bearings, and you can find yourself at the same spot you passed just five minutes ago – going the other way!

The hotel’s design is real nice. Its swirls and squiggles and asymmetry are all fairly bonkers. Like. It’s so different to what everyone’s used to: straight lines, straight walls, straight staircases, straight everything! Not here!

Oh my gym!

Read on: Fully relaxed, rested, rejuvenated…

After philosophizing and prophesizing (without our pens) about mankind as embodied in the monuments it builds itself, it was time for further deep thought – on the monuments nature itself builds – deep being the right word: for that’s how far we were going underground…

We’re here, on our route winding slowly from north to south of Sardinia.

Read on: A magical Mediterranean island…

I was getting into this Sardinian trip…

Two hours of scaling down cliff faces and into (stagnant) pools; strolling about the picturesque countryside in the summer sun; visiting a winery we really didn’t want to leave…

Next up…

A commercial break! Time to chill a bit. Therefore, herewith, just photos of the sensational Sardinian scenery…

Sardinian scene No. 1

Read on: 2,3,4…

I’m no fan of vino. Even good wine leaves me cold. I mean – even to the extent whereby if there’s good wine on offer and also plain old water – I’ll go for the plain old water every time. There are exceptions though. For example, sometime in the early 2000s I was bowled over by some Italian Chianti – in Italy itself, but since then, every attempt to recapture the experience outside Italy failed miserably. I don’t know why. Maybe it just doesn’t travel well, or maybe it needs to be super fresh? But what about the ‘older is better’ thing with wine? It’s all a mystery to me.

There was one other wine I recall I really liked – some port in Portugal. Oh my grape! Now you’re talking! A magical drink – again, if purchased locally where it’s produced, in this case in the Douro Valley in northern Portugal. And again – if you get some outside the country, it’s some kinda plonk, no matter how expensive and fancy-looking the bottle.

I like my grapes in their original form, not fermented. A freshly-picked, freshly-washed grape – yum! Even grape juice I find a bit too sour – I always add water to it. I should maybe start adding water to my wine too if served it, but isn’t that frowned upon as a faux pas by some folks?

But I digest (grapes). But I digress…

The other day in Sardinia I had my third ever wonder-vino experience. And if you fancy yourself as a bit of a sommelier – or just like wine a lot, I recommend you get to where I had it (or maybe even move there:). For it’s here where I found myself actually asking for second helpings of the stuff.

All righty. I’m talking about the wine that’s produced in the ‘Saddura’ winery. Woah – just looked: no website and hardly any mention at all on the net. Underground! Exclusive! Unspoiled! The genuine item!…

Actually, there are a great many small wineries like Saddura in Sardinia, but that doesn’t make them all any less cool. There are also plenty of honey farms, but today we’re talking vino – Saddura vino:

In the very neat building here the locals tell us all about wine-making – its history and the details of the manufacturing process, including the growing of the grapes in the vineyards – how they’re tended and watered, etc., before being picked quickly all of a sudden once it’s deemed the right time (if picked too late they’ll be overripe). A mere 20+ workers (plus automation) manage to pick the lot – tons and tons – in a few days, and they’re all turned over to the fermentation-production facilities to eventually wind up in nice-looking bottles to be sold for a pretty penny.

Aha. Modern art too. Modern kunst and wine – what a pleasant combination :).

Oh no! Time to leave…

Sardinian vineyards and wineries – check. Next up: Sardinian archaeology…

Back tomorrow folks!…

I’d heard so many good things from different people about Sardinia, the magical Italian island in the Mediterranean, but never been there myself. The sun always shining, clear blue sea, the tastiest grapes, cool cliffs, incredible islands along the shore… I should have made it here long ago, but it was never to be – until last week. So after we were done with business we had did a spot of tourism…

The sun is hot here, but you get an occasional and very welcome respite therefrom in the form of white cotton-wool-ball fluffy clouds floating by overhead…

Read on: Picture-postcard villages and rocky outcrops dotting the hillsides…

A bit like with Manchester or Scotland, folks will often tell you the weather in St. Petersburg is normally terrible. In Manchester and Scotland it normally is. But not in St. Pete!

I’ve visited Russia’s ‘second capital’ plenty of times – and the sun’s been out on every single trip! This visit was no exception.

In fact, the sun’s not just shining, it’s beaming it’s intense heat down on this corner of the globe without mercy. Sat in a traffic jam upon roasting asphalt wasn’t the nicest of experiences, I have to say.

Read on: The sun is out!…

Sometimes the views you get out the window of a plane are simply fantastic. And sometimes I’m not behind on sleep, so I don’t just crash after the in-flight meal; instead, I get out my camera and get clicking. As I did recently over Lake Sevan in Armenia:

Read on: Elbrus on the horizon!…

A bit like how English and Russian sources give differing data on carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, so too do English and Russian sources regarding who first thought of boring into the ground to extract oil. For example, the Russian Wikipedia page for ‘oil well’ states that the first oil well ever was drilled in the Russian Empire – in Bibiheibet, in what is now Azerbaijan, in 1846. Whereas sources in English on the net state it was Drake Well in Pennsylvania that was first – in 1859. But if you dig deeper, it turns out oil was drilled in the USA a little earlier – in 1857; and three years before that – in Poland. While in ancient China (several centuries BC) they used bamboo to extract oil. However, concerning the modern industrial method of oil extraction, it was in fact Russian engineers here in Bibiheibet who were ahead of the others.

And here’s that very oil well:

I don’t think every wooden or metal part that makes up the whole of the installation today is an original from back in the day – not all would have been preserved so well, surely – but apparently some of them are the original items. Others clearly were replaced several decades after the well was first commissioned in 1846, like this piece:

~’Mechanical Factory … Baku, year 1900′

Read on: ‘First ever’ standings when it comes to oil extraction…->

I’ll cut to the (car) chase: it was a real fun race.

No one was expecting such mad twists and turns on Sunday. Especially me after the fairly dull race in Sochi a few weeks back – and also since last year’s Grand Prix in Baku was very boring too (so I’ve been told). This year – oh my gravel trap! No one could have foreseen such a lineup on the podium. But I’ll get to that a bit later…

So here we were, in the Azerbaijani capital. Salam Baku, say the teams and spectators…

Peace be upon you too, says Baku, after having prepared the track and its bends on the city’s roads à la Monaco Grand Prix ahead of the race…

Read on: And they’re off!…