Round 3 Leiden

Rainy day in Leiden

Well folks, it's raining, my TV is not working and I'm bored. I arrived on Amsterdam from Munich by Night-train on Friday morning 9am. From there I rode to Leiden on my Bike. Some lessons learned, getting out of Amsterdam without a map is not so easy. That took 2 hours. Next lesson, ALWAYS have a lot of water with you before a long bike ride especially on a hot day.I eventually got here at 2pm. I hope to improve on that rate ( 35km in 5 hours) in the coming months. Anyway due to too much red wine and Laziness I never got to finish my Naujac Beach series so here are a few more Pics.

 Montelivet Beach hosts a Bike Rally every Year so it can get quite noisy on the weekends. There is also a huge market where you can buy fresh Oysters, Wine and a plethora of other local delicacies.

The tournament was won by Merijn Van Delft with 7/9. A great performance considering the fact that he is a professional football player :-)

To finish off here is Nina enjoying Hourtin Beach. So within 10-15 minutes drive of Naujac there are three nice Beaches all with a distinctive Charm.

France v International selection.

Once again the French national football team has been humiliated. Nevertheless they had scored 2 Goals by halftime and the new French Captain John Castro felt that the team is making progress in the offense. "At least we don't have Anelka holding us back".

Eva Maria Zickelbein was the Captain of the International team here posing with Star Striker Thomas Mueller. The International team had scored 5 goals by halftime and were looking forward to making a few more in the second half.

The match was played in a friendly spirit and the teams spent the break together. The French team is expected to do better in 4 years time when a lot of the players will be in their teens. The International team will have to find replacements for their experienced players. Hopefully they can convince their grandchildren to play in coming years.

Le Pin Sec

How about a look at the Beaches near Naujac sur Mer? The closest one is Le Pin Sec, about 12km from our Camping ground. The Beach is littered with WW2 Bunkers built by the Germans to prevent an Allied landing. The Sands of time move these Bunkers every year.

Local Artists decorate the Bunkers turning instruments of war into Art. The majority of this work has now sunk into the Sand but the next Storm may well expose it again. "Stairway to Heaven"?

You may be Curious as to what a "CHESS BURGUER" is. So am I but somehow we risisted the temptation to find out. There are several Restaurants and Fast-food Stalls in Le Pin Sec and we decided to have Pizza instead.

Things to do in Naujac

A good way to start the day is to go for a Bike-ride. The roads around here are quite flat and there are not so many Cars on the Road. Compared to the rest of France the Medoc has quite a few Bike-paths. These run mainly along the coast and are not so well maintained. 

This is also the season for "Girolles" better known as Cantharellus cibarius.They taste great just fried in Garlic and Olive oil.

 There are other things to do in the Forest.  Any fallen tree can serve as a rocking horse.

Of course after an exhausting day searching for mushrooms and playing in the Forest there is nothing better than a refreshing dip at the Beach. This is Montelivet, some 20km from Naujac sur Mer.

Camping la Rochade

Howdy folks,

To be truthful there is not much going on but it has been a long time since my last post and my other excuse is that I wanted to try uploading a Video. Ok, that didn't work, lets try a picture.

Nina training to be a Gymnast.

So now I have to find out how and if I can insert Video. If anybody knows please save me heaps of time :-)
It's a nice day today here in the Medoc so we will go to the Beach for a swim and to take some pictures.

Asian Continental Championship Subic Bay

The former American Naval Base which has been turned into some sort of "special economic zone" played host to the Asian qualification event for the world cup. It is s gated area separated from Olongapo city by barriers that are casually checked by disinterested security guards. I did inquire as to  what they were trying to stop from coming in or out but nobody seemed to know. Nor was anybody able to tell me what this big American warship was doing there.

The tournament itself was won by Ni Hua from China and second was the local hero Wesley So who took the early lead but lost to the winner in the latter stages. The other qualifiers were Abhijeet Gupta of India, Jianchao Zhou and last but not least Le Quang Liem. He lost his first round, drew the second and then came home with 6\7.


The Womens event was won by Atousa Pourkashiyan (is that an Armenian name) but since I wasn't paying attention I don't know how many qualified.....which brings me to my next point. The website was and is useless. Dissemination of information is very poor in the Philippines and this important event was not done any service by those responsible for promoting it. Chess is a major sport in the Philippines, there are many strong players, countless amateurs and enthusiasts and public interest the like of which most counties can only dream about.


Chess is supported at Government level and Corporate. The venue was in an isolated industrial area with little public access and there was no commentary of the games of this important event nor were any of the games streamed live on the internet. This was an unforgivable waste of resources and a wasted opportunity. Subic bay is trying to develop a tourism industry and deserves to have a thriving one. There are many beautiful beaches, restaurants and cultural attractions in the area. The local food is delicious (not in our Hotel), the beer(Red Horse) is cheap and refreshing and the nightlife in Olongapo city has something for everybody from live music by very talented local musicians to seedy bars left over from the Americans presence.


As for my own tournament, it was my worst performance in living memory. The stifling heat must have melted my brain as I made major blunders in every game. 


Subic has a future as a chess venue but I hope next time a little more effort is made to publicize the tournaments held there before to attract more players especially from overseas, during so sponsors can get more exposure and return on their investment and after so people see what they missed out on and go next time.