Elba reunion

Elba reunion

It was wonderful to have the Hufnagels come to see us in Elba almost three weeks ago. Kitty and Oliver are long time friends from my school days and with their four girls they feel like family – also for Bill, Sol and Leonie. They rented a little apartment in Capoliveri, a sweet town in the hills of Elba, overlooking the sea and the island of Monte Cristo. After being on the go for two months it was a real treat for us to have a reunion with the “Hufis” on the beach of Morcone where we had waited for them to arrive after their ferry ride. Three of their four girls came along on the vacation – the youngest being 12 like Sol and the oldest, my godchild, being 20 years old.

Sol, Leonie,Philine and Marie.

Right that night Sol and Leonie would have liked to go with them to stay over night. They were more than ready to spend some time on land, drive in a car and be with friends, which they got to do lots within the next seven days we spent together. The three Hufi girls also had a sleepover on our Sharki one night. However they could not imagine sleeping on one of the sofa beds under deck! That seemed too claustrophobic to them. Instead the kids all cozied up on deck and fell asleep under the stars and in the wind. The wind was picking up during the night that’s why I checked on them a few times to make sure they hadn’t blown off. But they were fine until around 3 am when Leonie climbed into our bed and the three big girls scrambled onto the two and a half sofas. As they told us in the morning it took them ten minutes to wake up Leonie to take her under deck with them.

We had some nice picknicks on deck – and it didn’t even feel too crowded with nine of us! Two evenings we got to go out for dinner all together when it was calm enough to feel comfortable to leave the boat on anchor. We generally don’t like to leave it out of sight, though. Therefore Bill and I took turns to get to see Elba’s most loved little town Capoliveri, which gave Kitty and me a beautiful quiet evening on the boat while the men and the kids where on land. We also enjoyed the luxury of going grocery shopping in a car. Even though one still had to carry all the boxes, bags and bottles down to the dinghy on the beach – we stocked up, not knowing when the next opportunity of such great transport would arise!

Needless to say, we were very sad to see the Hufis off. But knowing that we will reunite in Germany this December made the farewell easier.