[Leica] Hedonists, "Polka Pigs", and Leicas Part 4

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

Martin Howard is a dedicated Leica user - only hooked on the brand for less 
than a year, but already had a nice M3 and a good selection of lenses. He has 
also been involved long enough to have serious heart palpitations when faced 
with the usual Leica talk. "You mean you paid that little for a M2 and a 
35/90 combo. I will not be able to sleep for weeks now!" This when Hans 
revealed what his M2 and 35/1,4 and 90/2 had cost. OK, I was somewhat 
sleepless too - I have paid more than that for a hood for a Leica lens!
Alright, for those of you who think this trip was all fun and games, I did 
shoot about 70-75 rolls of film and am know faced with the task of processing 
them. Tuulikki shot less and in color. I did talk to dealers and winder-users 
too. We put a good 4,500 miles on the Fiesta - and we had to eat and drink 
all that stuff. 
 Highlights of the trip, apart from all the people and friends we met and the 
fact that we had to eat and drink all that stuff. When at Leica/Solms the Top 
Lens Man borrowed the Heliar 15/4,5 and disappeared with it for an hour. He 
checked it on the MTF machine as well as shot some test shots and came back 
and stated "Nicht schlecht" ("Not bad") which is probably as high a praise 
Leica can give for a competitor's lens. 
 Other highlights include finding the best Pasta with Pesto sauce we have had 
(restaurant "Primula" in Camoglia) and stopping at the Lousiana Art museum in 
Denmark (between Elsinore and Copenhagen) and seeing the Henri Cartier 
Bresson exhibit "The Europeans". 
 It is nice to be back home. Barnack the Cat was happy to come home from the 
Cat Comfort kennel and shed on us instead and I will abstain from reading a 
menu for at least another 2-3 weeks. Now and then we got upgrades on what was 
going on the LUG from the LUGgers we met 
 During the whole trip I did not see a single Leica M on anybody (except on 
other LUGgers) - most of the cameras I saw where point and shoots, a lot of 
single use ones and some high end SLR's. 
 We want to extend a warm Thankyou to all the LUGgers we met during the trip 
- - you are the most hospitable group one can imagine and also some of the most 
entertaining and charming individuals we have met. When travelling once tends 
to focus (pun intended) on sights, but after the trip it is the friends one 
made and the people one met that stands out.
 Reality has now set in. Back to the workbenches and the darkroom, but it 
will be easier to take thinking about Milan, Parma, Florence, Tuscany, Lyon, 
Wetzlar and the Polka-Pig Capital of the world, Gränna.
Thanks once again and all the best,
Tom & Tuulikki A