Germany was fun. Perhaps it is because of the people you meet but both Munich and Hamburg were pretty awesome. With sense of humour like the one who made the video, who would be able to hold back a chuckle or three?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOTpIVxji8



We couchsurfed with an amazing couple, Claudia and Johann, who showed us a truly superb time. We made our way from Switzerland to Munich by train and arrived a little early. We managed to find our way to their apartment but were a little early so we were just chilling out in front of the local supermarket when these two people came over. It was Claudia and Johann who were quizzically wondering why we didn't find their door. They welcomed us in with Bavarian beers and a Bavarian local dish made from egg noodle with a ton of cheese. We called it the heart attack, or translated into German it would be the Attashingludingle Hearttraeh, or something like that. It was awesome and I was back for seconds.

The next day we went to Kinder BLAH BLAH, the castle that the Disney logo was based on. We hiked from the car park to the viewpoint and then challenged ourselves to hike up Mt Sauling. We finally did it with a few slips on the way but nothing serious. It was pretty darn cold and windy up the top but what are you going to do? What we didn't realize was that Austria was just over the other side. So we ended up hiking up Germany and down into Austria, without a passport!!! Wasn't as dramatic as my illegal trip in and out of Canada back in 2004... Check out the photos of Mt Sauling. Just an awesome vista from up there.

Throughout our time in Munich we did a Third Reich guided walking tour in the rain and thoroughly loved it. The Moroccan French guide was awesome and very knowledgeable. We also borrowed Claudia and Johann's bikes and set off on the train for a local lake. We found some awesome roads and paths to ride down. We walked around the city and saw some old buildings but some newer ones that have been rebuilt since the bombings in WWII. We saw a bicycle with 6 pedallers, tried to do a traditional Bavarian beer garden and had a liter of beer and some pretzels at the beer hall.

The highlight, and one of the reasons why we went to Munich, was to see the surfers ride the stationary wave in Munich. Some of them were ripping it up. We were desperate to find an SUP to ride down there but no luck. Thankfully we didn't because we were saddened with the news that only 1 week after we left Munich, 2 SUP'ers drowned in the river we wanted to ride on.





Hamburg was next and don't tell anyone else this, but the main reason why we chose Hamburg and not another city was that we could definitely SUP there and thus, continue our SUP in every country that we go to.

We stayed with two couchsurfers call Kat and Jorg with their two dogs. Two beautiful labradors. Just awesome but I think I've still got a few stray hairs in my clothes! They shared their apartment with us that was in a rectory beside an old church. They showed us some cool cafes and restaurants and were great to chat with. One highlight was the only bar on the beach in Hamburg overlooking the port and the port at night, all light up, was spectacular. Awesome.
They did show us and explain to us the St Pauli area. It is very much an alternative area in Hamburg, one for people on the fringe. They were saying that the night we left was going to be a night of protests where youth and anarchists were coming from all over Germany to cause trouble in the St Pauli area. We really didn't understand why, but maybe Kat and Jorg didn't either.

Oh yeah. Up until this point we've continued to devour a baguette each day. You see, the bread is just so soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. The Swiss know how to make good ones too. Mozerella and tomato. Curry breaded chicken and apple pieces. Brie and salad. Awesome. But all good things come to an end. I don't know how it happened really. It all happened so quickly. One minute we were planning out breakfast and the next minute we're about to to fall asleep without our customary baguette for the day. But keine panic, we had plenty more!

From the moment we left Geneva train station to head to Bern, our obsession with Switzerland started and we knew we'd love Switzerland and everything about it; except the prices. They suck.

We cruised along the shoreline of Lake Geneva and went past town after town along the lake and all houses had glorious views. Lake in the foreground, the Swiss alps in the background. And these weren't even the tall ones! Even the grapes in a vineyard had a beautiful view. I wonder if you pay more for those bottles from that vineyard.



We pulled into Bern and stayed with a couple couchsurfers one out in the suburbs who was great and very hospitable she even cooked us a night dinner followed by a walk downtown. The next day we moved to another couchsurfer couple right smack bang downtown. We were super stoked to meet them and stay right in the middle of everything. The downtown of Bern is intimate and historic. There's plenty of old statues perched up on pedestals looking down at the passerbys. One particular one was an old man (ogre perhaps?) eating children. These days families use it however they want. "See that statue there? If you don't do your homework / eat your greens / make your bed, then he comes to eat you."






Part of the sensational views of Bern isn't the mountains this time, it's the river Aare that runs and wraps around the city. People cruise up the river about 1 hour by train and then jump on rafts, boats, tubes or SUPs and let the current of the river take you all the way back to the city of Bern, right back downtown. This is a really popular thing to do on the weekends and since it was Saturday when we went there, we did it! We had gotten the name of Neil (www.supswitzerland.com) from our hydrospeeding instructor back in Chamonix. We took the train past Bern Wankdorf and onto Thune area. Neil gave us some C4 inflatable SUPs and we were on the river.


Along the way we met some guys doing some river surfing with a bungee cord. They would get up on the surfboard facing upstream against the current and then they would carve back and forth using the elasticity of the bungee cord to carve. They were decent blokes and they let us try it out with our SUPs.

At the end of the trip Neil put a proposition to us. If we wanted, we could go to a class 2 or 3 river the next day and do some white water SUPing. Awesome. This was the first descent on the River Simme for SUPs and the three of us were raring to go. Balancing with constant rapids and changes in water speeds was difficult but we got the hang of it over time. The first section of the river was ok and we spent some time falling off. The next part contained grade 3 rapids with a rather low water level so we were on our knees a lot. The last section was calmer and we were able to stand up a lot and cruise along with the river. No serious injuries although Jen jammed her fingers, which were painful for the next month or two, Neil went head first over the front of his board and was lucky to only scrap the floor with his face, and me, well apart from a few scrapped knees and a bruise the size of my fist on my butt, I was all good.

From Bern we took the scenic route to Luzern via Interlaken. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Amazing.


It just kept getting better in Luzern...


In Luzern we stayed with another great Couchsurfing couple Pascal and Andrea with their little man Maximillian. They had an awesome apartment with absolutely beautiful views of Lake Luzern from their rooftop where we were lucky enough to spend an evening eating dinner up there with a few neighbors. Luzern was great, again the views are awesome, we rented bikes and road our way around what seemed like most of the lake. We were only there for a few days, but loved it! After Luzern it was on to Munich!


More photos from
Bern: http://picasaweb.google.com/jenscully809/BernSwitzerland#
Luzern: http://picasaweb.google.com/jenscully809/LuzernSwitzerland#
Interlaken: http://picasaweb.google.com/jenscully809/InterlakenSwitzerland#

They're not even sold in the nearest town called Chamonix.

After 2 months of traveling the midwest and not being as active as we would have liked, we arrived in Chamonix ready for some adventure. We weren't ready for the cold. Hahaha... the folk from Abu Dhabi have definitely acclimatised and are used to warm or hot weather all year round now! The weather in Chamonix was cold and wet. 'Nuff said.


The first activity was hydrospeeding down some white water. Let me quickly describe it. Picture us in full wetsuits, booties, gloves, flippers and helmets lying on a big foam board that protects you somewhat. That somewhat covers your upperbody but as our thighs and particularly knees found out, the board is a little short. We partially lay on these boards and made our way down the frigid white water river. We enjoyed it but probably wouldn't do it again.


The next day we were scheduled to do some rock climbing but there was low lying cloud reducing visibility and rain drizzled constantly throughout the day. No rock climbing in France.

The next day we went white water rafting. The rain from the previous day helped our cause and the river was flowing. The first thing was to go through a 20 minute long tunnel under Mont Blanc to Italy. The catch cry for that day was "Just popping into Italy for some rafting". The river was quite quick but generally low so it was a little dangerous, particularly if you fell out; thankfully we didn't. We had some good times on the river but it was one of those bilingual moments that didn't work. The guide would yell out the instruction in French or English (as the boat contained both nationalities) and then the Frenchies would be doing the instruction a few seconds before the English speakers or vice versa. Probably not the best whilst navigating rapids.


Biking was on the fourth day and the rain held for the majority of it. It was a great ride and the guide was completely honest throughout the trip. He knew we'd done a little before so we were doing some hard-er trails but then we came up to a steep ascent. The guide said it was steep but he didn't include "very, very". That was tough but the reward was a single track along a path half way up the mountain and then a cool descent to a small town.


Canyoning was the final adventure planned. Apart from total old hippy dufus guide, the falls and runs were pretty tame. We'd done some canyoning in Japan with larger jumps and longer falls. We had fun but had to keep warm from the freezing Alps water.


We did some hiking in our two "rest" days and scored with some great weather on the first of the days but the second was marred with low cloud and cold weather. The first day we hiked from Mt Brevent to Mt Fleger and we constantly looked across the other side of the valley to a cloudless Mont Blanc. It was a real special view from the hiking trail. Real special. The second day wasn't as clear and we did end up going to the top of the Mt Blanc viewing platform to see a white out. But we did walk from Aguille Du Midi to Mer De Glace (the ever moving glacier that extends below the tree line). We met two mountain goats along the way and saw a guy with baguettes sticking out of his bag. We loved both of them.






The other accomplishment of note is that our "one baguette a day" policy has continued up until Chamonix. We've had a baguette for breaktfast, lunch or dinner for 10 days now.

More pics from Chamonix: http://picasaweb.google.com/jenscully809/ChamonixFrance#