Since we got back in September, we've both been out doing our SUP thing most weekends and for Jen almost every day!

Things are looking up this year as she's launched her website for the club www.abudhabisup.com , continues updating the blog www.standuppaddleuae.com and has also helped get up off the ground UAE SUP under Sheikh Ahmed Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan. Things are definitely taking off here in Abu Dhabi thanks for her hard work and dedication in promoting this sport.

So while I am busy teaching indoors, Jen is hard at work taking people out on the beautiful water here in Abu Dhabi, paddling with stingrays and dolphins....life is tough.

During our time in France, we went for a day in Perigord to SUP down the river. The drive out there was beautiful passing by Chateaus and wineries and then some small medieval towns with castles. Highlights include never falling in, cruising past houses, castles and towns that date to around 1600 or before, and to lazily watch the day go by in such beautiful surroundings.



Those castles perched on top of mountains... they do it to me every time.

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#