8. Only Fools and Horses..

Giles and Svan or Del Boy and Rodney? Today saw us make a nice return on selling our old junk at the local car boot sale! We're not yet lighting our cigars with £50 notes but enough was made for some spending money on our travels! Nice one Rodders!

Counting the spoils!

7. Break from packing boxes and suitcases - Tapas Night Out

A well deserved night out with friends away from the pains of dealing with letting agents, travel agents, insurers, packing boxes and of course.... suitcases, although some people think this is easy....the same people who sometimes try to hide the fact that they have eaten too much tapas!

6. Birthday in Hamburg

Svan took me back to her home town to celebrate my Birthday. We had a great 4 days...

Canoeing on the Alster Lake. This highlighted that my skills with a paddle still require much work before we get to the Yukon..

Svan taking a break during our cycle around the city.

Enjoying cocktails at the Le Meridien with views over the lake.  Here I developed a liking for "Dirty Harry" cocktails (rum, maple syrup and apple juice)

At the Sullberg Restaurant near where Svan grew up in Blankenese.

In front of the Alster

In front of the lake and the Ruder Club!

Outside the Pulverfass Transvestite Cabaret, trust me, like in this pic I kept Svan very close all evening!

Enjoying drinks before the cabaret.

Svan seemed to get great amusement from seeing my reaction to some of the more "exotic" routines in the show..



5. Hong Kong

Me with The Big Boss

Lunch with Jonathan at the Intercontinental (their eat as much as like champagne lunch buffet resulted in my taking a brief nap to recover afterwards, or was it the jet lag??)

Feeling energetic on the way to Victoria Peak..

In front of the ICC, tallest building in HK (or for the tall building geeks amongst you, the 4th tallest in the World!)

Inside the ICC (all is not as it seems)

Dinner with Jonathan and Jo

With Jonathan and Jo @ The Chin Lin Nunnery - although for a Nunnery I must say there was a distinct lack of Nuns!

Happy Valley Racecourse, home of the HK Jockey club, great experience under the lights!

Jonathan and I taking a well deserved rest from our gambling exploits, drinking cocktails in the Bellini Lounge at the Venetian Casino in Macua. As the biggest casino in the World this place had to be seen to be believed - tables and slots as far you could see and the shopping complex came complete with faux canal and gondolas and all day blue sky so the shopaholics don't get too tired!  The tables were pretty intimidating for us beginners which meant we ended up cashing in our chips (both of them) and heading to the smaller Hard Rock hotel and casino.

In front of one of the 4 main bridges in Macau

Portugese Old town in Macau



4. Beijing

Playing hacky sack with the locals at The Temple of Heaven

Acrobatic show

Kung Fu, no photos of the performance were allowed unfortunately!

At the Forbidden City

In front of the Water Cube and Bird's Nest

Tiananmen Square

3. China - The Great Wall

What a way to start my sabbatical, simply amazing, and this is only the beginning...

2. The Grand Master Plan..

After several months of planning with our travel adviser Sandra Potter of Frontier Travel (www.frontier-travel.co.uk), here is the plan for the next 10 months:

1. 27th May - last day at work before my sabbatical, followed by a meal and drinks at a local Argentinian steakhouse
2. 29th May - leave for Beijing to see the Great Wall and to visit one of my oldest buddies, Jonathan, currently based in HK
3. 10th/11th June - back to the UK briefly for a Birthday lunch to celebrate my 40th
4. 13th June - fly out to Hamburg for my Birthday treat from Svan
5. 16th June - back to the UK to pack boxes and get the house ready to rent

and then after the "warm up" at the end of May/June, this is the real deal:
1. 1st July - fly out to LA
2. 4th July - San Francisco
3. 8th July - Calgary to arrive for the start of the "Stampede", the World's largest rodeo festival!
4. 11th - 31st July - tour of Waterton Lakes, Banff and Jasper National Parks for mountain biking and hiking, stop offs include: Waterton, Fernie, Kicking Horse, Jasper and Lake Louise
5. 1st August - Whitehorse, Yukon for 3 week canoe safari down the Yukon River
6. 24th August - pick up motorhome to tour the Yukon and British Columbia
7. 12th September - Victoria island - 4 Day Kayak Trip with Orcas
8. 19th September - fly out to Salt Lake City, Utah for tour of Yellowstone Park
9. 26th September - fly to Orlanda for 5 weeks at the Wakeboard Camp, plus some golf and a trip to the Keys
10. 3rd November - fly out Auckland to tour North and South islands
11. 6th December - back to the UK for a week to catch up with friends and family
12. 14th December - fly back to Calgary to spend the season in Fernie snowboarding inc 6 week "all mountain course"
13. Mid March 2012 onwards - no plans yet - watch this space!

1. What's in a name?

Well here it is my first ever blog posting....even before writing this, I had to think of what to call it, for me it was right up there with what others go through when choosing their first child's name...
 
"Are we there yet?", "Me, My Board and I", "Around the world in 365 days", "Achtung!Adventure" and even "Giles and Svan's Excellent Adventure" were all considered and for various reasons discarded.  I eventually ended up with some McCartney/Kelly hybrid which I kinda liked the sound of!

Why "Ride"?

Well, during our time off we are going to be attempting everything from roller blading to kayaking, from canoeing to mountain biking, x-country skiing to surfing, and wakeboarding to snowboarding....so I guess it's appropriate....

As well as not getting eaten by grizzlies, let's hope our bodies hold up!!