Nigel Fosters whirl wind tour of Sweden

Last week Nigel and Kristin arrived for a whirl wind tour of Sweden. They spent 11 days in Sweden (well, one of them in Denmark) teaching in 7(!) different cities.

Nigel & Kristin preparing for class.

I was the designated driver for most of the trip so I can vouch for the exhausting schedule!

Nigel being interviewed be Swedish media (see it here)

They started of in Stockholm with a happy group of paddlers. Next day they spent visiting Point 65 Kayak Centers in the city of Norrköping and Gothenburg.

Nigel showing Caroline from Germany a trick or two

Day 3 they where on the water again, teaching a class in Uddevalla at Upplevelsebolaget. Sunday was also spent in Uddevalla with their demo day but day 5 they hit the road again and spent the day on the water with a group, paddling in south Copenhagen hosted by retailer Kajakhotellet.

"If you hold your hands like this you will not be able to hold the paddle..."

Back in Stockholm day 7 for a day paddling and teaching some happy campers. Day 8 teaching a group in the city of Nynäshamn at Nynäs Kajak.

Member of the Fun With Foster group and proud builder/owner of a Thomasson design kayak. A beauty!

Day 9 on the other side of Sweden in Varberg were Nigel got extensive coverage in the local media and also inaugurated a new kayak center there. This ended in the small hours after finishing of the last drops of the inauguration champagne.

The looooong day in Varberg ended with a looong night with bubbly. All lot's of fun!

Day 10 the metropole of Gothenburg another group had the pleasure of Kristin and Nigels teaching skills. This was going parallel with the kayak exhibition "KANOT VÄST" and inauguration of yet another kayak center there.

The group in the water in down town Gothenburg if front of the opera house. Almost 100 spectators watched Nigels and Kristins paddling show later.

Day 11 we raced up to Norrköping for the last group of paddlers and inauguration of a third kayak centre there!

Pelle and Carina of Nynäs Kajak

The class of Norrköping right in the middle of town.

After this they headed of to Venice and the Bibione symposium and Vogalonga marathon. Check Nigels and Kristins blogs for updates on that.

Basque delight

Camilla and I recently visited Omei and Oscar and Mikel who probably have the best run kayak warehouse anywhere!

Mikel, Oscar and Camilla

Kayaks in perfect rows, color separated and all clean clean clean

They took us to lunch at the Patxiku Enea in San Sebastian and this was for sure one of the best meals I have ever had in Spain. Basque food is a lot like Spanish just better!

Spanish style we sat down around 3 pm and spent most of the afternoon at the table. It started of with fireworks in the form of some tapas where the Txistorra (in bask)/Chistorra (in spanish) sausages were by far the best I had ever had. And I love my sausages so this is big. Tender but still with some bite, perfectly fried. It is made of a mixture of minced pork and beef. The sausage is flavored with garlic, salt, and paprika, which gives it a bright red color. Well, you had to be there...
After some more tapas this handsome and very tasty Merluza. Mikel and Oscar asked for a part of the fish called "Cogote". Is the softer part of the fish, just close the head. Wow!


Now completely full they brought us this huge piece of meat!!! Unfortunately I could not fully appreciate this fabulous very rare beef as I was completely stuffed but I still managed to eat 3 huge slices that Mikel carved and just threw on my plate.


I forgot the name of the Spanish claret but the taste sure was memorable. As was the cider that tasted completely different from the cider I am used to from Bretagne. A lot fresher, less sweet and a much more the taste of freshly plucked apples right of the tree if you get my drift.

Our six hour drive back home was a struggle but worth every sleepy hour of it.

On the cover of the Rollings Stone (almost)

Tobbe, a Point 65 paddling instructor made the cover of the Swedish paddling magazine "Paddling" (April 09 issue).
This is the equivalent for a Swedish paddler as for a rock star making the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine. (this Dr Hook live performance is just great!!) This incredible shot was taken by Malte Danielsson of Landsort in the Stockholm Archipelago. What kayak? To be honest I'm not sure but it looks like a 2007 Point 65 X-Ray. Now here is Jimi who made the cover of the real thing.
I enclose some more pictures from the same shoot. Thats one happy paddler!!









And another RSM cover

Market day

Saturday is market day in my little French town. Shopping here is an experience. Now this is the real thing and no tourists have so far found their way to my secret corner of rural France.

Camilla at the fruit stand

This guy carries an incredible selection of cheese
Camembert alone he must have at least 10 different kinds
Not to mention the myriads of Chevres, with berries...
and on a stick.
Todays catch from the nearby beaches

These strawberries were just heavenly with some "real" crème fraiche from the cheese guy
Beret anybody?
Entertainment
Here the local farmers who rent a table and sell their produce

And eggs that taste nothing like the supermarket variety
potatoes at rock bottom prices

Travel in style

One of the very very few advantages of spending half your time on airplanes is that, after a while, the airline gives you a VIP card. I have more Air France miles under my belt than I wish to remember but it has earned me this Platinum card.The card opens all doors and slips me discreetly past all sort of check in lines, most security lines and all boarding lines. It gives you access to comfortable lounges on all airports stocked with fresh fruit, beverages, sandwiches etc comfortable seats, free internet but most importantly, quietness and stillness.But by far the best thing is that most of the time I get upgraded from the cattle department I belong to into the most comfortable dream land normally reserved for the captains of industry, Business class!
For example. On my most recent roundtrip Europe - China I payed the laughable amount of SEK 4905 (448€/605$) return for the 12 hour flight Paris - Shanghai (including the Stockholm - Paris flight) but enjoyed the trappings of a SEK 50.000 (4500€/6050$) ticket!

I can't describe the sweet feeling of getting your boarding pass at check in with your seat number upgraded from horrible 23A (or god forbid 57F or something) to heavenly 8L. The big difference is the seat that folds down to an absolute flat bed where I sleep comfortably. And the difference in comfort is incredible. However hardly worth the premium fare they charge the fortune 100 companies and governments who actually pay for this sort of thing. Whatever, your seat is in a sort of pod which gives you a feeling of privacy.The seat is wide and comfy and you get a real pillow and a blanket instead of the sand paper like sorry excuse of a blanket back in coach. Instead of arriving like a wreck after a 12 hour torture session, I wish for the pilot to take a detour so that I can finish my movie on the perfect big screen in my secluded pod and have another sip of champagne.
Instead of the stale prison food in the little containers on a tray back in cattle you get most delicious cuisine served on crisp white linen. Together with the wide selection of high end wines and champagne you happily slip into sleep and wake up only for the next meal.
A great thing is that your pod is equipped with an electrical socket so that you can plug in your computer and work. Also there is a wide selection of movies, all the latest releases that you can view any time on your private high resolution, rather big screen with high fidelity Sennheiser earphones. Speaking of phones each seat has a phone that you can use for calls anywhere (at 10$ per minute).









There is a sumptuous bar in the "lounge" up front where you can have a drink and chat with the movers and shakers. The bathrooms are roomy and cleaned by the stewardess after each use.
Once of the plane you can have a quick shower in the lounge before your bag arrives as the very first on the belt thanks to the priority tag. If you even bother to check anything in. In business they allow you to carry whatever you manage to haul onboard be yourself!

After the flight I can walk straight of the plane fresh for any meeting or session in the factory while coming of cattle I see stars, feel groggy and can not perform at all. A three day stretch of jet lag is cut short to one.