Switzerland

     Over the weekend I went to Interlaken, Switzerland.  My original intention to go there was to skydive.  That only took 4 hours on Friday.  It was incredible.  We flew over the mountains for 20 minutes then it was time to bail.  My instructor, Dave, decided we were going to do a backflip out of the airplane.   We scooted toward the edge and I hung my feet out of the plane.  With one quick movement we were out the door and facing toward the plane.  We spun back around and Dave pulled the stabilization chute to keep us falling flat.  The view was immaculate.  I was so high up that I was looking down on some of the mountains.  The wind in my face felt as if I was sticking my head out a car window going 120 mph.  After almost a minute of free falling, Dave opened the parachute and we began our "slow" decent to the field where the plane originally took off.  We fell for about seven minutes, then Dave told me to prepare for landing.  I lifted my legs straight out and we hit the grass and slid on our asses for a couple of feet.  The rest of the group welcomed us back to Earth. 

     When I returned to Interlaken I rented a bike and rode around town for about an hour.  Riding through the downtown area, I noticed that in the afternoons the playgrounds are packed with children and every bench in the park is filled with people talking.  I have not seen this in the U.S.  The people here seem to be much more active than any of the towns I have been in.  All through out the day children can be seen playing in their yards.  I returned to the hostel and then went to get some amazing thai food at the restaurant next door.

     Saturday morning I woke up early and went for a walk around town.  There was a heavy fog that loomed over head.  I headed back to the hostel, grabbed my camera bag, and headed for the train station.  My destination was a small mountain town called Mürren.  The train stopped in Lauterbrunnen, where I got on the air tram that hung high about the trees as it took me to Grütschalp.  From there I took a small train up to Mürren.  The town was amazing.  No vehicles are allowed in this town except for work purposes.  I don't even know how they got vehicles up here as there were no roads that I could see.  I walked around the small town for a few hours and took pictures of almost everything.  Behind the Hotel Jungfrau is where the first ever slalom ski course was.  The south side of Mürren overlooked the valley and the mountains on the other side.  I wish I could wake up every morning to that.  I stopped at a restaurant for lunch and ate on the terrace that faced the valley.  I had a really rich german dumplings dish.  After lunch I started walking down the road toward Gimmelwald, an even smaller town that I would be surprised if there were more than 60 people living there.  The walk there was all down hill and very relaxing.  When I got to Gimmelwald, I walked around a little bit, then took the air tram back up to Mürren.  I would have walked up but Vans were a bad choice for footwear.  I arrived in Mürren and made my way back to Lauterbrunnen.  In Lauterbrunnen I walked to the water falls and through the town.  After about an hour I headed back to Interlaken to relax.

     I met some students studying in Straussberg, France and they invited me to go to dinner with them.  We went and got thai food then headed back to the hostel to eat.  I spent the rest of the evening chatting with them and going to the night club that was in the basement of the hostel.  Around 3:30am we decided to ll go to sleep and meet for breakfast in the morning.

     We met around 8 and had a free breakfast at the hostel.  They were going to go paragliding and asked me to come along.  We walked to the booking place and found out that there were two spots left for the noon trip and a lot of openings for the 3pm trip.  I had to catch a train in Spiez at 2pm to make it back to Florence so I went at noon and they did the other one.  It was still early and we got a free hour for a moped with our rental.  We grabbed our scooters and began to try and figure out how they work.  I picked it up instantly.  The girls were having trouble so Peter, the only guy in their group, stayed to help them out and I went riding around town with one of the girls.  Rebecca and I went across the river and toward one of the lakes.  We stopped and walked to the edge of the water to look around and then went riding through the downtown district.  I dropped her off, said goodbye to my new friends, topped off the scooter with petrol and then headed to grab my bags before I was picked up.

     The van picked me up then we headed to the paragliding place to get everything together.  I left my bags there because as soon as I landed I had to run to the train station.  We took a 30 minute van ride up a mountain to the launch area and prepared for departure.  My pilot, Welten, and I started running down the steep hill and then the parachute lifted us up.  We flew for about 20 minutes and Welten let me control the glider for a little bit.  Below, I could see the glacier fed lakes and the town of Interlaken.  Welten took the controls and we did a few aerial tricks before landing in the park in the middle of town.  I got my gear, thanked Welten, and then hauled ass to the train station.  I arrived just in time to make the train to Spiez and then on to Florence.

     Interlaken was like no other place I had been.  I would love to live there.  Hopefully I can return soon to this magical place.

Switzerland

Skydiving

Paragliding