Interlaken!

Interlaken

Again, the train rides through Switzerland are gorgeous!! Switzerland is so green! We passed by some gorgeous lakes and waterfalls. It's almost like the country can't decide what season it's in though, because when you look up, everything is blanketed with snow!

Interlaken is in the middle of two lakes and surrounded by the Swiss Alps... and absolutely beautiful. Some highlights....

Paragliding!
Interlaken is the home of extreme sports and we decided paragliding would be our sport of choice for this trip. I can't really afford it, but I went anyway and it was well worth it! We were shuttled up a mountain and attached to our paraglides and pilots (tandem paragliding). My pilot was a nice guy named Pashi and we took off by running down this grassy hill (800 m above sea level) together and were in the air right away. Once in the air, the wind brought us even higher! It was so cool to be eye level with the alps! I can't wait to post my pictures for everyone to see! We were told that they guarantee a 12 minute ride. However, it's not the peak season and the weather was great and my ride was about 35 minutes! I was literally soaring above eagles. Pashi let me control the glide by myself for a while and it was so easy... I think I'm about ready to go alone :) At the end before landing, we did "tricks" like swinging back and forth super fast; kind of like a roller coaster. I loved it!

Grindelwald
We took a train up into the mountains a bit to a small town called Grindelwald. The town was adorable and we spent a while just walking around. After a little bit, we stopped at a little cafe for lunch. I had the most delicious vegetable soup while sitting outside on the balcony looking out at the mountains. Grindelwald is neat because it is literally staring into the face of several mountains. After lunch, we hiked towards Pfingstegg. It was a steep and therefore pretty difficult hike, so we didn't last much more than an hour before heading back down. However, we were rewarded with beautiful views of the Switzerland countryside and of course, the Alps.


Otherwise, Interlaken was just a really relaxing town to walk around and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. Our hostel was great, and it was the last time that our crew that had been traveling together since Rome/Florence was together. Sad, but we split up after Interlaken and Katie & I headed to Munich.

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Part of trip: Europa 2009!

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