Blogs from Gimmelwald, North-West, Switzerland, Europe - page 2

From a helicopter 16 000 feet above sea level. Extreme sports are big in Switzerland and also very expensive so we decided to the big one and jumped out of a helicopter at 16 000 feet. It was, needless to say, awesome. Free falling is THE most incredible feeling ever. Nerves on the ground weren't that bad considering but still once we were up in the helicopter - with no door!!! - and turning sideways it got a wee bit scary. In fact, we were kind of glad to be able to get out. It is sooo cold up there. For anyone thinking of doing it - go go go!!!! And we will be pleased to show you all the (expensive but necessary) DVD when we return home. If we return home that is because Switzerland ... read more

My honeymoon with the Interlaken youth hostel came to a quick end last night. After I made my blog entry (if it wasn't obvious, I was kinda hosed at the time ...) when a bunch of frat boys and their girlfriends stormed into my dorm room early in the morning and blabbed for another hour. Moved on from Interlaken to Gimmelwald, which was the plan all along and was a good move. Gimmelwald is a mountain "village" of about 150 people at about 4,000' in the Alps. What I said yesterday about Western Washington comparing to the Alps .... I was wrong. Its not even close. The amount of vertical relief here is beyond compare. The village obviously relies on tourism, but its not anywhere near as gaudy as Interlaken, although the prices of everything just ... read more

The sun coming through the window woke me up at around 8:30am, Richard was gone already for his mountain-biking adventure. My bunk was in the back corner, right by the window, so when I sat up in bed, the snow capped Alps were peeping in on me. Got up, grabbed my clothes and walked downstairs to the showers. After, I went back up to pack up all my things and make my bed, the hostel locks you out of the place from 9:30 to 11 to clean the place, so it was a race against the clock. I didn’t know what they had for breakfast and wanted to conserve my Swiss Francs, so I just bought a thing of orange juice and took a bag of salted peanuts I had bought in Interlaken and sat outside ... read more

"If Heaven isn't all it's cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald!" -Local saying When I slipped out from under my down duvet to get a drink last night, I went to the window and drew back the curtains. There were the looming mountains, with the faintest lightening of the dark sky over their heads; above them shone a single star. Realizing yesterday's heavy clouds had cleared, I went back to bed with a smile on my face. This morning I opened the bathroom window and peered outside. At the top of a steep slope of wildflowers were Gimmelwald's postcard-perfect chalets, and beyond those the impossibly beautiful alps, crowned with the first real blue sky we've seen in days. I could hear birds exalting and the tinkle of cowbells on the hills, as ... read more

It was nice spending the time in Zurich with just me and Rod, but it was so lonely without 6 people! We met up with Tav, Kris, Ash and Graham this morning in the Zurich train station. They spent the night on the train from Amsterdam. We then took a 2 hour train ride through the mountains to get to Interlaken. From there we took short train/bus/gondola rides to get up the mountain side to Gimmelwald. It's a small, as in population of 140, moutain town which you can only reach by gondolla ride. We took the 50 minute hike, somewhat uphill, to buy groceries and now the boys are cooking supper! I think we'll all be sore tomorrow and don't know how much hiking will happen. I decided to put more pictures up on Facebook, ... read more