Adventures in the Swiss Alps!

When we got to the hostel in Lucerne Monday night we were exhausted from traveling for basically two days straight. So we ran in the rain to get food from a gas station, cooked the food, ate the food, and slept. It wasn't much of an exciting day. Although the hostel we stayed in was meant for Korean travelers, so that was interesting. Tuesday we woke up early with the intent of wandering around town, but we heard about a deal that involved taking a boat ride across Lake Lucerne, riding the world's steepest cogwheel railway up to the top of Mount Pilatus, then riding back down in a cable car. We obviously did that instead! The whole trip was gorgeous, except the top of the mountain was covered in snow and clouds, so we couldn't see anything but white at the summit. At least we could see awesome views from the lower stops though! There were people from all around the world at the top of the mountain, and we suspect that some of them (if not most) had never seen snow before. There was basically one massive snowball fight on the roof of the building. 

After riding back down to the valley, we walked around Lucerne for a few minutes. The town isn't very big, but the bridges over and houses lining the river running through town are very picturesque. It would be a nice place to retire. 

Then we took a scenic railway ride through the Alps to get from Lucerne to Interlaken. We arrived to find a place so idyllic it almost looks fake. We are rooming with a Canadian couple, a guy from the UK, and an unnamed man from an unnamed country who speaks an unknown language. We lounged around the hostel last night and prepared for two days of adventures! We decided that while we were here we most definitely would not go canyoning since it looked too risky and would probably paraglide instead.

So of course we woke up this morning and went canyoning. We walked up to the outdoor adventure company's desk at 9 am and asked what adventurous thing we should do. One man said canyoning leaves right now so we should do that. We threw all inhibitions to the wind and even though we had no bathing suit, no towel, and were pretty sure we were going to die, we joined the group to go canyoning. It was the best decision we've made so far on this trip. 

First, the group of about 9 of us drove an hour out of town and up a mountain to reach the pass we would adventure through. The van stopped in the middle of the road next to a 150 ft cliff, and we were told this is where we would start. There were two canyoning guides and one photographer on the trip, all of whom are part of the adrenaline junkie cult that makes up Interlaken. So anyway while one of the guides held our rope, we each repelled backwards down the 150 foot cliff into a gorge in the Swiss Alps called Grimsel Pass. For the next hour and 45 minutes we did all sorts of crazy things to reach the end of the pass. We walked through rocky streams, climbed over large rocks, jumped off of cliffs into waterfalls, slid down natural waterslides, and zip-lined twice (once through a rock tunnel and once over a small deep lake). After the last zip-line we took turns attempting to backflip into the water--both of us hit the water face first. Keep in mind it was about 50 degrees this morning, so the water was freezing even with wetsuits. We were actually up in the snowy parts of the mountain. Changing back into real clothes at the end of the trip was glorious--as were the free beer and sandwiches.

We will have to make a separate post for these pictures, since they will be emailed to us within the next couple days.

When we got back to the hostel, we knew we wanted to do something else crazy today, so we booked a paragliding trip. We took a quick nap and bought dinner, which consisted of tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, brie cheese, and tasteless crackers. We miss Danny the chef today. After a break of a few hours, we got back in a van to the top of another mountain. There we paired up with our pilots and strapped on another harness. Then we literally ran off a cliff. We started flying of course, but we both can't get over the fact that we ran off a cliff today. The flight itself was about 20 minutes and was in the middle of the Jungfrau mountain range. We could see the whole city of Interlaken and the two lakes that surround it. For parts of the flight we just sort of flew around, but for other parts we did flips and turns. Colleen even got to steer for part of her flight! We agree that it was so much cooler than the parasailing we did 3 years ago in Cali--no offense. We definitely did not just sit and enjoy the scenery--we actually flew! At the end of the flight we landed in a meadow in the middle of Interlaken, finally feeling satisfied with the amount of adrenaline we had pumped through our bodies today. Now we are exhausted and will probably fall asleep within an hour. Tomorrow we're planning on hiking, which compared to today will probably seem boring!