Interlaken and Grindelwald

Make sure you read the previous post about Roma, I've been updating like a fiend! Also, all the pictures are up, so head all the way back to the entry after Barcelona to see the new ones. Some of them are unlabeled and sideways. I cannot fix that right now because this computer crashes everytime I try. Sorry some of them are blurry/grainy, primarily the pizza pictures...

I arrived in Interlaken late at night. Not too late, because the Chinese food place was still open. I hadn't seen Chinese food in about a month, so I walked straight in. "Mr. Chong" was very nice and charged me a boatload for some sweet and sour chicken. I went back to my hostel and ate it while overlooking a river 20 feet from me and mountains all around me, their snow reflecting in the moonlight.

Interlaken lies between two lakes (hence the name) and has a river running straight through it. My hotel was right on the river. At night time I would open the windows and doors as far as they could go and listen to the rushing river and feel the cool mountain air on my face all night. I'm not trying to exagerate or make you jealous, it was just that good.

The next day I walked around the lake and found a nice little place to sit and read my book for a while. I was going to go hiking, but it took me two hours to find the trail and by then I did not feel like going on a three hour hike. That night I booked a canyoning trip for the next day.

Every backpacker has a splurge. A trip or purchase that greatly exceeds their normal budget. Mine was canyoning in Switzerland at the Chli Schliere canyon. The "most extreme" according to the brochure. Go big or go home, you know?

You can read about Canyoning here. OK, now that you've read that, I'll tell you how it went down. First, they fit us for wetsuits and helmets and such. We then take a long car ride with our two entertaining guides (think Van Ray with a Swiss accent...) and had some funny discussions, none of which I will repeat here.

We drive all the way up and get out, get our wet suits on and start hiking down into the canyon. Once we're down there, they explain the basic techniques for jumping from large heights and sliding down rock slides.

"These rocks are not made by Disney. They're hard, ya know?"

Any other instructions they would give us at each obstacle. The first jump was the biggest, about 30 feet.

"There's no place to stand, so you have to run up to the rock and jump straight off with one foot otherwise you'll slip and well, you know".

You're with a team, and you have to keep moving, so there is no time to think about it. You get to the edge of 40 foot rock slide or a 30 foot jump and there's no time to sit there and think about it. They tell you quickly how to do it while yelling over the rushing water, and then they count. Three. Two. One.

Don't choke. Not with the team watching...

So you do it before you even have a chance to think about it. It's the most intense thing you'll ever do. It's like jumping out of an airplane twenty times in a row.

There were about twenty different obstacles. Some included simple jumping, some were simple sliding and others were more complicated like holding on to a rope while they lower you down the first half of the slide and then you let go when you see the guy at the very bottom waving his hands. You can't hear him say let go because water is constantly beating in your face.

I am going to order pictures, but for now you can see the low quality samples the photographer took of me yesterday. She was only at about five of the last obstacles, but some of those were the most intense.

I emerged injury free and with a good sense of accomplishment. I'll explain the entire story to you in person if I see you, it's really only something I can explain orally.

Here are the canyoning pictures of me.

Later that day I went to a classical piano concert at the church there called Unterseen. A piansist named Fred Snoek was playing a concert of Beethoven, Chopin, Lizst and Debussy. The concert was a wonderful to relax after a very crazy day. Right after that I went to bed early with the windows and doors wide open again. I slept hard.

Today I got up and updated this blog for about five hours and headed to Grindelwald, the town overlooking Interlaken. So instead of looking up at the mountains, I am looking down from them. It's the most beautiful place I have ever been and beats any man made monument in a crowded city any day. Here's my hostel.

Oh yea, the fruit here is amazing, too. I'm sitting here eating a box of blueberries, each one the size of your thumbnail.