Day: July 13, 2008

For our last European vacation together (for a while), we decided to visit the Swiss Alps around the city of Interlaken. Since this is the same area we visited last year, we decided to try a different valley nearby and stayed in the village of Grindelwald. As you may recall, we stayed in the carless village of Mürren last time. Grindelwald is certainly laden with more cars and consequently tourists, it is still spectacular.
On the drive in, this is the sight that greets visitors, the Thunersee.

Jen got down to test the water. We decided to hold off on swimming, but it was very pretty water.

These next few images are from our drive.



When we arrived in the Grindelwald valley, this view of the Eiger Mountain was amazing. It rises 10,000 feet out of the valley floor to it’s summit at over 13,000 feet.


Another image of the picturesque Grindelwald.

Another typical Swiss home.

We hopped on one of the many gondolas for a hike in the mountains.

This is the view from inside the gondola.

At the top of the lift, this cow said hi with the ever present cow bell. What you can also see in the right foreground is a land luge course, called a rodelbahn. To give you an idea of what it’s like, this YouTube video does a nice job Swiss Rodelbahn Video

After the thrilling luge ride, we decided to stretch our legs and took a hike along one of the many trails in the area.

What hike would be complete without a picture of flowers??

Paragliders were all over the valley.

More typical Swiss architecture. All of us agreed it would be great to live here.

These next two images are from our hotel room. Not a bad view of the Eiger mountain.


We also hiked along this precariously carved trail up the glacier gorge, Gletscherschlucht.


Since our adventure quota wasn’t quite filled, we decided to next launch ourselves off a cliff. Fortunately, there are many companies that are willing to help with that endeavor via paragliding. The one we chose had us load into another gondola and ride up 1,100 meters higher (4,000 feet). As you may recall from our last Swiss trip, we also went paragliding then. We liked it so much, we came back for more.
This images gives you an idea of what we were about to do.

This is the view from the launch point.

Here is Jen, all set to go.

Jen and her pilot running off the cliff…

This is an image looking back at the launch point. If you look very closely, you can see Andy about ready to run off the mountain.

This is an aerial view of the rodelbahn. I think the cow is still there with her bell.

These next three images are all of Anna flying.



Anna made it safely back to earth and again walks with a bit of a swagger.


Now, here comes Andy under the red canopy.

Get ready to land…

And touchdown.

Now, it’s Andy’s turn to look back at the mountain valley he just conquered.

A further example of that great architecture.

Our final stop was for lunch on the Thunersee.

Yet again, it was an amazing trip with some of our best friends. We only wished we could have stayed longer. Perhaps when I return.
So, until the next adventure…
–Jim