Hi all!
On my last weekend, I wanted to do something crazy fun, something out of the ordinary... I had heard from many people throughout the summer that when you are looking for this kind of fun, go straight to Interlaken, Switzerland. Interlaken is a quiet town in eastern Switzerland that is surrounded by two lakes to the east and west and towering mountains to the north and south. This location is unique because of all the amazing terrain it offers. You can do anything from skydiving, to ice climbing, to whitewater rafting, and much more. I chose two events out of the list and decided on Canyoning and Hang Gliding.
The only tricky thing about this town is that there are only so many places to stay, and I wasn't able to book too far in advance so I ended up staying in a town further down the lake from Interlaken called Iseltwald. The Lake Lodge we stayed at was right on the banks of the glacier melt water with amazing views and cozy rooms (compared to most of the other places I had stayed this summer).
Saturday morning I headed out to go canyoning in the Grimsel canyon about an hour outside of town. Canyoning is a combination of rock climbing, rappelling, zip lines, and swimming all through about a kilometer of a canyon. When we started it was extremely foggy, raining, and cold but luckily they put us all in wet suits, life jackets, and helmets to keep us safe and warm. We started off rappelling into the canyon from the side of a road over 50 meters above which was a scary feat with the fog all around us. We then walked, waded, swam, jumped, slid, and zipped our way across rock formations through the canyon. The total length was only about a kilometer or so, but still the adventure took the better part of 3 hours. There are pictures to come of the whole trip, but it was a bunch of fun and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Interlaken.
The only other bad part about Interlaken (and Switzerland in general) is that the food is really expensive so eating out wasn't exactly an option. I managed to find the local grocery store and grab some food and snacks for the weekend though and it didn't turn out too bad at all.
Sunday I had arranged to go Hang Gliding, in the hopes that the fog and bad weather would clear up by then. When I got picked up for the trip out to the take off site, I met Birdman Bernie (The dude in the videos that is flying me around) from Australia and he gave me all the necessary instructions and preparations for taking off while we were still in the last of the fog on top of the mountain. (The videos that he taped are all in the Interlaken album with the pictures) When we were done setting up the hang glider the fog finally lifted in such a short time that it just seemed like luck. We took about 5 running steps and lifted up into the air, quickly ascending over 100 feet above the mountain. The entire ride was crazy to watch from that high up and was actually rather serene until we started diving down towards the lake and making all sorts of sharp turns. I was absolutely thrilled the entire time and after our quick landing I could only think about going up for round 2. Unfortunately, hang gliding is rather expensive so there was only one trip for me this time, but who knows... maybe there will be more later in life!
I then went kayaking when I got back to the hostel so I could explore the lake around me. I paddled to a small island, almost flipped over countless times, avoided the ferry, watched some local kids jump into the lake on a rope swing, and admired the beauty of the surrounding forests and mountains on what turned out to be a windy, but clear and sunny day.
After that, it was still only about 4pm so I decided to catch the ferry I had seen earlier to tour through another town on the other side of the lake called Brienz. The ferry was a spectacular ride with great views and restaurant/bar service on board if you felt like paying for it. Upon arriving in Brienz, I realized that just like all the other towns around the lakes this one was kind of small and didn't have much in it besides a small movie theater and a couple of restaurants. So instead I grapped some ice cream and rode the ferry back to Iseltwald.
I then headed out on Monday morning, but all in all Interlaken is a great area to stay in if you are looking for adventures or if you just want to relax and kick back. 10/10 I would go back (maybe with more money next time... haha).
P.S. - This was my last weekend trip because I have finals coming up next week, but Kris and I will be going out to several cities after finals since we aren't scheduled to fly out until August 11th. Budapest, Vienna, Munich, and Frankfurt here we come!
Cheers!
Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment