Cliff Jumping and More

Okay, first things first before we get to the exciting stuff.

Woke up this morning in Interlaken, Switzerland. Here is a picture of our hostel…the bar downstairs:
And our room:

We sort of already knew this, but we have learned that Switzerland is VERY expensive. VERY. As in, we were going to go to this Mexican place for lunch but one quesadilla was over $20. We went to McDonalds instead- We both got fries, I got a hamburger, Mark got 2 cheeseburgers and a drink….and it was $20. Not exaggerating. The Swiss are very proud of their products- their cheese, chocolate, watches, and army knives and other outdoor gear. We have seen lots of Swiss flags (which is in sharp contrast to Germany, who is not very patriotic because of the weapon national patriotism was once used as) and many signs advertise “Swiss made.”

This morning I woke up before Mark to souvenir shop. I was feeling brave, so I stopped by the hotel desk to sign us up for our adventures. They have everything here…skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, etc. But more about that in a second. After souvenir shopping we walked around town. We stumbled across a little chocolate bar- I was in heaven! We selected about 9 pieces of mouth-watering chocolate and got it in a to-go bag. We took it to a place we had seen earlier that was a wide-open green space. We thought it was probably a park, but when we got close we noticed it was roped off and thought that was strange. We sat on a bench facing the green area with the mountains behind it and thought about how lucky we are to be here- then all these parachuters started falling from the sky! It was a parachute landing area! We watched about a dozen people land as we ate our chocolate.

As I’ve mentioned before, Interlaken is a small town (<6,000 residents), but is well-known for two things- Extreme sports and the mountain Jungfrau, which I believe is the highest point in Europe. We didn’t have enough time to do Jungfrau so we concentrated on the extreme sports. After lunch it was time to go…and I was scared to death.

The first thing we did was something called canyoning, which I had never heard of before. You put on all this gear- two wetsuits, water sock/shoe things, a lifevest, a helmet, and a harness with a plastic tarp thing over your butt. They drive you up in the Alps, and you hike 10 minutes to reach a BEAUTIFUL natural water source. The water goes all the way down the mountain running over rocks, around corners, and creating waterfalls. Then we got into the water to get back down the mountain. At times we repealed, other times we laid on our backs in the water and let the current carry us around twists and turns. Other times we walked under giant waterfalls, slid on our butts down rocks, or jumped sideways off a rock into a small pool. We even went down natural waterfalls backwards. It was so cool! Because we were in the water, we could not take pictures, but we did buy some from the tour company. They were actually a reasonable price. However, they gave us a CD of all the pictures and this computer does not have a CD drive, so I’m pretty bummed that I can’t look at them, let alone post them, yet.

After that it was time to do the REALLY SCARY one- something called canyon jumping. If you didn't see the video from my first post today, watch it....I swear, you have to be insane to do this. I was so scared. They drive you 30 minutes up a mountain to get to this huge natural canyon with a river rushing below it. Then you go out on this little platform, attached only to a rope, and jump. You free fall 150 feet, stopping 10-15 feet above the river. Then you swing. You miss one of the canyon walls by only 10 feet. Did I say I was scared?

Mark jumped before me, and he lived. He’s scared of heights so I was very proud of him. Then a few other people went….and then it was my turn. After a little encouraging I jumped off the platform and started falling…and falling….and falling. I wondered if people who commit suicide by jumping off things have second thoughts when they’re on the way down. I couldn’t believe I was still falling, so I just shut my eyes and screamed. Eventually I reached the end of the fall and started swinging between the canyon walls like Tarzan. What a rush!!!

See that platform at the very top? That's what we jumped off of.

This is what it looks like from the top:

Before I went:

That little black dot is me! So fun!

Today was a great day. Not sure what we will do tonight since things close early and are expensive. I haven’t been too impressed with the actual town of Interlaken, but we did have an amazing time here. I’m also very excited about what we have planned tomorrow, but you’ll have to read again to find out. Cheers!!