"What's Schweiz?" "No man, it's SWISS!"

First person to name that quote in the comments gets a prize...of admiration and respect from me.

I have to say, of all the places I've been, Interlaken may take the Swiss bundt cake. The town is nestled between two decent sized glacial, emerald green lakes and is right at the foot of some of the highest mountains in the alps, rising as high as 4200 metres. Mt. Jungfrau's snow-capped peak, the highest of them, can be seen from the town, rising up out of a valley. The town is very quaint, full of Swiss chocolate, army knife, and watch shops.

Our first day in Interlaken we thought we would go hiking. We went to Lauterbrunnen, which is a little town near Interlaken in a valley with steep rock faces on both sides. There are tons of waterfalls in this valley, so we walked down the valley (not so much hiking as it was flat) and enjoyed the scenery. We went to one spot where you can take an elevator up to the top and walk into the mountain where a rushing glacial stream runs down the mountain - very cool. After this we had a picnic in a large green field with the cliffs on either side, a waterfall to our left and huge snow-capped peaks straight ahead of us. It was surreal.

 

We had heard from multiple sources that Interlaken is the outdoor adventure capital of Europe, so we knew we had to do something of the sort, other than hiking, of course. We finally decided on paragliding! It's been a hope of mine to go for a while and what better way to view the amazing landscape than flying through the sky!? Our guides took us to a special takeoff hill 300 metres above the normal one, about 1500 metres up. The reason they don't often use this takeoff area is because it is VERY rough terrain. It's a ski slope in the winter but it must be all moguls, because it's super bumpy and has massive ruts. The method of takeoff with paragliding is similar to an airplane - you run fast down a hill until you fill the chute with enough air to take off. The take off was quite the adventure, especially for Julia (make sure you ask her when she's home). Anyway, we got up and the flight was one of the most incredible of my life. We flew over a ridge, along a cliff, had an amazing view of the lakes and mountains, and flew by the window of the restaurant we ate at the night before. Here are some pictures Julia took in flight...

 

Deep down, I love being in nature much more than being in busy cities. I think it stems from growing up in small villages. As much as I loved the history and culture of Rome or London, Switzerland is my favourite because of its incredible natural beauty.

- Andy