Paragliding!

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Well, the forecast for Interlaken weather was rain all morning, but it sure didn't look like it when we woke up. So, we felt pretty good about the day's planned adventure: paragliding! Well, at least for two of us. When I said they had paragliding in Interlaken, Ned had heard "parasailing" and was very excited, but then I had to explain that this was something very different than being pulled behind a boat. He'd have to: run off a mountain and would glide on air currents down to earth. (pause) Nope. But, the kids were all in. 


We had a few hours before the meet up with Twin Paragliding, and we hadn't really explored Interlaken, yet, so the kids and I started wandering while Ned stayed back to book tomorrow's trip to the top of Jungfrau. 

We discovered that our hotel wasn't too far from what is Interlaken's historic shopping street, Hoheweg Boulevard.  At a Swatch flagship, I bought the second of my Swiss Swatches: the first was in Luzern and had a Chapel Bridge theme; this one was another only-in-Switzerland Swatch, covered in images of cute cows and packaged in a metal milk jug. Harper and I also bought little Swiss knives because Switzerland.

 

Further down Hoheweg, we discovered that one of Interlaken's city parks was the landing pad for all paragliders! It was amazing to watch them floating down from the sky into a flower-filled park right in the middle of the city's main shopping district.

 

 


As we walked along, Harper stopped to read restaurant menus, helpfully placed outside even the most upscale spots, and found a winner at Sapori, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria in the lovely Victoria Jungfrau Grand Hotel. It offered great gf options and a wonderful welcome. We took Ned's order by text, and then sent him a picture of Harper enjoying his drink--he soon appeared :)

 

After a short walk back to the hotel to change into warmer paragliding clothes, we handed our kids over to total strangers so they could run off a mountain, and we strolled back down Hoheweg. A stop in a surprisingly upscale tourist shop led to a conversation with one of the Jungfrau agents. She makes the trip to the "top of Europe" about five times a year, and together, they replanned our trip. Like everyone we interacted with in Switzerland, she was remarkably accommodating and gracious, canceling and refunding uncancelable and unrefundable tickets, rebooking our tour, and handwriting a timetable for us. Danke!


We got back to the park just as the kids floated to the ground. 

 

 

They were thrilled and adrenaline-filled--and both would declare this the highlight of the trip.

 

Their amazing photos tell the story:

 

 

 

 

 



 We thanked their co-pilots, then stopped by a sidewalk cafe for some back-to-earth refreshments and an opportunity to review, post, and send their birds-eye pictures. 
 
 

After a break back at the Bellevue, we stopped by another great Interlaken restaurant, Ox, for dinner. As the name suggests, this is a meat and potatoes place. Harper and Penn got steaks; I got housemade sausage with unbelievably buttery, crispy, and delicious hash browns; and Ned ordered one of Ox's specialties: horse. He loved it! As we finished our yummy desserts, we again closed down a Swiss restaurant.

 


We settled in for the night, and as I finished a blog entry, I watched an old BBC documentary about the restoration of Coventry Cathedral (part of the lead up to the Platinum Jubilee). Jealous? Okay, it started to bore even me, but when I went to check what else was on, I discovered that the algorithm that attached images to shows had gone terribly wrong. Oh, Pennywise, thankfully your keen eye for architectural integrity and tasteful historic preservation has finally been given its due.


Gute nacht, Interlaken!

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