Interlaken

After leaving Barcelona, we had the adventure of getting to Interlaken, Switzerland. This adventure included the metro, five trains and a bus. We left Barcelona at 8am and got into Interlaken at 11pm. It was quite the day. It seemed like every few hours we had to lug all of our stuff and race to the next train. We also learned what it means when three destinations are listed for one train...it means that at some point, the train splits off into three parts and you need to be on the right part. At one point, we had to run to our specific section. Running with a backpack and a duffel bag as well as swollen feet (yah....they still hurt) is just not that easy.

When we booked our bed and breakfast here, we forgot to write down directions to get from the train station to the b&b. But the world was on our side for this one, when we got off the bus in Interlaken, there was a wonderful sign that listed all of the hotels and had a map next to it. You pushed the button that corresponded to the hotel you were staying at and it lit up the path to get there. After an easy little 5 minute walk, we got to the b&b to find a note taped to the door for us. It had our keys, room number and a little welcome note for us. Once we got settled, we pretty much crashed and went to sleep. We didn't get up until 1pm the next day! I suppose we were tired. We did manage to get up and walk all around though after that. Interlaken isn't that big so we took the afternoon to see the town.

Today we made a much bigger effort to actually do things. We came down for breakfast and the lady who runs the b&b gave us some brochures of things to do. One of them was for Paragliding. After a little debate, we decided that would be a perfect way to see the great views from up high and it sounded much more fun than taking another train to the top.

So, off we went up to the top of this mountain, strapped into a big harness that is attached to a guy. Kirstin took off first and then it was my turn right after. You run until you get to the edge of a cliff and then the wind picks you up and off you sail. We were both up in the air for about 20 minutes. It was honestly one of the most amazing things I have ever done. It was so beautiful up there and the guides were so good about pointing things out. They also took pictures and videos of the whole thing, which of course we bought. After we finally landed, I dont think we stopped smiling for an hour. It was incredible.

After that, we took a few trains and another bus to these waterfalls. The waterfalls are inside of a mountain so you take this life up, inside of the mountain and it lets you off to explore the walk ways with all of the beautiful waterfalls. There were a lot of stairs to climb to get to all of the waterfalls but it was worth it. Just as we were leaving, about 500 school aged kids were getting off of buses to go in. We decided we had gotten there at the perfect time. It would have been really loud with all of those kids.

Tomorrow we are setting off for Berlin. The exciting thing about this is it is only ONE train. Yep...Interlaken to Berlin. Another exciting thing is I found a Nicholas Sparks book at the b&b to read on the train as well, plus we bought chocolate to snack on.