Adventures in Europe; Day 4

Breath-Taking Views, Jumping from Planes, Wine & Chocolate.

Saturday.  Day four started off with a 4 AM cab to take us to the airport.  Here's something to consider if you are trying to make the most of your travel: It may make seem to make sense to take a super early flight from London to Switzerland, but if it's Saturday, the tube & bus won't be running and you'll have no option but to take a 70 euro taxi to the airport... at 4 AM. 

 

We arrived at Gatwick at 5:00 AM with what we thought was plenty of time to catch our 7:00 flight to Zurich.  Not so much.  We stood in the longest line in the history of lines to get checked in.  It was crazy.  By the time we got through security and to our gate it was time to board our flight. 

 

The flight was followed by a train to Bern followed by another to Interlaken.  It was literally the most ridiculous morning of travel I've ever experienced.  I was exhausted. 

 

But I was also enthralled by the views from the train.

 

 

Hello Interlaken.

Interlaken translates to "between two lakes".  And that's exactly what this quaint little town was.  It was between two amazing lakes.  The views were breathtaking.

 

We found our bed & breakfast rather easily.  We checked in and the woman at the front desk, who spoke in the thickest accent, said excitedly "We have the best room for you!" 

 

We took the elevator up to the second floor and entered our snug little room.  It was adorable.  But the best part was the tiny balcony off the back of the room.  It had amazing views of the Alps and we knew right away we would be spending some quality time there.

 

The view!

Pretty stoked about this balcony.

♥♥♥

I decided to take a teeny tiny little nap after we got settled in.  Drew went downstairs to chat with the owner about things to do in Switzerland.  I was exhausted.

Several minutes later, Drew busted into the room and said, "You still want to go skydiving?!?"

For the record, I was not really on board with this whole sky diving thing.  I'm ridiculously afraid of heights.  Drew tried to get me to help clean the gutters once and I had a panic attack.

But I said yes anyway because I knew this was the one thing he was super excited about.  He said, "Good.  They'll be here to pick us up in 10 minutes."

I do not have pictures, even though I took my camera up with me.  While plummeting to the Earth, it didn't occur to me to snap photos.  In fact the only thing that did occur to me was that I was going to die.  But at least the view was pretty.

This is what I can tell you.  We were picked up, driven about 20 minutes to a field where we received about 5 minutes of instruction on how to sky dive.  We boarded the tiniest plane that ever flew, and climbed 15,000 feet above the Alps. 

I spent that time praying.  I knew Drew was set to go first, so before the doors opened I shouted a heart-felt "I love you!" across the plane.  This went over really well and the rest of the plane started swapping I Love You's.  My tandem jumper kept calling everyone honey bear... as in "I love you honey bear!"  You know I liked that.

My tandem jumper was also a bit of a prankster and took advantage of my... what's the word?  Gullible?  I've been called gullible before.  But I just like to think of myself as trusting.  And in this case I like to think of myself as freaking the fuck out.  So when he acted concerned over the fact that my straps didn't seem to stay put, I became concerned.  And when he told me this was his seventh time ever jumping, I became more concerned. 

Please don't mess with me when I'm already in a state of panic.

So the doors opened.  Drew flew out.  It was highly unsettling. 

Then another girl jumped and it was my turn.  I wasn't supposed to have to do anything.  I was instructed to hold onto my straps and pick my legs up and he would do the rest.  They weren't happy when I tried to hold onto the bar and not fly out of the plane.  But eventually they got me to let go and I dropped toward the mountains.

I tried to scream.  I'm a screamer.  But the rush of air was so much that I couldn't scream.  In fact, it hit me that I couldn't breath.  Then it dawned on me that my mouth was open, trying to scream.  Once I shut my mouth, I was able to breath.  It was scary.  The Earth was just rushing at me.

Then the shoot went out and we started to go slower.  The views were amazing and my tandem dude pointed out lots of fun things on the mountain.  My thoughts were on the fact that I was going to die or have a panic attack.

Luckily I didn't die.  We landed safely and discovered that Drew was also still alive.  Success!

We made it!!!

Once firmly on the ground, I kind of thought I might puke.  I think it was a combination of exhaustion, dehydration, and the fact that my tandem jumper dude had been spinning me the whole way down. 

My tandem jumper.  I seriously owe him my life.

We caught a ride back to our hotel and took a much needed nap.  Then we set out for some much needed food.  We were a little tripped up by the fact that everyone in Interlaken speaks German and therefore their menus are in German... but we found our way around with the English translations.

 

I wasn't sure what to expect from my dinner translation of "toast and mushrooms" but it ended up being maybe the best thing I've ever eaten.  Ever.

 

It was a thick piece of toast smothered in fondue-like cheese and topped with mushrooms.  I cannot believe how good it was.

Holy Deliciousness.

Also... insanely expensive.  Something else we hadn't expected was the prices in Switzerland.  You cannot get a meal for less than 20 Swiss Franks, which are close to equivalent to a US dollar.  So my cheesy toast cost as much as a nice steak dinner at home.  Just something you get used to I guess...

After our eats we walked around town a bit looking for a spot to buy wine.  We found that the Swiss don't mess around when it comes to chocolate.

Yum yum yum!!!

Unfortunately everything was closed except for a teeny grocery store.  So we found the only thing that wasn't crazy-expensive in Switzerland: wine.  We headed back to our B&B to enjoy the views from our balcony.

 

Wine, Chocolate, & Rick Steve.

So happy!

Great view!

There's nothing else I need in life. :)

 

Lessons Learned:

1.  Tell your sky-diving dude not to spin you.  No one wants to yak all over the Alps.

2.  Switzerland is EXPENSIVE.  Bust out your pocket book!

3.  Wine is cheap.  Drink up, bitches.