INTERLAKEN – Switzerland (Mon 31 Aug)

We were stirred in the early hours of the morning by a procession of cows and their cowbells, walking past our room to the next paddock. There is something about being woken by the sound of cow bells, rather the sounds of drunken revellers in the city (as we have experienced in other places), that you don’t mind so much.

Our first stop in Interlaken was a special treat for Justine. I have been trying for some time to get her to agree to going skydiving, well we found something that she would agree to and that was paragliding. And what better place to do it than in the Swiss Alps. There was a bit of a delay waiting for the large American tourist who enjoyed the sound of her own voice and certainly didn’t listen to instructions the first time around. We asked one of the pilots what difference it made to them having a larger passenger, “We just use bigger canopies and use a pilot who doesn’t mind a quick descent.”

After a short bus ride up to the launch site on Mt Beatenberg (NW of Interlaken), Justine ran with her pilot the few steps down the ramp and into thin air at 1320m. To quote Justine “It was magical”, with views of lakes Thun and Brienz, flanked by impressive snowcapped mountain peaks, forested hillsides, and the very green foothills of farmland. She thought the ride was like sailing in a light breeze, like a hawk gliding on the air currents. It is like sitting in an armchair, very smooth, civilized and genteel. Justine was hoping to get some thermals and stay up there a bit longer, but at this time of year with the great weather that we are having the thermals just weren’t there. So 20 minutes later she was on the ground again, and keen to go again.

From here we went to hire bikes. We had heard that they hired them at the train station but when we saw that their price was quadruple what we had seen elsewhere we thought we would check out the competition. We had a list from the Info centre, but when the first four on the list, we decided to give it a miss and walk. But after taking a few wrong turns we found a bike hire at a good price, and within a few minutes we were on our way.

There we were cycling along merrily enjoying the landscape alongside the river … and getting dirty looks from the locals. No really, everyone that we passed gave us the most filthy looks, some even said things under their breath. We just thought that that was the Swiss way, after all we have already experienced their good humour. When some of them started yelling, and others were gathering to join in, we knew that something was wrong. It wasn’t until one nice old gentleman stopped us and told us that we were riding through a reserve and you were only allowed to push your bike, not ride it, that it started to make sense. At least that’s what we think he was saying across the language bridge. However we did make him smile when he learned we were from NZ. Perhaps all this aggression that we have been seeing and experiencing is aimed at the French (the joy of driving with French plates).

When we arrived at our destination we found that it was a hotel with a private beach, and no public access. The only route back was the way that we had come, so our two hour bike ride turned into a one and a quarter hour bike push.

Then it was back to our B&B for a self catered dinner looking out over the lake as the sky changed colour over the mountains and the day turned into night. The end of another beautiful day, in beautiful surroundings.