Okay, so let's pick up where we left off, shall we?
Interlaken, Switzerland

Ah, Interlaken.... my idea of Heaven. Switzerland was easily our favourite country - which means we took a million pictures. The views were incredible. The alpine air smelled fresh and sweet (probably due to the bakery just outside of the train station). And everything is unbeliveably quaint.


Although I couldn't help but wonder if the city was naturally quaint, or just made to look that way, as every single building that lined the main strip was a hotel.

The only problem I had with this gorgeous little city was that the cabbies would often rip you off, and to my disappointment, I also realized that I really dislike overpriced cheese fondue. Which is such a shame because I LOVE cheese, and I LOVE wine, but together... *shudder*... It just wasn't doing it for me. Here is a picture of J pretending to enjoy it.

Right beside our hotel was a cute little tourist market.


And that's where I met this colourful character who wanted me to dance, but I only wanted a picture. I later learned that organ grinders often have little dancing monkeys... I guess I must look like a monkey.

We then took a quick train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen (in order to catch a bus to Stechelburg where we could catch the gondolas that go up the Alps.) As expected, Lauterbrunnen was stunning.

It takes four gondolas to reach the Schilthorn at the very top...

But in Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door book, I had read about this wonderful little farming community called Gimmelwald which is at the first stop. So we decided to get off there.

It's a poor community of about 100 people who survive off government subsidies... but they've got a million dollar view that leaves developers knashing their teeth. (It's in an avalanche zone.)

In fact, apparently some Alpaholics say, "If heaven isn't what it's cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald." I couldn't agree more.


Gimmelwald is completely quiet with the exception of distant crashing waterfalls, and the sound of windchimes... which I soon discovered was the bells around the necks of grazing goats and sheep.


The village only has one store that, as seen in this foggy sign, sells Homemade Sausage, Alpbutter, Alpcheese, Fresh Milk, and Fresh Eggs.

There is also a hostel that sells beer.
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Actually, J and I spend so much time wandering around this pint sized village, that we ended up missing the last gondola to the top of the mountain. Oh well... it just meant that we were left with more time to spend hanging out in Gimmelwald.

The next day we decided to take our adventure up a knotch, and go paragliding. It was just one of those once in a lifetime things that we thought was worth ruining our budget for. We have the rest of our lives to tighten our purse strings... but how often do you get to paraglide off the Alps?

With our camera tied to his wrist, J managed to take a few good shots during his 20 minute flight.



That's me soaring above the treetops.

As part of the package, they also take a bunch of pictures of you while you're in the air.




J took this picture just after I landed. Easy Peasy!

Right after our paragliding adventure, we headed back on the train to catch the gondola to the mountaintop.

Where we had lunch in the rotating restaurant at the top, (which was blown up in one of the James Bond movies.) It takes an hour to do a full rotation, and the view is amazing no matter where you look.

And so that's it for Switzerland... next we head to Paris.