Two days in paradise

Two weeks ago it was 9 degrees and promising snow in Lauterbrunnen, Swiss Alps and now it is a brilliantly sunny 23 degrees.  After a much needed 12 hours sleep (I always sleep so well here, must be the pure mountain air) I head down to Stechelberg at the end of the valley with my local friend to take an easy 1 hour walk to a tiny little village, Trachsellauenen. Well she said it was easy……..flat in fact. It’s ALL uphill!!!

Trachsellauenen - cows coming down for the winter

We make it and rewards await – plates of cheese disguised as dishes - raclette and kaseschnitte – delicious. Then a procession of cows coming down the mountain – a once yearly event when they are brought back from the summer fields down to the sheds for winter, they parade past with floral headdresses – cows and owners alike!

I am invited back to my friends parents’ house for dinner and we laugh all night, even though my German and Swiss German are quite different, we manage to understand and they feed me delicious homemade schnapps – the bottle is engraved with the word “gift” – because it is so nice I ask? No – “gift” in Swiss German means poison!!

All kitted up to paraglide

I'm next!

Next day I have booked in to go paragliding. WHY?! I am up early and waiting in the chilly morning air at 8am and we are picked up and taken to Interlaken, then driven up to the dizzying heights of Beatenberg for take-off.  We pick a pilot – mine tells me it is his first week – NOT funny I say!! It is his eleventh year.

Coming in to land..........view over Interlaken

They spread out the chutes and strap us in and then we have to run down a very steep hill and then wooooshhhhhh – we are going up up up and £&(*£&%)*&”£)%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I squeeze my eyes shut tight and then can’t bear to open them……..I take a few photos and open my eyes halfway and OH MY GOD IT’S A LONG WAY DOWN. Shut them again and say ok is it time to go down now……………next thing we are landing – I have done it!!!! Next year I will try again and open my eyes………….

Brienzersee - yes really that blue

The afternoon is spent safely on the water, cruising on the Brienzersee from Interlaken to Brienz and back. It is SO beautiful out on the eerily blue and still water, with the green and sometimes snow capped mountains soaring on either side and sun beaming down. We work on our tans and have lunch in Brienz at a gorgeous little restaurant overlooking the lake and mountains. By the end of the day I can’t stop smiling J