Day 3: Extreme Interlaken

Friday morning we had some coffee and breakfast at a nearby bakery and café, and then walked around the town a bit, doing some window and souvenir shopping.  There are Victorinox swiss army knives everywhere!  Of course, we had to stop in any and every shop that sold knives or weaponry.  Matt seems to be magnetically attracted to these kinds of things!

That afternoon was our EXTREME adventuring afternoon.  Interlaken is known for extreme sporting, mainly a summer town because of this.  After discussing our options with fellow travelers who had already tried some of the stuff, we decided on canyoning. It is hard to explain canyoning, it is like hiking, swimming, and jumping along a river/stream.  First, we got all geared up in wetsuits, life jackets, harnesses, and helmets.   I asked Allie, "Do you think we look cool and sporty in our wetsuits, or dorky?" and she said, "dorky."  Bummer.  Our group was just us three, one other guy, and 2 guides.  They took us in a van to this stream of glaciar water and we slid in...oh that water was cold, but very refreshing!  We got to repel down a wall of rocks, which was super cool but super scary!  A guy attaches a rope to your harness then you stand backwards on a ledge and he says "Ok, just lean back!"  The initial leaning back was the scariest part because I didn't know what the expect, but once you get your balance and understand how to walk down, it's really cool!  I want to try that again!  We walked through the rocks and water--sometimes lying on our backs and sliding along, some sometimes jumping.  One of the jumps was about 10 feet down, and it was just a little area with about 2 feet deep water.  We had to crouch down and just off the edge and then land on our backs because the water was too shallow to go feet first.  It was scary because you had to think about how and where you were landing with rocks all around!  There was another jump where we had to land on our side, and it was my left side which felt really uncoordinated but I made it okay!  The guides looked super cool when they did everything, but I imagine I looked super dorky and uncoordinated!  Oh well!  I was really happy we chose canyoning because I do not think it is something you can do in very many places, and I felt really adventurous.  Now I can say I have swam in glacier water!

When we got back to the Adventure Sports center, they had cold beers and bread and cheese waiting for us, so we hung out there for a while.  Allie spilled her beer so the guide made her do a beer bong which was pretty funny.  We talked to the guides a bit- one was American and has worked in Interlaken doing this for the last 8 summers, always traveling somewhere else warmer in the winter, South America, New Zealand, Australia, and this year, India to guide sports there.  The other was an British guy who has lived in Interlaken for about 10 years and makes enough money doing summer sports that he just skis all winter and does not have to work.  Quite a different lifestyle!

That night, we had happy hour beers on top of the highest building in Interlaken, which is a hostel nicknamed the "concrete wall of shame," because it is made out concrete and very ugly.  It had a nice view though! We sat on the terrace at the restaurant on the top and had "3 big beers." It was lovely seeing evening roll in and various paragliders soaring by and landing plus a view of the two lakes that Interlaken sits between.   We went to dinner at "Art Pizza," an Indian-run pizza joint with the "best and cheapest pizzas in town," according to our guides.  I had a spicy salami, mozzarella, spinach, tomato, and ricotta pizza (and a big beer), which was delicious!  We went to the hot spot in town after dinner, called "Brasserie 17" and had some beers on the outdoor patio.  Matt got hungry again so ordered a salami plate-he's not really into bread and sausage after this trip!  It was nice just sitting and talking...Matt and Allie are so cute together!  Lucky Matt, he has found someone who doesn't scoff at him when he often speaks freely about his bodily functions!