Interlaken

Friday afternoon we grabbed lunch and promptly hopped on a train headed to Interlaken. Luckily, after going through a couple different booking sights I was able to find seven beds at Balmers Hostel for Friday and Saturday night. It was great to be able to go back to such a fun place and share the experience with a new group of people. Friday we took full advantage of their two happy hours and reasonably priced food. We tried to book a canyoning trip for Saturday, but they were booked so we signed up for a Sunday morning excursion... needless to say it was the most extreme Baptism I've ever witnessed.

Saturday, seeing as our original plans to go canyoning had been spoiled, we made our way into Grindelwald. To explain Grindelwald, think Gatlinburg with out the air-brush tees and Alps instead of Smokies. Anyways from the train station we made our way up to a restaurant overlooking the Eiger Glacier and the town. It was one of the steepest hikes I've ever been on. At the restaurant I ordered a traditional Swiss Alpine dish consisting of hashbrowns with bacon and a fried egg on top... it almost felt like waffle house at 1775 meters. Over all we hiked up about 1200 meters (3900 feet) in elevation over maybe a 4 mile hike. After lunch we made our way back down and hurried to try an catch a gondola running from the middle of the mountain down into town. We of course missed it by about 30 minutes so that meant an additional trek down the rest of the mountain. Exhausted we made it back to the train station and back to Balmers. The rest of the crew decided to go to Hooters, but I needed to change my shoes so I got off at the stop just outside of town hoping to catch a bus to the hostel. Seeing as it was already 8:00 in the evening the bus wouldn't of come for another hour. So I followed the bus route we had taken in the morning and made the mile and a half or so hike back. Exhausted, I took a shower, ordered some food and prepared mentally for the adventure to come the next day.



Rudely awakened by my phone alarm and confused as to where I was, I jumped out of my bunk and prepped for the day ahead. We were provided a hearty meal of bread, butter and cheese (these continental breakfasts are starting to get old). We met up with our crazy South African guides and we were soon on our way to the Chili Schliere canyon. One of the most intense canyoning locales in the world. The trek consisted of 35-40 foot jumps, rappelling down waterfalls and slides through bed rock carved out by the tremendous force of the rushing water. Here is a you tube video below showing what we did.



As far as team building goes this put a ropes course to shame.

After the adventure, we boarded our train to Basel and slowly made the journey back to Freiburg