Day 3:
After two wonderfully spent days, we decided to capture the beauty of Switzerland from a bird's eye view.. How? well, we decided to fly like a bird.. To glide through and to feel the freshness in the air! Para-gliding @ Interlaken!!
We had planned nothing and hadn't booked in any para-gliding club for our activity. We went to our hotel's reception where they had kept some brochures of different clubs. We picked a few and started calling them to fix our slot for para-gliding.
Many hurdles to cross - it was a Sunday, we had no internet access to check online for available clubs, and we were running out of time! Inspite of all odds, we finally decided to check out at the tourist information center and quickly checked out of the hotel and walked towards the center. On our way, we saw that there were camps lined up for para-gliding! For every 100m, there was a camp! One of that was of a club whom we had contacted - Paragliding Interlaken was its name. We decided we would finalize on this one and made our payment there.
They would take us to a height of 1400 m and most important thing was that they were certified folks for safety measures. All excited, we sat in the car which took us to the flying point!
I must acknowledge the friendliness and cordial behaviour of the co-ordinators of this club. Elaborate explanation of dos and donts, the effort to put us at ease and to evade the fear from our mind about flying from that height - just fabulous! To each of us who had chosen to fly that day, a pilot was assigned - on demand selection of pilots :) I got lucky with Micheal - a smart guy who was flying since 9 yrs! Quite an experienced guy I must say!
We stopped at one place from where I could see some green grass and some typical wood houses and a path way that was now our "run-way"! And beyond that, I could see only tall trees aiming to kiss the sky!
The parachute was now set ready and we were all set to take off.. A couple of minutes of training and then with the sign of the perfect wind, we began our flight! It was MINDBLOWING!!! What I couldnt see while getting ready for the flight was the beauty of the city of Interlaken from a height of 1400 m!!
The sparkling water of two lakes - Thun & Brienz , the large stretch of fresh green grass, the huge rocky mountains and the layered stretch of trees - how I wish I could take all of you there to show what I saw!!
My initial skepticism soon vanished and I was now just feeling everything without even winking my eyes! Micheal was good too - kept telling me not to fear and to feel like a bird. Indeed, I was flying like a bird - freely and in the endless sky!
We took a lot of photos and video during the flight (15-20 min duration in air) and then after capturing the enchanting beauty in my mind, we slowly descended and landed. I wanted to go once more! :)
Still talking all about the paragliding experience, my husband and I planned our next destination - Lauterbraunen.
It was situated in a valley with over 100 water falls! The biggest was that of Trummelbach falls - a huge roaring water falls which could be seen from 10 different levels/ view points through the man made caves drilled through the mountain. It appeared in different forms - sometimes swirled , sometimes like a spring, some times like a cork- screw - such were the variations of this falls.
It was evening by the time we finished seeing this one falls and we were getting late to catch our train back to Dusseldorf.
Unwillingly, we bid adieu to Lauterbraunen and hence to Switzerland.
“If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living”
- Henri Poincare (Physicist, Philosopher)
Switzerland is beautiful, worth knowing and definitely I feel my life is worth living :) I am just simply smitten with Switzerland's beauty!!
Cheers!
After two wonderfully spent days, we decided to capture the beauty of Switzerland from a bird's eye view.. How? well, we decided to fly like a bird.. To glide through and to feel the freshness in the air! Para-gliding @ Interlaken!!
We had planned nothing and hadn't booked in any para-gliding club for our activity. We went to our hotel's reception where they had kept some brochures of different clubs. We picked a few and started calling them to fix our slot for para-gliding.
Many hurdles to cross - it was a Sunday, we had no internet access to check online for available clubs, and we were running out of time! Inspite of all odds, we finally decided to check out at the tourist information center and quickly checked out of the hotel and walked towards the center. On our way, we saw that there were camps lined up for para-gliding! For every 100m, there was a camp! One of that was of a club whom we had contacted - Paragliding Interlaken was its name. We decided we would finalize on this one and made our payment there.
They would take us to a height of 1400 m and most important thing was that they were certified folks for safety measures. All excited, we sat in the car which took us to the flying point!
I must acknowledge the friendliness and cordial behaviour of the co-ordinators of this club. Elaborate explanation of dos and donts, the effort to put us at ease and to evade the fear from our mind about flying from that height - just fabulous! To each of us who had chosen to fly that day, a pilot was assigned - on demand selection of pilots :) I got lucky with Micheal - a smart guy who was flying since 9 yrs! Quite an experienced guy I must say!
We stopped at one place from where I could see some green grass and some typical wood houses and a path way that was now our "run-way"! And beyond that, I could see only tall trees aiming to kiss the sky!
The parachute was now set ready and we were all set to take off.. A couple of minutes of training and then with the sign of the perfect wind, we began our flight! It was MINDBLOWING!!! What I couldnt see while getting ready for the flight was the beauty of the city of Interlaken from a height of 1400 m!!
The sparkling water of two lakes - Thun & Brienz , the large stretch of fresh green grass, the huge rocky mountains and the layered stretch of trees - how I wish I could take all of you there to show what I saw!!
My initial skepticism soon vanished and I was now just feeling everything without even winking my eyes! Micheal was good too - kept telling me not to fear and to feel like a bird. Indeed, I was flying like a bird - freely and in the endless sky!
We took a lot of photos and video during the flight (15-20 min duration in air) and then after capturing the enchanting beauty in my mind, we slowly descended and landed. I wanted to go once more! :)
Still talking all about the paragliding experience, my husband and I planned our next destination - Lauterbraunen.
It was situated in a valley with over 100 water falls! The biggest was that of Trummelbach falls - a huge roaring water falls which could be seen from 10 different levels/ view points through the man made caves drilled through the mountain. It appeared in different forms - sometimes swirled , sometimes like a spring, some times like a cork- screw - such were the variations of this falls.
It was evening by the time we finished seeing this one falls and we were getting late to catch our train back to Dusseldorf.
Unwillingly, we bid adieu to Lauterbraunen and hence to Switzerland.
“If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living”
- Henri Poincare (Physicist, Philosopher)
Switzerland is beautiful, worth knowing and definitely I feel my life is worth living :) I am just simply smitten with Switzerland's beauty!!
Cheers!
