A Family Adventure

As I mentioned earlier, my parents came to visit this past week. We ventured to Interlaken, Switzerland for a few days and kept ourselves very busy. In order to save time traveling, we took a night train and arrived on Saturday morning. My parents were excited to have an authentic European experience by riding on an overnight train. Considering Michael's busy schedule, it was convenient for us to combine travel time with sleeping so he would only be gone the minimal amount of time.

Interlaken means between two lakes, and this village is situated between lakes Thun and Brienz in the Bernese Oberland region. We decided it would be quite fitting for us to participate in some type of "extreme" activity, so we chose paragliding. Now, for those of you who may have been parasailing, let me tell you, it is not the same thing. As you can see in the pictures, you glide with a guide, for which I am VERY grateful. This group of guys (Richie, Robby, Dino, and Raymond) were very entertaining, and I think they enjoyed flying with us as well.

As we prepared to launch, they instructed us to run on command (towards a ledge) and keep running after we took off in case we didn't catch the wind correctly. Up until this point, I'm doing great. No fear, no anxiety, no nothing. Once we practically ran off the side of the mountain and were flying around, I started to grow a bit concerned. I was thinking to myself, 'Holy cow, I'm only supported by this silk material which my guide (Richie) was controlling with several cords. I trust him, I guess, because if I go down, he's coming, too." I was terrified that a gust of wind would thrust us further into the atmosphere and render us out of control. My fear diminished eventually and being closer to the town (and the ground) was a huge contributing factor. At one point, Richie asked if I wanted to fly...I declined. I drew the line with taking charge of our flight. A funny side note, each passenger who paraglides must have a "ticket" since it is a flight. We had to sign a slip of paper with our name on it, and it had to accompany us on our journey. Anyway, Richie also asked if I like roller coasters. My response was, "I like being IN roller coasters, but I'm not sure if I want to feel queasy this far in the air without the actual roller coaster." Since I am prone to motion sickness, I was hesitant to give him free reign with doing crazy turns. However, once we were close to landing, I agreed to feel the sensation, and it turned out just fine. It was actually better than I thought it would be. Regardless, I was glad when we were standing on solid ground again.

The next day we visited the Jungfrau region. A special train line for the Jungfrau region leaves from Interlaken and stops in some wonderful villages along the way. Since we didn't have much time, we decided to forgo any extra stops and went straight to the top of the mountain, called Jungfraujoch. This mountain top is famous because it is among the highest in Europe. Unfortunately for us, it was too cloudy at the very top of the mountain. The picture is the bottom left corner was visible before we reached Jungfraujoch, and it was quite a sight.

After returning to Vienna, we made good use of our time so that my parents could see several significant sights in the city. The weather was ideal, which is always a guessing game here, and we were grateful to see the sun so often. I was able to finish the classes I had started before they arrived, and I have two more to complete in the next several weeks. My return to the states is drawing ever close, and the countdown has begun...7 weeks, 4 days. I know we will miss being here once we leave, but I'm eager to be back home!