This was probably my favorite day so far, mainly because I went tandem paragliding (YES, PARAGLIDING!). (Note: Paragliding involved basically running off a cliff, then gliding down with a parachute and safely landing down below. I was tandem paragliding, so I had a pilot who knew what he was doing, and I just sat there and enjoyed the ride.) We hadn't planned on going until our roommates from Interlaken (who we talked to for about 3 minutes) mentioned it. So, for our final day in Gimmelwald, we woke up, ate breakfast and then headed to Murren where we met our pilots (my pilot was named Benny). We walked up a steep hill where they set up our parachutes and harnesses, etc. Then, Benny gave me instructions on what to do and what was going to happen. This was the scariest part for me because he was telling me that I needed to run down the hill so that we could go over the cliff. But I did manage to follow his instructions and before I knew it, we were in the air. This part was so incredible, I can't even describe it, but I'll try. We were basically in this valley and so we could see mountains in the background, because we were in the Alps. He even let me steer at one point, which was really fun. The best part was when he pointed to another group that was doing tricks and asked if I wanted to do the same. Clearly I said yes. So he pulled hard on one side of the chute, and we were practically horizontal. Then he would pull on the other side. And this was repeated many times. It was like a roller coaster, but better. It was awesome. Eventually we had to land (after about a 15 minute ride), though I could have spent forever in the air.
After paragliding, we left this part of Switzerland and took a two hour train ride to Lucerne. The scenery on the train ride was incredible. We were still well within the Alps, so we had lots of views of mountains and there were also tons of pretty lakes. After arriving at our hostel and dropping off our stuff, we asked our receptionist where the nearest Indian Restaurant was. We quickly headed off to go eat a massive amount of delicious Indian food. Following our delicious dinner we were to the KKL, which is a concert hall in Lucerne, for a concert with Yo-yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. The concert hall was pretty incredible and since Lucerne is built surrounding a lake, the concert hall was actually partially submerged in water. That added with the material they used to surround the chamber, made the acoustics in the concert hall incredible. The Silk Road Ensemble was fantastic as well. The whole idea behind the group is the exchange of ideas between cultures. Therefore, the music was a mix of styles and instruments from around the world. A lot of what we heard that night had a Middle Eastern influence. In fact, my favorite song was written by a guy in the group who was from Tehran, Iran which was about war, destruction, and sorrow, but also had upbeat moments. It was incredibly beautiful. But we also heard influences from China, Japan, South America, Sicily, etc. The music was also composed by the most part by group members. Another fun part of the concert was when one of the percussionists used his body as a drum. It was a very different type of concert, not a classical performance in the slightest. Another one of my fun facts about the concert hall: they had a huge box of cough drops at the entrances to the stairs, which was incredibly smart because I didn't hear anybody cough the whole performance.
After an incredible day, we headed back to our hostel and slept.
Love,
Rosalie.
PS. I didn't tell Mom and Dad I went paragliding until after at which point my mother said "I'm glad you didn't tell me before or else I would have forbidden it." But they enjoyed the pictures I sent them.
No comments:
Post a Comment