Just Like Clockwork
I spent my last few days in Europe in the heart of the Swiss Alps enjoying some fresh mountain air. We drove around to see the Matterhorn and while there took a cable car (the steepest cable car I've ever seen, let alone been on) up to the highest observation deck in Europe at 12,739 feet above sea level. Unfortunately, both my mom and I got altitude sickness and we were entirely not dressed for the below freezing temperatures, so we quickly snapped some pictures and headed back down from above the clouds. We then drove to Interlaken, where we were staying, and following the instructions of the GPS on the way there wound up on a car train that took us through the mountains, literally in a tunnel through the mountains -- that was a very strange and unexpected experience. In Interlaken, we spent some time taking the funicular up to a small mountain to see the views of Jungfrau and the surrounding mountains. Jungfrau is Europe's highest railway accessible point, the so called Top of Europe, though we only saw it from afar. After the view from one mountain, I jumped off another the next day when I went paragliding over Interlaken. It was such a surreal experience, running and jumping off a mountain then floating for almost 30 minutes before landing in a clearing in the center of town. We spun around through gusts of wind and though it seemed like my feet could almost touch the trees beneath us, we were still some 200 meters above them. What a great way to wave goodbye to the continent. The final day we drove a few hours to Zurich, where we explored the town a little then repacked for the 10 hour flight to Miami.
