One less stooge...

Yesterday, our last day in Interlaken, the boys decided to go for a hike up Harder Kulm. The signs recommend that it takes 2 hours and 20 minutes to get to the top, and Rob was determined to beat that time. Mike tagged along and I opted out (not such a fan of running up a hill for 2 hours).

While they were gone, I perused the chocolate shops where I may have made a few purchases ;)... I also read in the park where the paragliders land and made friends with a few Swiss senior citizens, who also enjoyed watching the paragliders faceplant as they landed.

Five hours later, the boys returned from their hike. Turns out they had missed their target point and hiked even higher than they meant to! It turned out well, as they met two nice Americans on the way up, who we later had dinner with.

That night in Interlaken was the Nissan Outdoor Games awards show. Throughout the week, 5 teams of adrenaline junkies had been filming and photographing their teammates doing extreme tricks in paragliding, rock climbing, kayaking, base jumping, and mountain biking. The team leaders then submitted still photos and short films to a jury, which awarded prizes to the best ones. The awards show was just a big street party, which started out with people base jumping from helicopters above the crowd. Then a horrible band played, but we won't focus on that.

The videos and photos were awesome, the highlights being a film of a hang glider swooping down to a lake and dragging his feet through the water before getting some serious air; another highlight was a rock climber using no ropes or bungees and basically hanging upside down.

All in all, it was a great finish to three very relaxing days. Interlaken was awesome, and we all agreed that it would be a great place for another vacation (but only if we all somehow became rich first!)

Today was a day of travel. We woke up early and caught the 2 hour train to Luzern, where, sadly, Rob and I said goodbye to our third stooge. Mike was on his way to Basel, Mulhaus, and then to Paris to spend the night before catching his plane home tomorrow. Rob and I had to take an earlier train to Basel, then Mannheim, then finally Munich - which is where I am writing from.

Plans for the next few days are to do a free tour of the city, then a guided tour of the Dachau concentration camp. On Wednesday, we have booked an overnight train to Berlin, where we will be spending 5 days.