Canyoning in Switzerland

This past weekend, Jay, Josh, and I took a trip to Switzerland. Josh is a cadet from South Dakota who is shadowing a lieutenant for the month. We thought we would give him another view of Europe while he is over here.

Fleece keeps you a lot warmer when wet! We learned that the last time we went canyoning!

We left Saturday morning and headed to Bern, the capitol. We spent several hours walking around the town. We saw the main government building, US Embassy, and the main street. We also saw the apartment that Albert Einstein lived in for most of his live. They had a museum, but it was closed. Other than that, there wasn't a lot to see.

Government Building

Main Street


US Embassy

That evening, we headed to the town of Interlaken. It's a small little town that is placed between two large lakes. It is also completely surrounded by mountains. This town is well known for it's outdoor adventure. That evening, there was a show happening. We couldn't get into the show, but we saw the parade of cows walk by. They all had huge bells and flowery hats on. I was amazed that the bells didn't seem to bother them. They were really loud.

We really wanted to do this.... but it cost $220 per person!

On Sunday morning, we went canyoning with Outdoor Interlaken. It was a beautiful day, with sunshine and clear skies. To get down into the canyon, we rappelled a couple hundred feet down a rock cliff. From there, we walked through the canyon doing several jumps into pools and sliding down rocks. The water was cold, but not bad with the sun. We also had a zipline to get us into a pool. We started up on a rock, held on to the zip line, they gave us a shove, and when we heard our guide scream, we were to let go. If we didn't let go at the right time, we would hit rocks or eventually hit the other side of the canyon wall. I was nervous about holding myself up, but it went really fast. We had to hold on for only five seconds or so before dropping. It was quite a drop down into the pool below. We all made it out alive, with no bruises or broken bones. That night we drove to Zurich to spend the night. We went straight to our hotel and fell asleep. We were pretty tired after canyoning.

On Monday morning, we drove down town to tour Zurich. We realized there wasn't much to see. So instead, we decided to head back to Germany. Switzerland was so incredibly expensive that we couldn't afford to stay there much longer. One of the nights, we went to McDonalds assuming it would be cheap. We walked in and looked at the menu.... $12 for a Big Mac meal!!! Yikes!!! Another night, we got pizzas and paid $40!!!!

Switzerland was absolutely beautiful, but not worth the prices. If you are wanting the view of the mountains, Austria is a much better choice.