Laowai

On our second day of our mountain vacation we walked through the valley to a town called Lauterbrunnen. It’s known for it’s many, many waterfalls. And, Dad, they have cross-country skiing trails there.

Here’s the valley, it’s edged in cliffs. You can see some people down the path in this photo. They are crazy fools.

They are base jumpers. Do you know about this? They basically jump off a mountain and fly along the edge of a sheer rock with a special suit. Then they float to the ground with their parachutes. As we walked along the path we heard, a couple parachutes flutter open above us. Later these dudes walked by us while we were picnicking and I overheard the one explaining to the other that when your legs inflate your head goes down. And he demonstrated by angling his hand. They go so fast you can’t see them flying along – you only hear the parachute open. Yikes. Later we saw the same guys riding up on the gondola with their puffy parachute-filled backpacks. I’ll be keeping my feet planted on the ground thank you very much.

Next we went to this waterfall that has carved it’s way through the mountain. You go up an elevator and climb lots of stairs to see the water rushing next to you in a vertical cave. It’s a really touristy spot. There were a bunch of Indian tourists who kept trying to touch my children – that was strange. 

Here’s how Bea felt about the whole experience.

She cheered up later and there was some giggling.

Here’s the gondola station at the town where we stayed. The gondolas are a big part of the experience in the area. This gondola is on the route to the Shilthorn (yeah, I feel like I’m cursing every time I say it). Anyway the Shilthorn is a peak that was featured in one of the James Bond movies. So they have the 007 logo painted on the gondolas. 

On our last evening we walked down to our hotel and watched the gondola float above us. It was so quiet and the light was making the mountains glow. We saw a few kitties at farm houses and we stopped to pet them. The girls were über sleepy when we finally got back – a great way to end our vacation.