In the past few years, I’ve done a lot of traveling for work. Usually it’s a hectic “Amazing Race”-style trip where my main view of an interesting city is from the window of a taxi as I go to the airport, my face plastered against the glass. My coworker and I always say, as we finish a jam-packed trip to a new city: “This trip makes me want to visit [insert city name here]!” because it usually doesn’t even feel like I’ve been to Buenos Aires or Lima or Xi’an or Seoul.
My current trip to Switzerland has been a treat because other than wedding activities, which were fabulously filled with seeing our friend wed his new bride, meeting new (and seeing old) friends, a cool jazz concert, amazing food, and lots of wine, I had a bit of free time.
The last time I was in Switzerland was in the late 90’s after grad school, on an extended backpack and youth hostel trip. I traveled for a couple of months with my sister and then extended my student-fare plane ticket to see more of Europe and live in Firenze/Florence for a few months. The only Swiss city I went to on that trip was Interlaken, where upon arrival I saw three people writing papers at a picnic table. The conversation went like this:
Me: “What are you doing?”
Them: “Writing out our last will and testament.”
Me: “….”
Them: “We’re going bungee jumping off the highest jump in the world today.”
Me: “Where do I sign up?”
We did an activity called the “Adrenaline Duo” – canyoning and bungy jumping from a gondola hanging between the mountains. The guides told us it was the highest gondola jump in the world. I loved every second of it.
So back to the present: Leading up to this trip, I thought back to that fun day in Switzerland I had years ago and looked for an activity to do on this trip. Everything seemed too far from where we were staying, so I shoved the thought aside and looked into bike rentals or swimming in Lake Sarnen. I learned after arriving that the lake is filled with glacier melt water, and is pretty chilly without a wetsuit. Hmmm, I thought, what can I do for a bit of fun on Saturday morning?
I picked up a brochure for Mount Pilatus Adventure Park – tobogganing, tubing, a ropes course with zip lines. And bonus: I met fun people who wanted to do this crazy stuff also, plus they had a car that would fit me and my husband. The stars were aligning!
We headed to Kriens, where you take a 30-minute gondola ride up the mountain to the adventure area.
Note: The area was a little confusing, with the toboggan one direction and the ropes course the other.
We headed straight for the toboggan since it was High Priority #1. I have to recommend to anyone going to Mount Pilatus that you head to the ropes course first for two reasons:
a) the lockers are free (they were 2 Euros by the toboggan)
b) you get a discount on the toboggan ride with any paid ropes course admission
Okay, so back to High Priority #1: Toboggan Ride.
It was awesome. I would have done it again once I had the feel for the sled and how to accelerate and brake. The ride was longer than I expected, but there were sharp curves and I was a bit of a wuss, braking quite a bit. Next time, I’m on accelerate all the way, baby!
At the bottom, they pull you back up the mountain in reverse on another track.
Next, we headed to High Priority #2: Ropes Course and Zip Lines. After signing some paperwork, we were outfitted with helmets and harnesses and had an orientation on safety and how to clip the carabiners for each type of element. It was foggy.
They had 10 different courses of varying difficulties, and all seemed to have zip lines.
(A little blurry but an action shot nonetheless!)
It.Was.So.Fun! We really needed more time on the mountain, but had to get back to the wedding. So we did a few of the courses, and headed back down the mountain by gondola. We didn’t have time for the tubing or the freefall adventure, but the experience we did have was worth it. My arms and legs were like jelly from tightrope walking on cables, and we only got to the Medium level courses. I’m curious what Difficult looked like!
What a great day – zip lining in the mountains followed by wedding festivities that lasted late into the night. I can’t wait to come back to Switzerland someday.
You Signed Up For What?! 