Day 6 - Gimmelwald + Aare Gorge

Day 6 - Gimmelwald + Aare Gorge #genevajordan2022

Breakfast time and then probably getting ready for our checkout putting bags and car and then spending a bit more time here

Same breakfast spread then packing up, then waiting for the cable car to drop our bags at the car before some other stuff around here before the drive to the gorge, waiting at the cable car here, second/third pic shows Mürren in the distance

Was going to update the day before sleep but time got away with me, it was an exhausting (in a good way) day, will do my best to update tomorrow to not fall behind

Ok time to catch up on this day before breakfast. Day started off with roughly the same breakfast spread, we then settled the room tab for the food and drinks. Then we decided to go leave our bags in the car as there was still something to do later in the day... Paragliding!

The car was at Stechelberg (922 meters up) and we were in Gimmelwald (1367 meters up) and the paragliding started at Mürren (1638 meters up) so we left dad and his wife at Gimmelwald to fend for themselves and decided to walk up to Gimmelwald rather than take the cable car

This was a mistake. (Not really but also kind of)

The elevation difference is like 460m in a reasonably concentrated path, basically going up this wall and we don't have a lot of mountains in Ontario to train that. I think the Chilchbalm had more like a 300m elevation delta.

It didn't help that this genius (me) decided it was smart to leave our backpack in the car (with our water bottle) because we'd be jumping later and wanted to travel light... Spoiler water would have helped a lot.

I think her phone at the end said it was like 150 stories, a lot of it was this kind of trail where the trail itself isn't hard as such and is well maintained, it's just no breaks going up for most it

Think my shirt was literally stuck to my skin by the end (well not the end, really anything after the very beginning). Didn't take too many pics going but a couple places had nice things

We made it as jello to the Gimmelwald cable car station and got up to Mürren with like 5 minutes to spare to our paragliding appointment. Our guides were Mattieu and... Another guy who's name i can't recall. We had to walk to a high point overlooking Mürren

The guides had been doing this for 10 and 35 years which was kind of reassuring. My wife was a bit scared (terrified) but Mattieu was very reassuring and even mentioned if someone isn't even a bit scared the first time they do it they're probably a bit crazy or lying

Then it was time.

Paragliding in the Alps woo

In this picture I look bored out of my mind, I didn't know what to do with my hands I think.

In terms of how it felt, it was a really awesome experience, almost surreal to see everything from above like that and to feel like you're a leaf gliding in the wind, really kind of magical but not in an exciting way, just contemplative

It put a story I think my dad or his wife mentioned in perspective where they were talking with a swiss person who asked them about extreme sports and said "no, no, that's a leisure activity" when they answered something about paragliding

After that it was time to drive to the next destination the Aare Gorge. Technically we dropped off our bags at the hotel before going I guess. This route has a lot of mountain roads where the speed limit is nominally 8 but some of those turns are... It was not quite scary but...

We also saw an unfortunate situation on the other side of the two lane street where a biker was strugglebussing up a hill and behind the guy was a bus followed by a long line of vehicles as it's pretty hard to pass bikers safely in parts due to the many curves and no visibility

Then we got to the gorge

It reminded me a lot of the one I saw in Japan though that one had us going in a boat instead of walking along the side

The gorge was gorgeous (🥹)

More gorge pics

End of the gorge into a valley, and then we power walked back, it's a lot faster when you're not gawking at how beautiful nature is and just go "yep, yep nature is great, very powerful imagery, yep, going through"t

Then the hotel which was really cute, apparently 4th generation of owners now, this time we got 2 separate rooms

And... The view from the room was just amazing

When I inquired about dinner while the others were unloading, resting I was told "normally you have to reserve by 2..." But then were told it was ok but to be there by 7 in a very German manner.

Turns out Monday's they are experimenting with family style dinner to force guest interaction and ambiance and I have to say it really worked, it was some appetizers + pasta

My favorite ones were a veggie and a pesto

Suddenly started poouuuuring during dinner too right after my dad said he smelled rain and we made fun of him... Maybe his bionic shoulder has granted him abilities.

Then we played spades a bit before bed. I had a hard time sleeping because we had a catch-22 where if we fully opened the windows flies came in and buzzed but partially open there was negative air circulation so I felt hot and sticky... Eventually crashed though

Also the pillows were not great in a funny contrast to the previous place which had great ones but those are so minor compared to how amazing the experience was and has been. So thankful they organized and found all these places which we would have missed out on