Tim & Joy's Travels: Day 17: Dreams come true in the Bernese Oberland

Today was yet another unplanned day and once again beautiful weather although earlier this week rain was the forecast for most of the week after Sunday. Tom from Alabama had admired the hang gliders we saw on top of the Schilthorn on Sunday and picked up brochures along the way and decided to call and set a tandem ride up. Jim from Texas decided to give it a try too. We took the train to Interlaken and were picked up in a van to go to the landing site. Because of weight, ice and mud on top and age they told Tom he would have to do his ride at a lower elevation this afternoon so Jim and his tandem guy Drew went on up the cable car to Murren and he had a great adventure hang gliding over a cliff down to the Lauterbrunnen valley where we were waiting and photographing at the landing field. Our driver dropped us off at the Trammelbach falls where we went inside a cave and rode a funicular half way up and then walked on up A LOT of stairs viewing the waterfall along the way. We then took the bus then train back to Interlaken, had lunch and meet up with the afternoon tandem guy for Tom. He had a great ride with a lot of thermals and even remembered to yell “r-i-c-o-l-a” on the way down but was disappointed to learn that ricola was not a Swiss word, so he quickly yelled out Matterhorn! We had a great day out and went back to our chalet for our final night in Switzerland. It rained after we got back but overall we had great weather this whole trip so far.