Part 4 (Dec. 29 - Dec. 31)

December 29, 2006

Early that morning we were on the train headed toward Interlaken (the land between the lakes). After eating some keish, something I will never do again, we all were off to do some skydiving!!! We weren't the only ones skydiving that day so we were able to meet some interesting people.

We're still on the ground at this point

Folding the parachute...a very important step


Getting suited up

Ready to rock

The group of locos who are about to jump out of a perfectly good plane


Boarding the plane...it's a tight sqeeze


Views from the plane





The city of Interlaken, German for between the lakes as you can clearly see


Almost there, final preparations


Free falling at 120 miles per hour


They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how much is a video worth?


Coming in for the landing


You have to raise your legs because you land on your butt





Things to do before I die....hmm, skydiving the Swiss Alps, check!

Afterward we headed to the Schuh Restaurant and Chocolatier. For 10 CHF (CHF=Swiss Franc for those of you who forgot) you get to go on this chocolate factory tour. We were a bit early so Juan and I bothered the Omega store that was next door. The Omega Seamaster is my ultimate dream watch, so if you are ever feeling kind enough you know what you can buy me :D The tour itself is very short, but interesting nonetheless. The best part is you get to eat as much chocolate as you like or as much as you can. Seriously though, don't hold back any chocolate temptations you may have because they just give it all away during the tour. At the end you get to use the 10 CHF for a gift inside their store or for some chocolate. We were stuffed with chocolate so Melissa and I gave Juan our gift tokens and he bought a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife...in Switzerland, where else, right? And now, what you've all been waiting for....

CHOCOLATE!!!


Chocolate dragon

Chocolate Skiers

Chocolate cake sculpture

White Chocolate art

Chocolate bunnies

Dried cocoa beans

Master Chocolatier

A lesson in Chocolat

December 30, 2006

The following day Julian came with Juan, Melissa and I to snowboard. He drove us to Gridelwald to go snowboarding. There was ice buildup on all of the windows of the car. Apparently in Switzerland they will give you a ticket if your windows are not sufficiently cleared of ice. I fell asleep in the car and missed out on some beautiful scenery, but was awake and ready to go once we got there. Now, snowboarding is not easy to do, nor is skiing I imagine, but supposedly snowboarding is easier. It took Melissa and I a while before we got the hang of it. I got it before Melissa did thanks to my amazing balance. Snowboarding is loads of fun when you aren't busting your ass on the snow, but it's all part of the learning experience. Any pain I might have felt from falling so many times was heavily numbed by the fact that I was in the Swiss Alps. It is AMAZING THERE! The mountains, the snow, the cleanest air you will ever breathe into your lungs...there was even glaciers that you could see all around you, truly breath taking.

The Swiss Alps


Check out the glaciers!

Snowboarding hard? or hardly snowboarding?

Goodtimes (thats Julian to the left in case you couldn't figure it out)

We hadn't eaten anything all day and were all really hungry from snowboarding so we bought some crisps and some Rivella as a snack for the drive back home. Rivella is this amazing Swiss carbonated drink made from milk. Sounds strange I know but it is delicious!!! When we got back Monika prepared a cheese fondue for us. I had never had fondue before, but seem to remember that you get to put everything and anything in the cheese, but for whatever reason tonight it was only bread or brot in German. I didn't care, I just ate till I couldn't see anymore then I ate some more. After saying our goodbyes we rushed over the train station and caught a train to Zürich, where we then transferred and caught our overnight to Paris. This night train though was nothing compared to the one we had in Italia and so Melissa had a thing or two to say about it.

December 31, 2006

We arrived in Paris early that morning and headed straight to the hotel I booked. We all dropped our luggage and headed out. Our luck with great weather had finally ended; there was rain in the morning and overcast skies all day. We walked around all day and showed Juan all there was to see ... again, we even went back to the Louvre. We also saw some things we did not see the first time we were there. So here is Paris part deux...

The Eiffel Tower, "eh..."


Notre Dame

Sacre-Coeur church in Montmartre

Outside of the Louvre

Follow the arrow...



The River Seine

This is actually a University!

Moulin Rouge

Inside the Louvre

At night we went to the Eiffel Tower to ring in the New Years. Due to the rain and high winds no major fireworks shot from the Tower which I found to be quite disappointing. Walking around we ended up losing Juan so Melissa and I made our way back to the hotel on a very crowed Metro. It was so crowed that I had to lean up against the door which is something you are not supposed to do.

On one of the stops though, when the door opened, a crowd of teenagers rushed at full speed toward my door in hopes of catching the metro before it left. I, slightly dazed and confused became alert and immediately shoved the first guy who reached the door right back into his friends where he almost fell. He quickly brushed himself off and gave me a stern look but I suppose my face must have been harder than his because despite the fact that he had his gang of friends, he didn't do anything...or do I dare say couldn't do anything?

After the doors closed I was greeted by a grateful murmur from the rest of the people riding the metro who would have also been pushed and squeezed by those punks had it not been for me. How do you say you're welcome in French? (answer: De rien)