The trip continues...23-31 August

So after making it to Paris with Johan the truckie, Lea and I then hired a car and headed down to Dijon to pick up my mate Steph. We then drove over to Switzerland and camped in the adventure capital of Interlaken for about a week. And it was amazing! Yes it´s true - all Swiss cows really do wear cow bells!

We spent our days hiking in the Alps, bike riding, having picnics with awesome views, we climbed 890 steps to see a glacier, the 'lowest accessible glacier in Europe' Well, I guess it needed something as a claim to fame...can you see it?

We went to a traditional Swiss folk festival with yodelling, guys playing the giant long alphorns that look like big pipes, and also the cow bell band. That was loud. Made friends with 'Chocolate Charlie' in another festival and he gave us loads of free Swiss chocolate and also these amazing hot chocolate drinks with baileys...all for free!
Lea and I with 'Chocolate Charlie'!

Got to see Swiss hard rock band 'Shakra' there one night. Oh and we also saw Switzerland's entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest performing! She was only 23 but a huge hit with all the oldies, who lined up for ages afterwards for things like signed calendars and postcards of her.

One of the highlights was going paragliding on an absolutely perfect day. It was such an unreal experience...we jumped off an 800m mountain and flew for 25 mins, catching thermals up and up.
This was where we took off
The 3 of us ready for action!
Woohoo awesome!
Had the most incredible views of the alps around us, and as we came down the woman steering it took me in this series of spirals that went faster and faster....woah, talk about g-force! We also this hilarious competition in one of the rivers in Bonn. 4 guys all in fancy dress were in these dragon boat type things, and the guys at the back each had a long pole. The guys would paddle their boats furiously towards each other, and when they got close enough the guys with the poles would try and knock each other into the river! Very amusing.
River wars in Bonn

We spent a few days heading back through the Alsace and Champagne wine regions of France. Of course with Steph being a wine maker, it was pretty much obligatory that we had to try numerous samples of wine - the best fun was in the tiny ancient village of Riquekihr where we were all ended up very tiddly by 11am! Lots of baguettes and cheese before heading back to London.

Nothing like a 9am wine tasting!