Out and about in Switzerland
On Monday we had a big day out and about, covering quite a bit of ground, in part with the aim of getting to an operating rodelbahn to overcome the kids' rodelbahn-related disappointment at Oeschinensee.
We started off with a quick visit to Solothurn to see some sights (and have a wander through the markets).
After our visit to Solothurn, we headed to La Vue des Alpes in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. After a quick lunch, we hit the rodelbahn (yay it's open!).
We adults all had a run (it's been over 30 years since I rode one of these in the Blue Mountains), and the kids had a few. F and J both dipped into their own funds to buy additional rides, so apparently they quite enjoyed it.
The fun was temporarily interrupted by some less-than-professional tree surgery, which held F up a bit, but was still amusing to watch (they tried hard to drop the tree away from the track, but it landed right on top).
As well as some fun tobogganing, we also had a lovely view down the valley over the fog-covered lakes. It was very cool driving up as we broke through the fog back up into the sunshine.
After the rodelbahn, we drove down a bit, around and back up the next mountain to get to the highest point (Chasseral) in the local area (about 1690m).
On top of Chasseral is a large TV tower/antenna which hikers and riders head up to (quite a few serious riders passed us at very high speed on the way back down). It was windy and chilly but great fun.
On the way back down to the cars, we had an even more exciting experience. We had seen a paraglider nearby while we were up the top, but on the way down we realised they were launching from right next to the carpark. It seemed to be short training/practice flights as they stayed close to the cliff edge and landed just below.
One of the paragliders went back and forth about ten times right along the cliff, using the updraft to regain height each time. He was close enough (and back often enough) to ask Matthias and I to send him some of the photos we were taking, and for him to tell Matthias his phone number (and confirm it).
Launch time.
After all the excitement we still had to wend our way down the mountain and home (we had a few wrong turns between the two cars), but we made it back safely after a fantastic day (and we did send a bunch of photos to the paragliders).
