Day 70 (Saturday, July 22) - Interlaken (Again)

My watch alarm went off at 6:45, and I was up and out of the room by 7:15. I went downstairs and had some Balmer's breakfast, which is awesome by the way. I always get the museli (type of cereal) with milk and a banana. It's a perfect start to an active day, and I'm going to try to find some of that cereal when I get back to the US.

My first order of business was to buy some knives. That's not usually a sentence that comes out of my mouth, but Jonathan, Ahmed, and Ana had all requested I get them Swiss army knives while I was there. After that, I needed to find a bike. It wasn't quite 8 yet, and most bike rental places were still closed. Luckily, there was one that was open, and I got a bike and started my ride.

I can't emphasize enough how glorious it is to go through the Swiss Alps, especially on a vehicle that allows you to experience the sights, sounds, smells, temperature, and burn of physical exertion. You can stop at any time, catch your breath, refill your water bottle in the fresh mountain springs, take pictures... all at your leisure. I believe I will be doing more biking/mountain biking when I come home. :-)

Last time I was in Switzerland, I biked to a mountain town called Lauterbrunnen. This time, I went to Grindelwald, which was further away and harder to get to. Once I got there, I got a snack and continued to follow the "61" bike route signs. After consulting my map, I decided to head towards the town of Bort and see where I ended up. I saw that there was a slight elevation difference between Grindelwald and Bort, but I paid no mind to it.

Turns out I should've paid attention. The road from Grindelwald to Bort was 95% uphill, and after front wheel started popping up on the hills with grades higher than 45 degrees, I had to shamefully walk my bike up some hills at the end. By this time, I was about 3 hours into my ride and my legs and quads were feeling it. But right at 11:30, I turned a corner and there was Bort, the smallest town ever. I think there were only about 5 buildings. I biked just a little out of the town and saw this awesome waterfall/river, and I decided it was time to turn around.

The way down was refreshing, fast, and a bit scary on the steeper parts. I had to take care on the particularly sharp downhills to make sure I didn't flip over my front handle bars (no joke, and I had to bike up those hills earlier). It only took me about an hour and 45 minutes to get back, and I returned my bike at 1:15.

After that, things went really fast. I went to an internet cafe, found out there was a train leaving for Metz at 2:00 and decided to take it. I got my stuff from Balmer's, picked up the knives that had been engraved, bought Jonathan a Swiss hat, got the most ridiculously huge kebab ever, picked up a lipton peach ice tea from a grocery store (the most glorious thing after biking for 5 and a half hours), and made it to the train platform with 10 minutes to spare.

Now, I'm on the train, chillin and listening to my mp3 player while writing what is likely to be my final trip summary. These trips this summer have been incredible, and some I will probably never forget. This summer has opened my eyes to how small and interconnected this world is. Europe now actually has meaning for me, and the world outside the US actually seems human to me now. If nothing else, I'll take this realization of humanity away from this summer.