May Part 2: Shaffer Swiss Spectacular!

Unlike Berlin and Amsterdam, this trip was planned in thorough detail and jam-packed with activities - because we had visitors! Andy and I had been looking forward to my family’s visit since the day they booked their flights in January, and it was every bit as fun as we hoped it would be.

My parents got here on a Thursday afternoon, and Kyle and E arrived the next morning. We spent Friday giving them an abbreviated tour of Geneva – we took them to our favorite pizza place for lunch, took pictures in front of the United Nations flags, walked around Lac Leman and saw the Jet D’eau, got a coffee in the Old Town, and had dinner at our favorite tartare restaurant. 

Lunch at Luigia

Jet D'eau

The next day, we hopped on a train to Interlaken where we would stay for 4 days. In my opinion, Interlaken is the most beautiful place in Switzerland…possibly the world. I think this is the place that everybody has in their head when they think of Switzerland, and it’s absolutely breathtaking. 

Incredible!

It was raining when we arrived, but our waitress at lunch suggested the perfect bad-weather activity – chocolate making! The “class” was about an hour long and mostly consisted of us eating melted chocolate while wearing chef’s hats, which was obviously a perfect fit for our skill set. 

Warrior

Chocolatiers! E is holding a cacao pod, not a human organ.

We started the next day nice and easy - by strapping on a harness, helmet, and parachute in order to run off a cliff. Sue didn’t join us for this one, which was definitely for the best. If you’ve never been paragliding, it’s a bucket list activity for sure.

Flying!

So cool!

 Also requiring a helmet and harness (but no parachute), we did a ropes course in the afternoon. It was a lot like the ropes courses we used to do at summer camp, except now I’m almost 30 and it was stinking hard (but still very fun).

Hello!

Ropes course masters

Day 3 in Interlaken was whitewater rafting day – more helmets required. Rafting is kind of a go-to Shaffer vacation activity; everyone loves it, and I’m not gonna lie, we’re pretty good at it. Except for Amateur-Hour over here: 

Man overboard

To be fair, he managed to do a pretty serious sit-up maneuver (with a little help from Kyle) and pull himself up so that he didn’t actually go all the way in the water. 

USA Olympic Rafting Team

Survivors

The last day in Interlaken was the day we all almost died, and I really believe that I’m only barely exaggerating. We went canyoning, which is essentially rappelling, hiking, swimming, and sliding through a canyon. My parents, Andy, and I had gone canyoning in Chamonix last August, all really enjoyed it, so we were looking forward to doing it again with Kyle and E.

The water temperature is barely above freezing this time of year, so we wore two wetsuit layers, wetsuit socks, wetsuit booties, and a lifejacket and helmet. It started off simple enough –

We got in the canyon and practiced walking sideways and bracing ourselves against the current. Water is freezing, but we’re tough, no big deal.

Next we did a pretty big rappel; a little scary, but so far, so good, and also really fun.

Next we hooked into a rope and kind of swung out over and around a waterfall – again, a little scary, but so fun, we loved it.

And then it got real.

Here’s the link to the highlights video we got:

https://cloud.outdoor-interlaken.ch/index.php/s/hQAxhtFvKT8nf0q

What you won’t see on this video is possibly the scariest thing that I’ve ever done. And I’m pretty sure it’s not on the video because it could bring up some liability issues for the outfitter.

We get to a point in the canyon where we’re supposed to basically jump off this cliff into the bottom of a waterfall. And we’re supposed to land in an area about the size of a Jacuzzi bathtub. And it has white water RUSHING into it. And the guide tells us there’s only way to do it without breaking something - to dive head-first, Superman-style.

So one of the guides goes first to wait at the bottom for everyone, and the other guide stays up top to supervise. He suggests the boys (Kyle and Andy) go first.

Andy jumps off the cliff first and pops up out of the water pretty quickly. He’s a little crazy-eyed, but he’s fine and he’s smiling.

Kyle goes next, and does not pop up out of the water. He stays under water for several seconds, and we see him turning over and over like a washing machine under the white water. I’m freaking out. The guide at the bottom finally fishes him out of the white water, and Kyle sputters for a minute before looking up at us and yelling that he’s okay.

So then the guides have a pow-wow (quietly, as to not let all of us hear the conversation) to figure out how the rest of us are going to get down. Apparently the water level is incredibly high right now, making this part more difficult then it usually is:

Guide 1: So what do you think?
Guide 2: I don’t know man, he did it exactly right, the water’s just too high.
Guide 1: Hmm.
Guide 2: Do you have any rope? We could use a rope.
Guide 1: Ah yeah! Rope! Cool.
(Turns and faces the rest of us.) Alright guys! We’re going to add a rope to this feature to make it a bit safer! That’s why we let the boys go first! Ha ha!

So now the idea is to jump exactly as described above, but to do it while holding onto a loop in the rope. The guide at the bottom has the other end of the rope, and he’s supposed to essentially yank us out of the water as soon as we land.

One by one, we dive head first off of a cliff into a small pool of rushing water. The guide asked Andy to help each person get out of the way and into a calmer area once they had been pulled out by the rope, so he was pretty busy. I don’t remember what order we all went in, but I do know that once I had jumped and walked over to the calmer spot (with Andy bearing a good portion of my weight), I was in hysterics. I think I looked at Kyle and just burst into tears, which quickly evolved into laugh-crying.

The rest of the expedition was mostly without issue; after our near-death experience, the main problem was the water temperature. I was positive that at least two of my toes were turning black with frostbite; when I took off my booties later, I was legitimately relieved to find that wasn’t the case.

Sue was a straight up soldier – she did every single bit of it with bravery and determination…and when we got back into our dry clothes, she told us all very calmly that under no circumstances would she ever do that ever again. 

Swinging over the waterfall

Rappeling

E killin it, per usual

We left Interlaken that afternoon and had a quiet night in Geneva. The next morning, we got up first thing in the morning and flew to Bordeaux, France!

We landed around 11 am, so after checking into our Airbnb, we headed out for lunch and a quick city tour. We were all pretty worn out from the day before and getting up early, so we took naps in the afternoon and did a little shopping. Later that night, we took a river dinner cruise down the Garonne.

Cheers!

River dinner cruise

The next day was Wine Tour day! Sue booked a tour guide to take us to three different wineries in the Médoc AOC (basically a sub-region) of the Bordeaux Left Bank. Our guide was FULL of information about the region, the grapes, the French wine industry, the history of wine making - Bob ate it up. We learned a lot, tried some delicious wines, and had a fantastic meal for lunch. 

In front of one of the chateaux

Cellars

Vineyards

Another chateau

Gorgeous!

Our last day in Bordeaux was spent taking a French cooking class from the lovely Madame Escario. I had never taken a cooking class so didn’t really know what to expect, but it ended up being one of my favorite activities of the whole trip – and it was hands-down the best food we had. The chef holds her classes at her home in downtown Bordeaux, where she has arranged her kitchen to accommodate small groups of students. She immediately put us all to work chopping and mixing while explaining what we were making. I learned how to properly dice shallots, while Dad got fired for throwing away the shrimp heads. Who knew the heads were going to be part of the dish?

We made a four course meal of:

1. Gougéres (cheese pastry puffs)
2. Scallop Soufflé with shrimp cream sauce
3. Pan-seared duck with balsamic orange glaze and roasted carrots
4. Choux Chantilly (cream puffs) 

Doing work

French chefs

After our cooking class, we sadly had to get on a plane back to Geneva so the fam could fly back home the next morning. It was an incredible 10 days, definitely a family vacation for the books! 

Where to next, Bob?

May Part 1: Berlin and Amsterdam

Berlin

The first weekend in May was a 3-day weekend here in Switzerland, so we tacked on an additional day and hit two spots on our bucket list.

Andy and I had not yet been to Germany at all in the 11 months we’ve been in Europe, so the capital seemed like a good place to go first. Unfortunately, Andy had to work one of the days we were there, so our primary activities were beer and the Fat Tire bike tour.

Berlin is a fascinating city for lots of reasons, but most interesting to me is its recent history. The original settlement dates back to around 1190, but the city as it is now has only been around for about 25 years. A (somewhat) brief summary courtesy of Wikipedia:

After the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, the victorious powers divided the city into four sectors, analogous to the occupation zones into which Germany was divided. The sectors of the Western Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom and France) formed West Berlin, while the Soviet sector formed East Berlin. All four Allies shared administrative responsibilities for Berlin.

However, in 1948, the Soviet Union imposed a blockade on the access routes to and from West Berlin, which lay entirely inside Soviet-controlled territory. The Berlin airlift, conducted by the three western Allies, overcame this blockade by supplying food and other supplies to the city from June 1948 to May 1949. In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in West Germany and eventually included all of the American, British and French zones, excluding those three countries' zones in Berlin, while the Marxist-Leninist German Democratic Republic was proclaimed in East Germany. West Berlin officially remained an occupied city, but it politically was aligned with the Federal Republic of Germany despite West Berlin's geographic isolation. The founding of the two German states increased Cold War tensions. West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory, and East Germany proclaimed the Eastern part as its capital, a move that was not recognized by the western powers. East Berlin included most of the historic center of the city. The West German government established itself in Bonn.

In 1961, East Germany began the building of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin, and events escalated to a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie. West Berlin was now de facto a part of West Germany with a unique legal status, while East Berlin was de facto a part of East Germany. John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" – speech in 1963 underlining the US support for the Western part of the city. Although it was possible for Westerners to pass from one to the other side through strictly controlled checkpoints, for most Easterners travel to West Berlin or West Germany was prohibited by government of East Germany. In 1989, with the end of the Cold War and pressure from the East German population, the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November and was subsequently mostly demolished.

Berlin’s role in the Nazi regime and the recent fall of the Berlin Wall means that the city has some of the most eclectic (read: ugliest) architecture we’ve seen in Europe. First, Berlin was heavily bombed during the war, destroying many of the beautiful, traditionally European-looking buildings. These were replaced with Nazi architecture, which is extremely functional – lots of big concrete blocks. Finally, since the city’s reunification, the city has added lots of modern buildings to its skyline, including this thing:



During our bike tour, we got to see the Berlin wall, one of the few still-standing Cold War watchtowers, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, several monuments, Checkpoint Charlie, and the location of the “Führerbunker,” Hitler’s last headquarters.

Berlin Wall

Watchtower

Checkpoint Charlie

Two things that I found particularly interesting: 

1. Checkpoint Charlie was a Berlin Wall crossing point during the Cold War – it’s essentially just a place for tourists to take pictures now. What was interesting to me though were the two men posing and charging for photos standing in front of it: dressed in ill-fitting historical American military “uniforms” (costumes), smoking cigarettes, and holding American flags. The image didn’t sit well with me. 
 
2. The site of the Führerbunker is incredibly nondescript – you would certainly miss it if you didn’t know it was there. All landmarks of Nazi Germany were destroyed after the war, including the bunker, and in its place now is a parking lot with just a small information board showing a diagram of the bunker.

Amsterdam

The flight from Berlin to Amsterdam was barely an hour, so we arrived just after lunch on Friday. We spent the afternoon and evening just exploring and wandering around Amsterdam. It was apparently the first warm and sunny day of the year there, so lots of people were out and about, in parks and on restaurant patios everywhere enjoying the sunshine. For about 4 hours, we just took a lot of pictures of canals and did some solid patio sitting and people watching. 




 

The next day we took a bus to the Keukenhof, also called “the Garden of Europe.” It’s one of the world’s largest flower gardens (about 79 acres), where around 7 million bulbs are planted annually. It’s only open for about 2 months each year, and it was one of the main reasons we chose to go to Amsterdam during the beginning of May.

We walked around for about 2 hours; pretty sure Andy was bored out of his mind, but he was a good sport while I took way too many pictures, which I think speak for themselves:



 

 

And that pretty much covers it for Berlin and Amsterdam! We didn’t plan too much going into this weekend, so it was another pretty relaxed trip. 

I started to write about the next trip we took as part of this post, and quickly realized that I had way too much to say about it to combine with this one. Next post: Shaffer Swiss Spectacular 2016!