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Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. And with its vast network of trains, cable cars, and trails, the mountains here are incredibly accessible to people of all ages and abilities. We've just come around the corner to another beautiful valley. The only problem is with places like La Brunan exploding on Instagram, it's now becoming such a popular destination that you can visit here and just be constantly surrounded by hordes of people. Good lord, it's crowded. Look at this. But in this film, I'm going to show you how you can leave all the chaos behind and enjoy this stunning place in peace and quiet.
What we're going to do today is head the opposite direction, and there should be pretty much no one there. It's perfect. So, I'm about to spend a week in the village of Wen that's just above the Lounge Brunham Valley. And I'm traveling with Jamie and a few of our friends. And I'll be taking them on some of my favorite hikes in the region. This is amazing. Every five steps, a different view. Then after spending time in a place I know and love so well, the second half of my trip I'm going to be traveling by myself, heading to parts of Switzerland that I've never been to before. What a spot to come to for my last day in Switzerland.
It's amazing. So, I first traveled to Switzerland back in 1986 when I was just 2 years old, and I've been going back there pretty much every other year of my life. And now, at the start of my 40s, despite all the other traveling I've done, it's still one of my favorite countries in the world. All just so soothing around here. Running water, the pretty meadows, the epic mountains in the background.
Now, I've had a lot of people ask me over the years, would I put on one of my group tours in Switzerland? And the answer was always no. And the reason being is because Switzerland's like my happy place. I go there to switch off and relax. And I didn't want to deal with any potential stress of having to manage a new group. Plus, if we had a tour guide, I would end up being like the worst backseat driver ever. You know, after having spent so much time there, I'd just be like, "Well, this isn't how I'd do that hike." So, you know, I would just end up being insufferable. But Jamie and I were chatting to some of our travel friends we've made over the last few years. And these are people
we're close with. Like a lot of them came to our wedding and things like that. And I said, "Well, if you like, I can just put something small together where we go stay in Ven for a week and I take you on some of my favorite hikes if any of you would be interested in that." And they're all like, "Yep, yes, please. We want to do that. This is awesome." In fact, so many of them said yes, I ended up doing the same trip twice back to back because I didn't want to have too many people there at once and didn't want too big a group. And so, for the purposes of this episode, I combined those two weeks into a oneweek story. And I mostly filmed the first week. It just there was some days in the second when we had better weather for the hikes. It's cold.
And then, like I said, for the second part of the trip, which will be the second episode, I was traveling by myself, going to places in Switzerland that I've never been to before. So, there'll be a nice contrast between the two episodes. So, all of my plans for here have gone out the window cuz nothing's open. But just before we get started, I want to quickly talk to you about this video sponsor because for this trip, we got lots of people traveling from different countries, some from outside Europe, and everyone always wants to stay connected whilst they're away, especially when you're in a place as gorgeous as Switzerland and you want to instantly share those pictures to your friends and
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follow the instructions to activate the ESIM. It's that easy. So, if you head to the link s.com/carlwatson or you download the SY app and use the code carlatson at checkout, then you can get an exclusive 15% discount on your SY eim data plans. All right, the plugs out of the way. Thank you for indulging me whilst I pay my bills. And now, let's get the Switzerland adventure started. Our group met up in Zurich and then boarded a train at 9:00 a.m. And it's going to take us about 3 and 1/2 hours to reach the village of Venin.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't really behaving today and so we couldn't see the mountain peaks, but everyone was still blown away by the views as we boarded the train from La Brunan up to Wen. Oh my god. Oh my goodness. That's beautiful. Yes. And we're back. Made it. YAY. WE MADE IT. NOW, [snorts] the weather was so bad on this first afternoon, we ended up going straight back down to Lounge Brunan to check out the glacier waterfalls at Trumbull. But on the first day of my second week
here, the weather was slightly better. So, we managed to do my original plan of heading up the mannequin and doing a short hike that gives a good overview of the region. So, we've upgraded to the Royal Ride, which is where you stand on top of the cable car. It's a very smooth ride, actually. Nice and relaxing. So, we're starting out with the Royal Walk, which is just up to the viewpoint by the mannequin, which gives a nice introductory 360 view of everything that's around. Yeah, it's great to bring people up here right at the start just to give them sense of bearings, just a sense of the scale of the place. And I can also just point out all the hikes we're going to be doing over the next few days.
Yeah, you can see all the way back down to Interlockan from here. My original plan for today was to hike the Panorama veg to claig, but because we're here at the end of May, which is right at the start of the summer season, that path hasn't been opened yet because the snow hasn't been cleared. So instead, we're going to walk down to Hollenstein, which is a lovely simple walk to the halfway station of the mannequin barn, and then we'll get the cable car back up. Yeah, the clouds are coming in. I'm starting to feel a few drops. See how we do.
Yeah, it's a little bit of drizzle on the way down or as we call it in Britain, a perfect summer's day. So, normally on this hike, you have a spectacular view of the gun right there. One thing this hike does have is a few interactive things for kids like cowbells you can ring. There's a marmmet lookout and there's even some al horns you can play. we got to roller coaster. Look at him go. You all right, mate? Yeah. He's broke his back. There you go. Comes through a bro t. That was a brilliant scream. We made [snorts] it to the Hollenstein station without sustaining any spinal injuries and then got the cable cars
back up and over to Wen where we could finally check in to our hotel. And we're staying at Brown Beer, which is a newly refurbished hotel right on the main street just a minute's walk from the train station. So, this is our room for the next week. We're in the uh privilege room, and we have our own little lounge area with library and a selection of books. uh tea and coffee making facilities. Of course, there's two TVs, one for the lounge, one for the bedroom, and then we got a balcony here. So, up that way, we'll eventually see the peaks just above the Victoria Hotel. We'd all gotten a bit cold and wet in the rain, so it was nice to warm up at the hotel spa. But then the next day, the weather still hadn't improved.
Well, unfortunately, it's a bit cloudy today, and there's expect to be a lot of rain in the next hour or so. So, we were planning on going up to do some hiking, but instead we're going to go down to Interarken and go out on the lake, go see some waterfalls, and do a bit of a lake shore walk. Something nice and easy, but still get to enjoy the day whilst the weather sorts itself out. We took the train down to Interarken and then we're going to board a boat on Lake Brienne's, which will take us to Geeseburg. And from there, we'll hike up and around the waterfalls before working our way along the lake shore back to Isertvald from where we'll get the boat back. So, we're just on Lake Breen about to
leave interan for a boat cruise. Very cute little boat. We love a boat. What do you think of the lake? The water's so pretty. It's like this really amazing turquoise color and there's no wind so it's very like Yeah. If it's like a hot summer's day, you can you just want to jump in. I want to jump in right now. Yeah. But uh and we have some blue sky that way. So as of later on, we might get some view might get some views today. You never know.
Can't be too optimistic cuz you know it's the hope that kills you. It is the hope that kills you. Yeah. After about 45 minutes on the ferry, we made it to Keys back to begin our hike. Wow. Ah, yeah. This is the bit I remember the main photo spot. So, we got such a cool view here. Got a spray of the waterfall coming off and the sun is finally out. So, there's hope. Sun's out, dude. Sun's out, baby. So, now we get to walk under the waterfall.
Just like feel the power of it. Awesome. My arm IS SO WET RIGHT NOW. Oh my god, that was a bad idea. So, we're just hiking back to Isvald along the lake and just stopped at this lovely little spot for a picnic. As Jamie was saying, why pay for a restaurant when you just buy a sandwich and sit by the lake? Sandwiches are good. Yeah, the bread here is very good. Hey gift. It's now we got like four or five skids. So, just walking back to Isvald and it's this lovely little lake lodge by the hostel here. I stopped for a quick drink, which is good cuz when I've done this before, you get to Isabald and like
it's beautiful. There's not much there. So, this is a nice place to stop at the end of our little walk. We made our way back up to Venin and the clouds had finally started to clear. Our first two days the clouds were in. It was raining so you couldn't see the views. Then yesterday evening when we were just chilling in the pool I could see the clouds parting. I was like got to get out. Got to go look at him. So I've taken Jamie to my favorite bench in the whole world and it's so amazing being here with her and views the clouds are finally clearing. So I was like we got to go. But I regret interrupted pool time.
Interrupted pool time just for the view. Um, but I almost regret ever mentioning this place in a video because it's so busy now. I'm not saying it was all me, but I've certainly helped making it work cuz it's just like helped hurt queue of people getting photos. But we got to go to dinner soon. But normally what I do, even if it's busy, just sit and wait everyone out. Actually, don't do that. Just if you come here, leave. Just leave. It's my place. It's my spot. Go away. Look how rubbish this view is. This is terrible. Jamie and I went to my favorite bench and then the rest of the group came and just seeing their reactions was just such a cool thing to witness.
Right. Yes. This is what I was saying I was one day away from saying Patagonia is much better. Like this is good but Patagonia is way better. But I get it now. I totally get it. Now the curtain's been drawn back. I've never seen really anything like this. It really is nice. It's It does look like the picture of the Tolberone container, like the outline of the mountain. Wow. So, this big one here is the young fra. This pointy one is called the silver horn. See that real snowy pointy one? And then this really big one here is called the bright horn.
This one. Yeah. [snorts] Seeing everyone's reactions just meant so much to me cuz like I've been here a million times and it never gets old. But seeing the look on someone's face when they're seen us for the very first time was really special. So after taking in the views, we all went for dinner at a restaurant called Lea Asia. Cheers, guys. Cheers. It was great to fill up on some tasty food because now the weather's clearing up. We can really get started with the hiking. So, it's a beautiful morning here. Um, very excited for today. We're going to get out amongst it, get three cable cars to where we're going to be hiking. It's going to be a good one.
The plan for today is we're going to take the cable car up to the mannequin and then down to Grinderald terminal where we'll catch the very short train to Grinderald itself and then take another cable car all the way up to the first. From here we'll hike to backpay then work our way down through Vulge Spits and finish up at B station. Look at this. Don, I'm over here. Look How come I'm alive at the sound of the moon? So, we're heading over there. Just before we took the cable car down, Wed went for a little adventure inside a cow. This is a terrible idea. This first section of the mannequin barn is always a prime viewing spot for marmets. As a kid, this was always my favorite
cable car in the world. And it's now so amazing to be sharing it with you. And well, baby, if the cable cars are rocking, I'M JUST GOING TO SING to you. Why don't you get crying? From here, we took the quick train up to the Grindaval main station, and then it was just a 10-minute walk to the first cable car. All right, we have made it up to the first. We're now going to do the hike to the back obs, which is a the busiest stretch of hiking you'll do in the entire region. But after that, we're going to lose all the crowd. It's going to take about 40 minutes to an hour to walk to backpay and then another 2 to 3 hours to walk to Vald Spitz and Bort. And normally when I do this hike, I include going up to the foul horn, which gives amazing views all
around, but the path hasn't been opened yet for the summer season. No, it's not that cold. I just got here from Dubai. It was 109 F. Okay. Go to Dubai. If you're coming here, there's big long cues for the Instagram photos at the first station, but if you just walk away from it, you get the exact same view with no cues. And it's beautiful. Oh, it's so beautiful. Those mountain goats or I thought they were goats at first, but I zoomed in. There's a deer. You have to look at what kind of deer these are cuz I've I've not seen them before. So, we made it back. I'll say it's
frozen over, which I've never seen before. It's 28th of May for reference. Wow. So, I'm just going to go see if the path to goldmiths is open. Online it says it's open. The sign here says it's shut and it looks like it's just covered in snow to be honest cuz it's not a popular trail. Well, this is a first. Path's closed. The weather was starting to take a turn, so we decided just to head back to the first station. But fortunately when I was here in the second week, the alternate path to Vald Spitz was open and so we got to complete the hike. So one week later and the half the legs melted now. The path to the right down to Vald Spits is still shut. The path to the left is open. Uh so we're going to go do that.
Yeah. So the thing I love about this route down to Bald Spitz is one you lose 98% of the crowds maybe 99 and you get all the waterfalls down the valley here all around you. It's a very peaceful beautiful little hike through the alpine meadows. Got your feet wet. Felt good. Yeah, this meadow here is just absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful. So, you can see back up to the first where we started and the long line for the Instagram picture. All just so soothing around here. Running water, the pretty meadows, the epic mountains in the background. That's why I find it so relaxing here. You know, it's not traditional relaxing of sitting by a pool, but it's it's not
stressful either. Just the mind's just calm. Yes, the path now just curves around and opens up. It's a gorgeous view of the IG and Grinderald. So, we're at Vald Spitz, which is basically this cafe here. And now we're going down to the B cable car station. And there's there's no sugar coating this part of the walk. It's just a straight down for 30 35 minutes. So, it kind of sucks going down this steep through the forest, but there's a beautiful reward at the end. And now you come out into the lovely meadow. Get down to the stream here and have a little paddle. Yeah, because we're here in spring, the stream's a bit more full on than usual, but still got a dip in the edge here.
It's cold. Really cold, but really nice. YEAH. SO, YOU CAN SEE THE first where we started out. Now we're down here. Our hike finished at the board station and then we rode the cable car back down to Grinderald and then from there a few of us went up to Finstegg to have a go on the Alpine coaster. All right, let's see how fast we can actually get on this thing. All right, let's go. Where do we go? This is pretty good. Woo! How do you find it, Tim? Good. Yeah. Not the fastest bar, but still pretty fun.
Yeah. Well, we didn't catch up anyone, which was good. Like, we gave enough space between, so it was fine. Little bit of fun. I can't be bothered to wait. Back to week one. And we finally woke up to a gorgeous morning in Wen. Just a perfect day for hiking. And today we're actually doing a trail I've never done before, but I had someone recommend to me. So we're going to get the train down to La Brunan and then the cable car up to Grchalp. But rather than walking towards Miran, we're going to head in the opposite direction and do a hike around to Sulvald where we'll get the
cable car down to Eisenlu and then the bus back to La Brunan. We boarded the cable car up to Grrew Shelp, which was absolutely rammed. But once we made it up to Grus Shelp, everyone else on the cable car got on the train to Muran whilst we're going to hike in the opposite direction to Sulv which I haven't done before and there should be pretty much no one there. So
it should be a new adventure for me as well as a new adventure for everyone else. So we've turned up now from the Lenon Valley and we'll be walking up over there. This is beautiful though. So, we've got a little bit of an obstacle course on the track here. Don't pull it down. I tried. Everyone's going to have their morning shower. Oh no. Oh, that was fun. Oh, it's quite refreshing actually. Made it. Take a look around. This is what I hoped it would be, but I didn't know. So, it's turned out pretty amazing so far.
All right, this is the moment while he's been waiting for all trip. Just going to change this to slow-mo. Well, we just zigzaged up a very muddy bit, but we've come through to this view of the aigger. Look at this. So, we got the shield on up here. Views here have just completely exceeded expectations. That's kind of what I was hoping it'd be. The views back across. Yeah, it's turned into a great hike. Well, I'm definitely adding this hike to my roster. This is incredible. So, Steven was right. Yeah. Thank you, Random Steve.
Oh, I'm so happy right now. This is so good. It's like no matter how many times you come here, it can still just completely take your breath away. This is unreal. We just come around the corner to another beautiful valley. It's incredible waterfall coming down. Just beautiful alpine meadows with a gorgeous river going down through it. So, we've done most of the uphill for the walk. We're just about to stop at the lake, but we found this perfect piglet bench. And we've decided to actually bring a picnic today. Rather than just buying their own sandwiches from Co-op, we've all collectively bought a whole spread of food. We got some bread, some meats, some cheeses,
some fruit, and we brought some wine. That's perfect. Thank you. Gorgeous. See, Jamie always has amazing ideas, and this is another one of them. Cheers, everyone. Cheers. Don't tell the hotel we stole their glass. Cheers. We brought enough money. This is a gorgeous sandwich. It's like fresh bread from the bakery. It's phenomenal. Cheese. This has just turned into a perfect day. Like uh the hike was way better than I imagined. The views have been incredible. So that alone was great. And the fact the groups got to experience a proper hike in Switzerland now after
some of the rainy and cloudy days we've had. So feel very happy and content. So we made it to the little lake. This is a soul save I think. A gorgeous spot with the waterfall behind it as well. Yeah, this view is unbelievable. This is perfect. This was the place. There we go. This collapsed. Yes. Oh, yeah. Like I've never been to this spot before and this is one of the best viewpoints in the region. This is unreal. You can see down to Venin. See across the first. You got all the iconic mountains right here. Unbelievable.
Yeah, today was such a perfect day. Like yesterday they haven't got to see the beauty in the scale of the place but today they got to sort of see experience the magic of the place. That's that's the look of happiness truly just feeling that calm and peacefulness and bliss of just being such an incredibly beautiful place and so yeah it was magical. Loved it. Cheers guys. Cheers. Nothing tastes better than a beer after a hike. We got the cable car down to the village of Eisenflu then took a bus down to La Brunan and then the train back up to Wen. And that evening Jamie and I were
going for a special meal at our hotel. So all the years coming to the Yungfra region as a kid, one of our favorite things here other than the beautiful scenery and the hikes was the mountain trains and especially the cable cars. And our favorite cable car as a kid was the mannequin barn from Grinderald to the mannequin which is just above us here in Benan. And the little gondlers you traveled in these bright red. They were iconic and we loved it so much. And even coming back here as an adult over the years like you'd see them and it just bring back so many emotions and memories. A few years ago, they refurbished the mannequin barn to uh much bigger gondlers and much faster and
everything, which makes a lot of sense, but for me, I was like, "Oh, how about Mr. Little Red ones and stuff?" But fortunately, the hotel we're at purchased one of the gondlers and turned it into this little fondue gondola experience. So, you get to come in here, sit down. You have two different sets of fondue. You have some bread, potatoes to dip in. There's wine, there's snaps, there's meat, there's pickles. basically get to have like a very unique and lovely dining experience. And they've they haven't just left the gondola how it was. They've kitted out with like some comfy mats in the seats and cushions. You got a nice chandelier. And for me personally, it's like a lovely dying experience with a lot of
nostalgia. But it's also very special for me cuz I have so much history here. And now to sort of be here with Jamie and uh and have fondue in the gondola, which is very surreal, but also uh means so much. So, we're just tucking in, just dipping away and enjoying it and having a lovely meal. It's so beautiful. It's like it's all of my favorite things combined into one. It's wine and cheese and it's cozy and it's, you know, it feels and pickles and it feels wonderful and really private, really intimate, really just like it's just the two of us. And you know, it's raining outside, which has kind of created this very like
steamy quasi Titanic handprint atmosphere, but it's actually really beautiful cuz it the sound of the rain is really soothing. It's kind of like making its own little natural music. And there's nobody else around, so it feels really intimate. And yeah, this is it's this is gorgeous. It's stunning. I get to have chocolate cake and ice cream in the mannequin control with my wife. Thank you for including me in the fantasy. Say the best to last.
Just regular morning in Switzerland. Today we're going to be doing my favorite hike which is from Wen up to Klein Shidig. And normally I would go all the way up to Aigletia, but that last stretch isn't open yet. Plus, we want to save time for the afternoon where we're going to take the Yunfra York up to the top of Europe. Biggest hike of the trip, but the best one, I think. So, we'll see what the group thinks of it. Well, we're getting all the up done in the woods. It's tiring, but it means you get a lot of the elevation done in the shade.
Wow. So, yeah, you can see how far we've come already all the way from Ben and you get amazing views here down to Loudspring Valley. And we're not too far from Trum Back Fer where we were a few days ago. You liking it? Loving it. This is fantastic. The best thing I've ever done. Wow. Now we're getting out the woods. Wow. You see why it's all worth it. Thanks for inviting us, Carl. So, this is one of my favorite benches in the world for obvious reasons. And the point I was making to the group was like, there's no one here.
I love the stretch along here. It's like the main hike from Venoshatic or vice versa. There's like a big road and it gets quite busy. It's nice. You still get amazing views, but you come down to this bit. You're in these lovely meadows and you're right by all the mountains. It's so peaceful. It's just like paradise. This is amazing. Every five steps a different view. a great view from here over to Miran where we'll be tomorrow. And you see the shelter on way up there as well.
Show me that joy. Oh my god, this is awesome. I'm exhausted, but it's the best kind ever. That's the spirit. Yeah, Don, I want to be you when I grow up. Woo! You guys can right off. Stopped for a quick picnic before the last stretch. This picnic views go. It's pretty decent. It's a big one. Holy This looks like a waterfall. It's probably the biggest avalanche I've ever seen here. But I'm glad we could share this moment together.
Me, too. Boom. Made it to Koshi. It's good to be back. Cheers everyone. Anyway, well done. Cheers. Biggest hike done. All out the Swissness toler with that view. Yeah. Now that we'd finished the hike, it was time for us to take the train up to the Yungfra yacht. The journey takes just over 40 minutes as the railway makes its way inside the Aigger and the Yungfra yach itself lies at around 3 12,000 m or 11,000 ft above
sea level. So the ride up isn't that long unless you got a screaming crying toddler in your car. [screaming] Once you make it up there, there's a designated route to follow called the Discovery Tour that takes you to all the main attractions. It is so busy up here. Bit of a contrast to the menace we had to ourselves. But yeah, we're at the Sphinx Observatory, which is like the main bit of the building you've been seeing from down to the valley all these days. So yeah, you get good views all around of everything we've done and all the rest of the ARS this way. But good lord, it's crowded. Look at this.
Ah, this is better. Yeah. Oh, bit of reggae. That's what we like. Very nice. So, this is the outdoor area where you can uh do some ziplining, the toboggan and stuff, and also where you do the hike to the hut. I think we're just going to relax and get a drink. Cheers, guys. Cheers. Europe. There we go. When I last came here in 2019, it was busy, but nowhere near as mental as that. If I knew it was going to be as mental as that, I wouldn't have even recommended coming up here. But getting outside now amongst this makes it feel more worth it. The regular music helps as well. Kind of calms you down. We've come up to the plateau for more epic views of the scenery and more people in line for Instagram photos.
Coming up here and having to deal with the crowds after a long day of hiking when everyone's tired probably wasn't my best idea. And so my group in the second week got the first train of the day up here which was way less crowded. And even though it was snowing at first, it soon cleared up to be a perfect sunny day. That evening back in Wen, we went for dinner at my favorite traditional Swiss restaurant. Look at that. What do we call that? Sex on a plane. Got to get your catchphrase in. So, my favorite restaurant in Bang. I got my favorite meal, cowboy rush, which is rusty with a jam bit and a steak, bacon, and egg and a ster.
Today is our last day of hiking and we're going to be heading back down to Ledbran and then up to Cruelp and this time we'll be heading to Muran. But rather than following the flat trail there that just stays in the woods, we're going to take the mountain view trail which gives amazing views of the mountains. Once we reach Alman Hubil, we'll join the Northace trail and gradually loop down and around to Muran. So we're back at our favorite cow at Grub. Oh, look at you. Everybody ready for one last hike? Woo! There we go. So, we're on the mountain view trail, but in order to get to view the mountains, you have to climb up above the trees. So, the first 45 minutes this is pretty steep. Then after that, it's
just enjoying endless gorgeous views. Hello. So, we've done the steep bit of the hike and now it's just level, a bit of gentle up, and let's keep enjoying the Mountain View Trail. This is like optimum hiking altitude for the Alps. Like just above the tree line. Got all the meadows, the flowers, the streams.
It's just unreal. You liking it? Oh man. What is there not like I mean look at this green grass, snow, sunshine, t-shirts. Perfection. It's awesome. Gray people. Yeah. sweaty people. Sweaty. Stinky just keeps going. So, one of my other favorite benches for the view is right here, but the bench is gone. Cliff was at the front and I said, "When you get around the corner, just look out for a bench and we'll wait there." And he's gone past it cuz the bench is gone.
You can see where it was. You can see Yeah, it's nailed in. So, this was my favorite playground when I was a kid. But, uh, I have to remind myself now that I'm a middle-aged man with a camera, so can't film too much. Okay, so we completed the Mountain View Trail and now we're doing the Northace trail. Going to head this way a bit further and then loop around down to Mure. Wally, it's for you. Oh, wow. Beautiful. By the way, Wally's not dead. He's just at the hotel. He's dead to me. He's dead to you.
This is one of the prettiest stretches of the whole walk. And we've made it to Muran. Yeah, sometimes when I do this hike, I also go down to Gimmaald, but we started a bit late today. Been taking nice and easy and uh seen all the best views anyway. So, it's nice just to do a shorter, more relaxed version sometimes. Cheers. Nothing better than finishing a hike in Switzerland, having a cold beer with a perfect view. Amazing. We made our way back to Wen and since this was our final night together, we thought we'd do something special for dinner, which was the hotel's grill cott experience where we'd enjoy some reclet around a communal fireplace. So cool.
So, we're beginning with salad and then they bring out all of the cheese and we start eating that. We have wine though. This is regular wine. They give you special stools to keep your wine glasses on so it doesn't stay near the fire cuz I literally my glass was there for like 10 seconds and it was getting boiling on. So, very useful. Anyway, what you have to do, you have these little tiny almost like frying pans that you load your sort of uh ingredients on like tomatoes. They have pineapples, mushrooms, bacon, and you put the cheese on top of it, and you cook it by the fire. And then you have
to sort of stomach a guess that it's done cuz it's quite hard to see against the flame. And you have a separate one for your meat. And then you get that, and you put it on top of your bread, and you eat it. And it's like, it's [snorts] boiling hot. It's hard work, but it's actually really, really fun. The oil was really burning on the ground. That is delicious. Really good. We all had such a lovely final evening together. It was so much fun. And then the next morning, it was sadly time to leave. But a few of us first headed back to Muran to go paragliding. And today's actually the one-year anniversary since
Jamie and I got married in the UK. And so we figured what better way to celebrate than jump off a mountain. How we feeling, guys? I mean, I don't know if it's the hike or you know, the anticipation. Yeah. and whatever 50 heart rate. But yeah, I've been coming here since I was two and I've seen these power gliders all the time. Never done it. So today's finally the day we're going to be jumping off the mountain. Ready to do it? Nope. This is This doesn't come off until the ground. We're not hiking back down.
It's amazing. Oh, it's so beautiful. This is so cool. This is very peaceful and relaxing around like How'd you find that, my love? That was amazing. That was so cool. So much fun. Very also like very relaxing. Very nice. Very, very relaxing. I didn't find it scary. It was just so peaceful and so and just magical just like seeing all this landscape from like a different perspective and floating around it. You get so close to the waterfall. Yeah.
I even got to have a go at steering the paraglide which was really good fun. Also helps if you lean to the turn on a bike. Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. Carl, did you get to fly one? Yeah. Yeah, it was incredible. It's literally like something out of a dream or something, which I know might sound whatever, but it's true. It was just And a good way to spend our one year anniversary. Sorry, guys. We're disgusting. How'd you find it, guys? It was awesome. That was terrifying. the most terrifying but also the best thing I've ever done.
I did it once. I'm most happy I did it, but never again. It was spect I would go up and do it again right now. Like, you know, jumping off a mountain was the perfect way to end our time here. And getting to share this place that I love so much with Jamie and the rest of the gang was so special. like just seeing the reactions on everyone's faces and watching them fall in love with it too, it just meant the world to me. I've never seen any really anything like this. But now I've got to say goodbye to everyone as I'm heading off for a week of solo travel. And this is going to be a bit of a contrast from confidently leading a group around cuz I'm going to
be exploring parts of Switzerland I've never been to before and it might not go quite as smoothly. So all of my plans are here. I've gone out the window cuz nothing's open. There's some big ass tour groups here. So hopefully with my ticket I can get past them. Now it's just like ah peaceful fresh green meadows. So I think this is going to be a good day. What a magical place. This is beautiful. Heat.
