Flying at Neuschwanstein Castle

Pretty butch picture huh? I could not resist posting this one. Today I flew off of a perfectly good mountain. What do I mean? I went Paragliding. This is where you are attached to an instructor and you soar off a mountain and go gliding in a parachute 2000 feet in the air. We did this at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. This castle, as you can see from the pictures was built by Ludwig II, and is the basis for the Cinderella castle from Walt Disney.




Paragliding was amazing. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I am so glad I did. There is nothing I have ever done that felt the same way. First you take a tram to the top of this huge mountain. You then get the chute all set up, get in my suit and harnness and practice takeoff. Before you know it you are ready to go. The first several pictures of today are me flying. My instrucure was Tiger, and he has flown over 5000 times. My knees were shaking so bad when it was time for us to run off the side of the mountain. Before I knew it we were sailing in the air and climbing up higher. We flew over the castle and around the mountains for about 20 minutes. We even did some acrobatics on the way down. Landed safely, and din't even fall to the ground. Just amazing.


The rest of the day was fantastic as well. I went down an alpine slide, hiked up a waterfall, and then visited Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle is amazing, built by a crazy gay monarch - Richard Wagner's lover -- back in the 1860's. It cost about a billion dollars to build.



I am beyond exhausted, still need to eat dinner and pack. I'm up at 4 tomorrow.


The pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=615690002/a=21881784_21881784/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=comcast2/
To see a great video on what paragliding is like, click on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFI9qyiRHvY&NR=1