Paragliding over the Alps

Paragliding over the Alps
It was late summer 2000 when I returned to Switzerland. The trees in the orchards were heavy with apples, the vineyards rich with large bunches of deep purple and green grapes, and everywhere windows and streets were bordered in brightly colored flowers.
I arrived in Geneva Aug. 30 and spent the day resting. On Thursday, Aug. 31, we took buses to the United Nations where I had two interviews -- one with the World Health Organization and one with the International Trade Center. On Sept. 1, I traveled to Bern for a lengthy interview at Swiss Radio International. Swiss radio said they'd let me know. WHO said the budget has not been approved for the project I was being considered to head. The Trade Center gig has yet to be completed so I can’t start editing it -- a CD-ROM training manual.
I spent the rest of my stay with follow-up phone calls, e-mails and more resume distributions, but also enjoying this beautiful country. And what better way to enjoy Switzerland than from on high? Helena had taken a balloon ride over the Alps with Jacques Piccard, the Swiss oceanographer and engineer who flew his balloon around the world. The second part of that assignment was to paraglide. I went along on this trip and took pictures. (I was told to keep my day job, but I wasn't sure what that was.) We drove up to a mountain (we are speaking relatively here) and met our crew. Under Swiss law, you could not fly solo until you had had a certain number of hours with a pilot, so Helena was being strapped to a harness with her pilot and as she was being prepared they looked at me and said I really couldn't take pictures from the ground and would I like to go up too.
Well, of course, I said, and before the words had settled and before I had even given a thought to what I had agreed to, I was being strapped into a harness with my pilot strapped snuggly behind me.
And just as quickly, my pilot was telling me that when he said go, we would start running down the hill and actually, the word “go” that had just left his lips was the word “go” that he had meant and he was pushing me and we were running down the hill and his dog was yapping at our feet and suddenly there was no hill at my feet or dog at my heels and we were airborne and that is how fast and very smooth it was.
There wasn't any time to think about it. Before I knew it, I was waaaay up there, floating peacefully over a hamlet, mountains around me, Lake Geneva off in the distance. Just as I rose I looked down and saw a fox under my feet. Then there were houses, about the size the fox had been.
The pilot maneuvered the many ropes that were attached to the wings that held us suspended 3,000 feet in the air. He would pull one or more and we would turn or dip or rise. I put my trust entirely in his hands. What choice did I have?
Helena was soaring above me and then in front of me and behind me. She was always running circles around me. It was very peaceful and quiet, the wind in my face. It was cool. We stayed up about an hour. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.
Then it was time to come back to earth. The pilot directed me to a large smiling face on the ground. Well, it didn’t start large, but it got large quickly. He said that when he gave the command I was to start running and just as quickly I was running and I was on the ground on the smiling face and the wings that had held us up were on top of us and our adventure was over.
Another day had been spent taking a boat from Lausanne to Montreux. Once in Montreux, we took a small train to Les Avants, high into the mountains and far above Lake Geneva. From Les Avants, we took a cable car on a track that looked as though it were going straight up. It was a magnificent view from the top. We then took the train from Montreux to Lausanne.
One pleasant surprise was a three-day La Schubertiade, part of which was held in a large tent in the park in Lausanne with speakers outside the tent, allowing crowds of people to listen to the music of choral groups, chamber orchestras, string orchestras, trios and quartettes and quintets. This was shortly after I had arrived and the temperature had dipped into the 50s and 60s.