I jumped off the GoldenEye bungee dam

When I moved to Switzerland I learned that it had one of the highest bungee jumps in the world, and from that day it was only a question of when. The where was never in doubt: the Verzasca Dam in Ticino, the Italian-speaking south, the 220-metre wall James Bond throws himself off in the opening scene of GoldenEye. It is the highest bungee in Europe, and that stunt has been voted the best in film history.

So I invited my girlfriend, now my wife, on a date to the Italian part of Switzerland. I did not mention the dam. Who would not want a surprise like that? We stopped at a few lakes on the way, walked a little, and then drove up the Verzasca valley. We parked by the dam, watched a few people step off the edge, and I told her we were both doing it. And that it was already paid for, so the money was gone whether she jumped or not.

She was shocked, and she stopped talking to me for a while.

I had to go first. I had never done a jump this high, and my feet were shaking on the platform; I had to force myself off it. You fall right beside the dam wall, so you see exactly how fast you are going. I screamed my lungs out.

Back on top, my wife was already asking the operators about their success rate. A hundred percent, they told her, and nobody had ever been injured. That was the Swiss quality she decided to trust. She jumped. I was so proud of her, and she was even prouder of herself.

We made one deal up there: she never has to do this again, unless we find a higher one. Why repeat a shorter jump? Since then we have visited more than fifty countries together and have somehow never ended up in one with a taller bungee. Coincidence, or does she keep a list in her back pocket?

Lovely date night, right?