It’s Rich’s 50th birthday, so we have a barbecue up at Fallboden, high above Scheidegg.
Lots of food and drink.
And of course, a cake.
It was great – we spent all afternoon up there. At the end if the day everything has to come back down, including the balloons.
Storm ‘Fabienne’ arrived last night. We got high winds, heavy rain and the temperature has dropped by about 10 degrees. This morning we wrapped up warmly and went down to the valley so I could run and Val could have a walk. The cold weather is good for running – I clipped 3 minutes off my previous best time for 10 kilometres.
This morning we were woken by the sound of bells and alphorns. It’s the biggest event of summer, the Chästeilet, or cheese festival. Traditionally this is the day when the summer’s cheese is divided amongst the cattle owners, but here in Wengen it has grown over the years and it’s now an all-day party celebrating all things Swiss. This lot are pretty good.
But this girl takes playing the alphorn to a completely different level. Meet Lisa Stoll, superstar alphorn player.
Stone throwing competition for kids.
And of course food. Lots of food.
Here is the cheese. Each one weighs arond 7 kilos.
The bell ringers who woke us up this morning.
It’s a beautiful day, but these clouds mean there’s a big change in the weather coming. Summer is finally coming to an end.
More cattle came down this morning, temporarily bringing the village to a halt as they passed through on their way down to the valley.
It’s Friday, so I need a short run. I scampered around the village dodging the cow pats. We made our sandwiches and popped up to Männlichen for a walk round to Scheidegg. As we get further into autumn the colours are changing up here.
It’s a big day in Wengen – the cows are coming down from the high pastures. They’re all dressed up for their parade along the main street.
More cattle will come down over the coming days. Just as well with cold weather due this weekend.
After watching the cows we made our sandwiches and headed across to Winteregg. It looks like the pilot of this helicopter has popped into the restaurant for his lunch.
We walk up the meadows that are ski pistes in winter. Amazing views.
Eventually we reach the top, and it’s an easy descent down to Mürren. We even resisted the temptation to have ice cream at Sonenberg.
Up early this morning as we’re off to Mürren across the valley. Another beautiful day, with temperatures in the high twenties. As usual Val set off ahead of me and my job is to try to catch up. Winteregg, with Wengen in the distance.
I did manage to catch up just before Grütschalp.
A lovely run on a stunning mountain trail. Only 2 seconds outside my personal best.
Ever since I started running I’ve been trying to find a nice 5 kilometre route around Wengen. By ‘nice’ I mean it’s vaguely circular and without too many steep bits. Today isn’t a running day, so we walked a route that I thought might be suitable. We started at the swimming pool, then down past the Berghaus and along the Dorfstrasse. Next it’s along the road to Innerwengen, then back along the lower path towards Wengwald. The animals still have some sunshine to enjoy.
The path takes us to the little railway halt where we’re just in time to get the train back up to Wengen. The bad news is that the path has too many steep, stoney sections to run without proper trail shoes, and I don’t have any of those. To make things worse it isn’t even 5 kilometres. Ah well, back down to Lauterbrunnen for my next 5k then.
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