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A few miles inland from Nidri is a series of waterfalls. We set off after breakfast – the walk took about an hour. The falls make the air feel very fresh.

We had a drink at the little bar at the foot of the waterfall, then made our way back to the coast and had a nice lunch at the port. Just as we were ready to leave the wind got up and the skies darkened. 20 minutes later a thunderstorm started, wind howling through the rigging of the yachts. Lots of chatter on the VHF – felt sorry for all the flotilla skippers on day 1 of their holidays – mooring must have been very difficult.

These storms are not uncommon the spring and autumn – they often pass as suddenly as they arrive.

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Ok so we’re off to Nidri for a couple of weeks. Absolutely no boats I promise…..

Set off from our hotel at 3.30am today, arrived Preveza at about 11. Has to be a record – the flight only took 2 hours and 40 minutes! Anyhow we were pleased with that so we checked-in and had a few beers. Hotel is lovely – right on the water’s edge.

 View from our balcony:

Those beers:

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Each spring in Wengen we have a pool race. This event is a test of competitors’ ability to cross a large pool of very cold water on skis, a snowboard or whatever you have to hand. Of course, there’s always one who takes things a little bit too far.

Mein Damen und Herren, I humbly present Mr Colin Flint.

Now we all know that Colin’s a bit handy with a saw and a hammer and nails – he hasn’t cut anything vital off for a few years now. Nevertheless, I can’t help being impressed by what he’s done with a few sticks and bits of cardboard. The beast is hauled up the Figeller..

A long pause at the top, and some ‘help’ from a bystander who turned out to be as much use as an inflatable dartboard.  

And we’re ready for launch in t-minus 5,4,3 oops couldn’t hold it any longer, good luck Georg!  

 ‘Eclipse’ runs straight and true.

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It snowed last night, and it was cold and grey when we woke this morning. Our strategy for days like this is usually to go up to Scheidegg and hope for an improvement. If the weather gets worse we can sit and drink coffee and get the train back. If it stays the same the happy glasses will help us to have a ski. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a break in the cloud so we can ski in some sunshine.

We got lucky today.

It’s been a while since we needed this

Gloomy below Scheidegg

Gloomier still lower down

Better visibility in the trees

Yay!

We had a really good ski around the Lauberhorn in the fresh snow

Mandatory Eiger shot

Looking down the home run to Wengen

Back in the village, it’s spring!

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It’s a foggy day in old Wengen town. You can ski when it’s snowing; you can even ski when it’s raining if you have to, but thick fog turns your whole world into a gloomy white panorama with no real points of reference beyond the tips of your skis. Today the fog is particularly infuriating, as it starts at Almend just above the village, and tops-out at about 2700 metres, well above the local summits.

Well that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it 🙂

Fog hangs over the valley

So we pop down to Lauterbrunnen for lunch and to have a look around the sports shops (all 2 of them). Val is trying to improve her German and learn the local Swiss dialect, which is actually more like a completely different language. To this end she spent some time looking after Aliena (aged 3) yesterday afternoon, which probably didn’t help as Aliena never shuts up and doesn’t care whether you understand or not. We do however try our very best Swiss German at the cafe in Lauterbrunnen. It is curious to see peoples’ reaction when you do this. There’s clearly no need as it’s obvious that we’re British and everyone here speaks English. They do let you blunder on however – it probably brightens their day to hear Brits asking for everyday items in terms more suited to a primary school classroom.

I reckon if we keep it up for the next 10 years or so the locals might assume we’re Germans with learning difficulties.

Chatterbox

Wengen from Lauterbrunnen

There’s a wedding in Wengen today. Here’s the bride posing for photos at the station. Can’t imagine why anyone would want to get married in Wengen in March…

Wonder if she’ll be in Rocks for the music later

I remembered this morning that we’d posed for one of those selfie cameras that are popping up everywhere while we were over at Grindelwald the other day. Not a bad shot if you ignore the sponsorship.

Cheese!

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Lovely meal last night at the Caprice for our anniversary, and a super surprise of a bottle of Moët – thanks Hayley!

This morning dawned gloomy and drab. We got up anyhow and made our way up to the village; at least it wasn’t raining. Val had a chat with Hercule who is director of the Ski School about her job next season – it all sounds fine. Up the hill we went to Scheidegg, where we had coffee watching light snow through the bahnhof window.

Scheidegg was deserted – the poor weather had been forecast so many people must have made other plans. Being British we decided to have a ski. On days like these we wear ‘happy glasses’. These are sunglasses fitted with orange lenses; the idea being that they provide the eyes with increased contrast by filtering out faster wavelengths of light. They do work a bit – Val finds them more effective than I do but I wouldn’t be without them on days like this:

Normal vision

With happy glasses!

Off we go down Arven and we ski a nice circuit to Tschuggen and Gummi before finding our way back to Scheidegg. We decide to beat a retreat back to the village, so we head off down the rat run and down to Mary’s cafe. We literally didn’t see another skier the whole way down.

Bumps, deserted

Once we get below the tree-line our eyes have something to work with and our visibility is restored. The lack of sun means that the snow is much firmer than it has been the last few days and we tear down the hill towards Mary’s enjoying some speed for the first time today.

Val rips down the meadow above Mary’s cafe

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A warm and sunny day today, so we decide to ski at Grindelwald which is the village on the other side of the mountain. Here’s the drill:

• Get the gondola up from Wengen to Mannlichen
• Ski down past Holenstein to a little hamlet called Aspen. It’s about 5 miles skiing
• Enjoy a coffee while you wait for the bus to take you to the Firstbahn
• Up the Firstbahn to 2100 metres
• Have a ski
• Return to Grindelwald and get the train back to Wengen via Zweilutcheinen and Lauterbrunnen.

So it’s quite a hike, but worth the effort. Grindelwald has quite a bit to see. As you can see from the photos there have been a lot of avalanches which limit the routes a bit, but we can still ski the timed giant slalom course up at Oberjoch. Llamas under the gondola on the way down – John says these are used to carry bags for trekkers in the summer, but I’m not sure I believe him. Anyhow, enjoy the photos.

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