There’s not much to say about today, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Wengen is very, very quiet.
The village is looking lovely though, now that the grass is growing on the meadows.
There’s still lots of snow high up, and it’ll be a while before we can start hiking at altitude.
A few drinks at the Crystal later, followed by a curry at Golden India.
I’ve had a cold for the last few days, so we haven’t done much. Today however, the forecast is good so it would be a shame to miss a day out. We set off for Interlaken. There are no trains along the valley owing to track maintenance, but there is a replacement bus service.
Every autumn the shipping company sells Seepasses (Lake passes). You can only buy one before the start of the summer season, which is usually Easter. We’ve never managed to get one of these passes in the past, as I always forget to apply for one, but last November I somehow had the presence of mind to buy one. This gives us unlimited travel on our two lakes for a whole year. Time for a boat ride on Lake Brienz.
It’s just about warm enough to sit out on deck enjoying a coffee. Very civilised. Our destination is a village called Ringgenberg. Here it is in the distance with another steamer pulling away from the quay.
Our boat drops us off, and continues its journey.
Ringgenberg is a small village with a handful of lakeside hotels. There are also small buildings on stilts, presumably as protection against flooding.
Here’s a Swiss story which sounds true, but in my view probably isn’t. An enthusiastic schoolteacher at Ringgenberg school wanted to teach his class about the Solar System. The teacher proposed that the pupils build a scale model of it in the school grounds.
Our sun is 1.39 million kilometres in diameter, so it was decided that the model sun would have a diameter of 1.39 metres, giving the model a scale of 1 to 1 billion. This was a catastrophic misjudgement of the actual size of the Solar System. It quickly became apparent that once all the planets were added, at the correct distances, the resulting scale model would be 12 kilometres long. They decided to build it anyway, and Pluto ended up near the shore of Lake Thun, on the other side of Interlaken. Here are the Earth and moon. So small in comparison with the sun that they have to be kept in boxes.
Some of the gardens along the path are an absolute riot of colour. Spring comes early down here on the lake.
Somehow we missed Mars, but here’s Jupiter. At this scale, even the biggest planet in the Solar System is only 143 millimetres across.
The Interlaken – Lucerne express passes alongside our path.
Our last planet for today.
And here’s a diagram of the whole model Solar System.
So, do you believe the story about the schoolteacher and the origin of the model Solar System? It would be great if it was true, but somehow I doubt it.
But, genuine story or not, the takeaway for the science kids from this tourist attraction is that the Solar System is absolutely vast, and the planets that occupy it are tiny. The distances between them are almost beyond our comprehension. For every millimetre that we hiked along the scale model today, the real Solar System measures 1,000 kilometres.
It’s warmer still today, but it’s still worth going up for a couple of hours sport. The snow was soft right from the beginning, but with very few skiers on the hill it was still enjoyable. We bumped into Val’s colleague Will.
We used the barbecue for the first time this year a couple of days ago, and if this weather continues we’ll be using it a lot more.
However. Weather forecast for tomorrow? Snow.
We’ve had a dreadful few days of weather. Rain, snow and wind. The only high point was Val’s end of term ski school party on Saturday night – a lovely meal at the Lebanese restaurant in Interlaken.
It’s 6 weeks today since my accident, and that means I have the all-clear to go skiing. It’s a lovely morning.
Spring skiing works like this. After lunch the sun warms the snow so it gets really slushy – it’s not great for skiing. Then, at night, everything freezes so the snow is rock hard by morning. The sun gets to work again, and between about 11am and lunchtime conditions are perfect. With only a couple of hours decent skiing, the only people on the hill are locals who can just pop up from the valley. The are certainly no problems with queues for the lifts.
Wengen is super quiet at the moment. Rocks closed at the weekend, as did all the restaurants apart from Sinas. The only bar open is the Crystal, but there are so few people here it hardly matters.
Wengen looking very wintry on my way to the doctors this morning.
The doctor made a careful examination of my ribs, and pronounced them healthy, so I’m good for skiing again. The sun tried its best to put in an appearance on my way home.
At this time of year the sunshine will melt the snow very quickly. I went for a run this afternoon and was actually too warm. There’s more snow forecast for the weekend though, so it was nice to get out on a decent day. Rocks later, followed by dinner at the Eiger.
We had a night out in Interlaken yesterday – it was one of Val’s colleagues’ birthday. This week we have to be very careful not to miss the 10.30pm train back up to Wengen, as it’s the last one. The reason for this is maintenance on the track. As soon as the last train has passed by, gangs of workers spring into action to repair the tracks. Here they are waiting outside our house as we got back last night.
To make matters worse, starting next Monday there are no trains at all down in the valley. Busses will replace them for a fortnight, which will be a pain. Today we went to Interlaken and got as much shopping as we could carry, so hopefully we won’t need to use the busses too often.
As I write this it’s snowing hard outside, so there should be some good skiing once it all clears up. I’m seeing the doctor tomorrow morning, and hopefully he’ll pronounce my ribs fully healed, and I’ll be able to enjoy the last few days of the ski season.
Val was up early for a doctors appointment this morning, and once she’d finished I met her in the village and we headed over to Grindelwald. We haven’t been here for ages, and we were looking forward to some shopping. Grindelwald is a nice looking village on a sunny day.
We bought lunch from the bakery, and enjoyed it on a bench with a lovely view of the Eiger. Afterwards we trawled the sports shops hoping to find some new gear for spring, but sadly (or perhaps happily), we failed to find anything that convinced us to part with our money. We did get some nice food though, as Grindelwald’s Co-op is much bigger than the one in Wengen.
Easter is over and it will be quiet everywhere for the next couple of months. In Wengen, all the hotels will close now, along with some of the bars and almost all the restaurants. It’s a nice time of year – everyone has time to stop for a chat and a coffee.
Follow