No more chimneys

It’s been a busy couple of days. Yesterday morning an engineer arrived to install the superfast internet that we’ve been waiting for for what seems like years. It’s good. Although these words take only 5 minutes to type, it sometimes took me an hour to persuade them to upload to the internet so that you can read them.

In the village, we have another sign that the season is changing. The crazy golf is open.

We had a good night out in Rocks last night, with dinner from the takeaway. This morning I popped up to the village for shopping, and Val waited for a heating surveyor to arrive. Our central heating system is powered by oil, and it’s 50 years old. It’s time to replace it with something more modern, so to begin with we need a survey to estimate how much heat is lost through doors and windows. Our surveyor turns out to be the enigmatic Charlie, who is also our chimney sweep. He has turned his attention to surveying for modern central heating systems. ‘After all’, he says, ‘soon, there will be no more chimneys’.

Two revolutions

It’s a beautiful day, and we’re up early. The first rays of sunshine hit the Silberhorn.

Owing to the constraints of her crutches, Val hasn’t had a proper day out since her accident, so today we’re going to put that right. We catch the bus from Lauterbrunnen, and then a series of four cable cars takes us up to Piz Gloria, a restaurant on the summit of the Schilthorn at almost 10,000 feet. We take our seats in the revolving restaurant, and tuck into brunch. Just look at the view.

Piz Gloria offers a great value day out at this time of year. It’s free to get there with our ski passes, and you get a buffet brunch, with lots of hot and cold dishes and unlimited Prosecco, for just 25 Francs. The only constraint is that you have only 2 revolutions of the restaurant before you have to give up your table. 2 revolutions takes about 90 minutes, so this is fine. Here’s Piz Gloria from outside.

Piz Gloria was the setting for the 1969 James Bond film ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. Bond is everywhere up here. You can order a James Bond burger, and we had a James Bond brunch.

After we’d eaten (and drunk) ourselves silly, we got the cable car back down to Mürren at the foot of the mountain. There are some spectacular views from here.

There’s a nice pub opposite the railway station.

We meander our way back to Wengen. Drinks at Cafe Waldschluecht with David.

And later on, an amble to Rocks, with sausage rolls from the bakery for dinner.

Emily flew to Santorini for a holiday yesterday. She sent some lovely photos.

A great day out.

Easter dinner

Val is getting pretty confident on her crutches now, she went out for a walk before lunch. Colourful garden at the back of Ali’s house.

Here in Switzerland Easter is celebrated in much the same way as Christmas, with a big meal. We’re not going to miss out. My lamb joint is going to spend all afternoon in the oven.

Lots more to do, it’s asparagus season. Must dash.

An Engagement

Yesterday, Mike treated Mary-Anne to a helicopter ride. The helicopter set them down on the glacier, and Mike produced a ring and popped the question. That means it’s party time. Here are the happy couple.

Justin ensures that Colin never lacks a beer while he plays.

And of course, there’s dancing.

A grand night out, and we have a wedding to look forward to!

Wired for sound

The warm weather continues, and skiing back to the cable car station is now only for the adventurous.

Val was at the doctors this morning, and she no longer has to wear a cast on her ankle. It has been replaced by a lightweight brace. The big advantage of this is that she can wear a normal shoe again.

The Jungfraubahn are always looking for ways to increase the capacity of the railway, and their latest plan involves laying an additional stretch of track past our house, as well as the construction of a pedestrian underpass. This will obviously result in lots of noise and disruption, so our landlady is going to officially object to the whole scheme. The first thing we need to do is measure the current noise and vibration from the existing single railway track. This afternoon a couple of guys came around and wired up the house with microphones and instruments to measure vibration.

We’ll let these run for a couple of weeks, and see what results we get. Rocks tonight, with Colin playing.

Night out

Last night we got a taxi up to the village. Rocks was closed, so we went to the Waldschluecht for a couple of beers. This was followed by pizza at the Caprice, and then cocktails at the Tanne.

While all this was going on, Emily was playing football at Kirchberg, which is a village just north of Bern. We can keep up with the score of course.

An emphatic win for Interlaken, and Emily was first on the scoresheet. Today it’s been sunny and mild. We went back to Cafe Waldschluecht for lunch after Val’s physio session. A few people went skiing, but it’s really beginning to feel like the season is drawing to a close.