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Day started well with the girls seeing us of at the station. Rapidly went downhill as our flight was cancelled but hey ho.

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After the rain and snow yesterday we have a nice day today and according to the forecast it’ll be the last one. We had a nice walk to Innerwengen and popped in to see Beanie and the girls. Some of the flowers are beginning to fade a little, but people are still out in their gardens making sure everything is looking its best. 

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It snowed while we were in the pub last night. Wintry scene this morning. 

At the end of our valley is a tiny village called Stechelberg. The road ends there so if you want to go any further you’re going to have to walk. The snow has limited our options for walking so Stechelberg seems a good bet. 

Every so often we get a glimpse of one of the peaks. 

There are dairy farms along the valley. Most of them offer produce to walkers from little stalls like this. They are never manned – you just leave the money in the box.

Eventually we arrive back at Lauterbrunnen and the Staubach Fall.

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The Sunstar closed last night, but not before we had a bit of a party and a sing-song. Steve & Beanie provided the entertainment. 

Today has just been gloomy and wet. It’s snowing a little higher up the hill. 

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Yesterday we lost one of our closest friends from Wengen, John Farnell. He suffered a heart attack while hiking in the mountains that he loved so much. We’ll remember John as the witty ex-squaddie who always had a good tale to tell, and for dragging us out of the pub and over to the curling rink at every opportunity. Rest in peace John, we’re really going to miss you.

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Colder still this morning, but glorious sunshine. Our walk takes us above the village towards Allmend. Work is underway laying pipes for snowmaking on the slalom course.

The path turns downhill into the woods. It’s cold out of the sun.

Picking wild mushrooms is very popular here. You need to know exactly what you’re doing  (we don’t), but these look like Chanterelles to me. We’ll find out later from the photo. 

And here’s our little house on the nursery slope. If you look really closely you can see Val having a read on our balcony. 

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Weather forecast was pretty dismal this morning, but despite this the sun came out after we’d done a bit of shopping. We headed down the steep path that leads to Lauterbrunnen at the bottom of the valley. The path crosses the old railway line. It is gradually returning to nature, but having been constructed from stone and steel in the nineteenth century I think it’ll be with us for a few more years yet.

The new (1988) line carries very modern rolling stock.

Lauterbrunnen is quite pretty from the right angles. 

We had venison pie for lunch at the Airtime cafe, after which the clouds rolled up the valley as the forecast said they would. Time to get the train back up to Wengen.