At last the replacement camera for my phone has arrived, and I have to travel to the town of Thun to have it fitted. First test shot.
Thun is situated at the other end of the eponymous lake. Lovely views from the train on the way home.
The unusually low temperatures have caused a major build-up of ice alongside the railway.
Meanwhile, Val was up the hill teaching. Nice in the sun but absolutely freezing in the shadow of the Eiger on the way to Brandegg.
It was minus 13 when Val left for work this morning, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so it should warm up. Crowds at Scheidegg.
It stays sunny until late afternoon up high, which means a busy home run at the end of the day.
Curling tonight. I did a session at 5pm and it was absolutely freezing. Val starts at 8pm so lots of layers required.
We had a huge snowstorm overnight and during this morning, and it’s bitterly cold. Altitude instructors in a huddle at Scheidegg, Steve’s beard was frozen after one quick run.
The sky cleared at lunchtime. Village looking good this evening.
Duo Centrale tonight at the Sunstar.
It’s half-term for British and Dutch kids, and that means Val has as much work as she wants for the next few weeks, so she was off up to Scheidegg on the 08.24 this morning. Meanwhile down in the village one of the shops is having a ski sale. This is highly unusual in Wengen – the shops tend not to compete with one another.
Prices are pretty keen, and it’s good gear.
Oskar from next-door has started walking.
He’s very pleased with himself.
Saturdays are a mixed bag. Before noon several thousand visitors will leave on the train. At lunchtime the village is really quiet, but soon the trains begin to bring this week’s guests, and for a couple of hours chaos reigns again. Kids can’t wait to play in the snow.
The weather is gloomy with light snow most of the day, so it’s Winter Olympics on telly while we look forward to live music in Rocks later on.
Another lovely day. Val phoned the spare parts company in Berlin about the shelf for our fridge this morning – they sent the wrong one first time round. They were very obliging and immediately sent another. Our next job was to pop into the Sunstar and sort out the barbecue hut for Sunday next week. The meat menu is actually 1 franc less than last time, but it’s still eye-wateringly pricy. After doing this we shot straight up to Männlichen and had a cruise around.
Last run of the afternoon down to Holenstein. Glorious.
We had a nice evening out with Ally, Colin and Terry down at the Steinbock restaurant in Lauterbrunnen last night.
This morning it was still foggy; worse than yesterday if anything. On days like this you basically have a choice of going shopping or climbing so high that you are above the clouds. We chose the former, but some of the lads went over to Grindelwald and got the bus up to Bussalp. From here it’s an 800 vertical metre climb up to the Faulhorn.
There are no ski runs or anything up here – you just have to get on with it on your own, but the views are incredible.
Meanwhile we found some dodgy looking stuff on sale in the Co-op in Interlaken. Apparently this stuff is supposed to be the food that saves the planet from starvation, but it’s fair to say it wasn’t exactly flying off the shelves.
Follow