Today we have the crazy run, where lots of impossibly thin people run up the world cup downhill course to the top of the Lauberhorn. Here they go.
At the of the Zielschuss are 2 1000 franc notes. I wonder who got them.
Here’s Hayley on her way up.
You only get 3 hours to complete the course, and the fastest will do it in less than 40 minutes. Prize giving will be in the village later.
It’s fair to say that Switzerland is a pretty expensive place to live, and we therefore avoid eating out unless it’s a special occasion or we have friends visiting the village. We were delighted therefore when the manager at the Caprice offered us dinner as a thankyou for some work that we did for them earlier this year. It’s our anniversary in a couple of days, so we thought we’d have our free dinner last night to celebrate. It was quite an occasion, with cocktails, pink champagne and a lovely dinner with fillet steak.
Today we’re off to a village called Wilderswil where there’s a shop we need to visit. There’s a tiny vineyard here.
The views back to the mountains are spectacular.
Meanwhile, back in Wengen it’s an anniversary for the pool race – this is the 20th one we’ve had. Here’s Ollie.
And Kaspar from downstairs trying to cross the pool backwards.
It’s a beautiful day, so we head for the lake. It’s still very quiet down here, the steamers won’t start their services until Easter.
The yacht club jetty.
It’s warm. We enjoyed our ice creams while we waited for the train to take us back up the valley.
It’s party night in Wengen, and we’re starting in Rocks for après ski.
Next it’s a short walk up to the Caprice where Uptown Lights are playing. A birthday surprise for Ibe.
Manny and Steffan keep the drinks coming.
Back in Rocks later on. These things are called jeager bombs.
We ended up in the Tanne bar, where Ronald was also celebrating his birthday.
We weren’t in any great hurry to get up this morning, but we did manage a walk this afternoon. It’s getting distinctly spring-like in the village.
The weather has finally settled down, so we can go back to business as usual, which means the 9.45 cable car to Männlichen. It’s a lovely day.
Coffee in the Berghaus. We all seemed to stop at the same time.
Colin joined us for the last couple of hours. He needs to be back in the village by 1.30 as we have something of a gala evening coming up tonight – full report to come tomorrow. At 1pm we found ourselves at the top of the Lauberhorn. There’s a choice of routes down from here, the quickest being number 45.
This is the world cup downhill course. Twenty years ago this was 4 kilometres of sheer terror, but modern safety regulations have meant that the really tricky bits have all been sanitised to keep the racers safe. As a result the run is now a bit of a tourist attraction, with big groups of skiers pausing every couple of hundred metres to take photos. By half-way we managed to leave them all behind us, and we enjoyed the romp down to the finish area at Innerwengen.
Sunstar last night to see Colin and Steve, and as usual we retired to Rocks afterwards so that the Wengen diva can unwind over a beer.
Not much happening today. Our shower has developed a mind of its own, so we pop down to Interlaken to get the bits we need. I wanted some new jeans too, but we drew a blank on that – Interlaken would rather sell you a cuckoo clock than the world’s most popular item of clothing it seems. At least the views are good from the town – here’s our train crossing the big meadow just before the station.
Well, in this case four. Yesterday’s storm continued into the evening, and we walked to Rocks through a raging blizzard. It was St Patrick’s day, so the place was busy with revellers, most of whom joined in with the quiz.
Our quiz is very informal, and I don’t think Ali will mind if I venture that we enjoy it more for a bit of beery fun, than as a competitive event. As usual however, there is an exception. Colin’s team have always been called ‘Fox & Badger’ after Chris’s lovely ‘pub’ up at the top of the village. Chris likes all this, and he has provided a uniform for the team.
Daniella, Val, Terry and Colin. Quiz Pros.
Do you think they might be taking quiz a bit too seriously? I’m not sure, but if they start consuming only soft drinks during the questions, then I think the verdict is clear. To make matters worse, they won.
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