Follow

The weather forecast wasn’t great for today, but a glance out of the window this morning suggested that this was probably wrong, and up we went. The train was full of racers, coaches and officials.

The snow’s getting quite firm now, but it’s ideal for racing. The Lauberhorn was a hive of activity. It’s the first of 2 Europa Cup races this weekend.

The next race is tomorrow. Europa Cup is one rung down from the World Cup races which take place next weekend, but it’s still taken very seriously. The atmosphere amongst the competitors is quite subdued – there’s not much chatter. Having raced out of that start hut ourselves on many occasions, we know how they feel.

We had a good ski before heading home for lunch.

Curry tonight.

Follow

Construction for the race is in full swing now. The stadium at the finish area is largely complete.

Helicopters work non-stop delivering supplies. It’s noisy in Wengen at the moment.

Even noisier than the helicopters are the air force jets which have been practicing overhead.

The main stage in the World Cup village is nearing completion. It will be covered in the sponsors’ corporate messages soon.

The Europa Cup teams are in town this week. They get bored in between training runs. Here are the Austrians playing football outside our house.

Steve Donnelly is playing in Rocks later.

Follow

Our day-to-day watches are old-school mechanical things, and like everything mechanical, they need some attention every so often. Of all the watch shops in Interlaken, only one is authorised to do the necessary work. Faced with the fact that this glitzy shop has a monopoly, we were expecting severe financial pain.

We handed over our watches to the watchmaker and gave him some details of their history. He sent us off shopping while he set to work. We had a nice coffee in a patisserie round the corner and even managed to resist the hand-made chocolates.

We cruised around the shops on the Hoheweg and eventually returned to the watch shop, to find our watches mechanically sound and looking like new. Val’s, in particular was absolutely glittering. More work followed, with adjustments to her bracelet including removing a couple of links, and a tightening of the clasp.

Eventually we were done. I swallowed hard waiting for the bill.

Zero.

Yes, you read that right. The whole thing was complimentary. I was absolutely astonished. So next time you fancy something new and shiny, please consider going to Bucherer’s in Interlaken. They’re awesome.

Follow

It’s another lovely morning. Ali has a day off so up we go to Männlichen. Really good snow today and very few people. We skied round to Scheidegg and had an early lunch. This afternoon Val had staff training on the Lauberhorn with her colleagues. A few snapshots.

Bar picnic in Rocks later.

Follow

It’s another beautiful day. Up we go for a ski. ‘Goggle socks’ which protect your precious eyewear are all the rage this season. I liked this one.

The Swiss children went back to school today, but there are still lots of kids on the slopes.

Even up here at the top the temperature is well above zero.

Back in the village it’s positively warm, and we feel ridiculously over dressed in our ski wear whilst others sit outside cafes in short sleeves.

Crazy Monday later with Duo Centrale at the Sunstar.

Follow

It’s Val’s first day without work for a while, so this morning we headed down to the Three Tells for their splendid brunch. We pretty much had the pub to ourselves.

It’s a lovely day, so we had a walk into Interlaken and a wander around. New mobile creperie doing a roaring trade.

Bookswap in an old British phone box.

Uptown Lights at the Sunstar later.

Follow

It’s time to go home for the great majority of the holidaymakers, and the village has returned to something like normality. Deserted at Scheidegg this morning.

The village needs a bit of a spring clean.

It’ll be nice and quiet now until race weekend.