It’s the last day of July, and that means tomorrow must be Swiss national day. This began as a celebration of the country’s culture, music and traditions, but these days the central theme seems to be – fireworks. As ever we’re crossing our fingers for the weather (it doesn’t look good), but nevertheless the firework stall is doing a roaring trade.
Today we had a walk out to Innerwengen, and caught the chairlift up to Allmend. It’s very strange being on a chairlift without skis.
At the top of the lift is a new attraction – the Mystery trail.
We follow the signs, and every so often there is a puzzle to solve. The answers all make up parts of the coordinates of a treasure chest.
We paused for lunch at Mary’s cafe, and put all the answers together. The treasure isn’t far away.
The chest is full of souvenirs. We chose a few and headed home before the rain arrives.
It’s warm, and we’re off down to the valley for a walk. We wander along the river and eventually we reach the hamlet of Gsteigwiler. It’s an attractive place with no tourist pretensions at all.
Someone here likes chickens.
We continue towards Wilderswil. Wilderswil has always had a problem with traffic on the way to the tourist hotspots further up the valley. They wanted to build a by-pass, but the valley is narrow and all the space is already occupied by the river, the railway and the existing road. A decision was taken to build a tunnel under the village. It’s an enormous undertaking. The tunnel goes under the school, houses, the railway, and the river had to be diverted to make space.
Tunnelling work aside, Wilderswil is an attractive little place.
A nice afternoon out, and we bought ice cream on the way home.
It rained all night and most of the morning, and it’s chilly. We did manage to get out for a walk after lunch when things brightened up a bit.
There are lots of tourists in the village now, and the hotels, shops and bars are busy. The forecast is much better for tomorrow.
For years, Steve from Central Sport has been trying to get a pump track in Wengen for the summer. This year he took matters into his own hands and raised sufficient money through sponsorship and donations. The kids love it.
There was a bouncy castle for the tots.
And the bakery supplied delicious muffins.
The whole thing was a great success, and with luck it’ll become a permanent summer feature.
We had a good night out in Rocks last night, with fish & chips while we sat at the bar.
Today it’s been either raining, or threatening to rain. We went to Interlaken and were very lucky to avoid a tremendous thunderstorm on the way home. The time has come for us to begin the renewal process for our residence permits, so we spent the afternoon and evening getting our paperwork together. Eventually the sun did peep through.
We walked into Rocks last night to find that Erin is here, all the way from Florida.
Today the weather’s been overcast and showery, so apart from a walk up to the village for bread we haven’t been far. Rocks again tonight, and supper from Santos’ takeaway.
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