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We had some snow overnight, but this morning the weather’s cleared up. At 11.04am, the sun appeared over the Jungfrau.

Snow or no snow, I had to be out early to go to the post office. It’s only open for a couple of hours on a Saturday, and I need to collect a parcel which contains my Secret Santa gift. If you’re unfamiliar with Secret Santa, it’s a fun way of ensuring that everyone has a gift to open on Christmas Day. Traditionally, each person’s name is written on a scrap of paper, and a draw is made to find out who is buying a gift for who. Names that are drawn are kept secret, so you don’t know who bought you your gift. Nowadays of course, the whole thing is powered by the internet, and Emily uses a website which sends each of us an email telling us who to buy for.

It only remains to set a budget, in our case 30 Francs, and get to the shops, online or otherwise. Of course you are welcome to make your gift, in which case the budget goes a lot further. Someone* made a brilliant one for Colin last year.

It’s the official opening of the season this evening, so there’ll be mince pies and glühwein in the street. All the remaining hotels have opened today, and we have a table booked at the Caprice. It should be a good one.

* Although Secret Santa is meant to be kept a secret, as the drink flows the truth gradually emerges. Emily made Colin’s survival kit.

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I was bored yesterday, on account of having to fast all day (all will become clear). To relieve the tedium, I thought I’d do a beer run. Beer runs emerged during lockdown. All the bars were closed, so if we wanted beer we had to buy it from one of Wengen’s two supermarkets. It seemed expensive, but we’re used to that, as beer is heavy and it has to come up on the train.

Eventually however, our need for cheaper beer got the better of us. With all the sports shops, ski schools, bars and restaurants closed, no-one was earning any money. We soon discovered that by trawling around the supermarkets in Interlaken, we could find beer at less than half what we’d been paying in Wengen. We have the recent arrival of Aldi and Lidl to thank for this – there’s genuine competition in Interlaken now, and you can always find a bargain.

Yesterday I didn’t have to go any further than the Co-op to find my treasure trove. 24 cans of my favourite Franziskaner, all the way from Bavaria, for 29.95.

Anyhow, about that fasting. I won’t go into any details about the procedure I was preparing for, as you may be having dinner, but I had to follow up my 24 hour starvation diet with 2 litres of a powerful laxative. Not fun. I had the procedure this morning. It was nice to see the Swiss sense of humour very much in evidence at the hospital.

The caption reads, ‘Why not even take your trousers down’? ‘For a good cause!’. The joke, of course, was entirely on me. At least tonight I can make a start on that beer.

P.S. For the avoidance of doubt, I am perfectly well.

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Every year a dozen or so Christmas trees appear. These are usually ‘adopted’ by the businesses in the high street who will put them outside their shops and decorate them.

Val went up to Scheidegg with her colleague Ryan. They’ve both had injuries this year, so they wanted to find out whether their legs were working properly. It was very quiet.

New bar where the teepee used to be.

As you can see, it’s been a gloomy day, but it’s less cold than it’s been, which is nice.

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This morning at was still pretty gloomy, but a ray of sunshine is beaming down on the Lobhorn.

There’s lots of snow now, and this weekend Männlichen has opened. We wait for the cable car.

Glorious views at the top.

This guy is running as fast as he can through the deep snow, trying to get enough speed to take off. He did, eventually.

With plenty of people and lots of ski lifts and restaurants open, it feels like winter has begun.

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There’s a football tournament going on at the moment, in case you hadn’t heard. Argentina vs Holland should be a good game, so we booked a table down at the Three Tells in Matten. Ryan, Will and Tanja joined us.

We had a good dinner and the game was very good. Unfortunately, the last bus back up the valley goes at 10pm, and with the match going to extra time we had to leave before the end. Extra time didn’t produce a result, so when we got back to Wengen we were just in time to see the penalty shootout in Rocks. Randy is still smiling despite the fact that his team lost.

Today it’s been snowing a lot. Time to clear the steps again.

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It’s sunny today, but looks can be deceiving. It’s really cold! This is exactly the sort of day we’d normally spend hunkered down at home with a film or a good book, but as luck would have it, Val has an appointment at the eye clinic in Interlaken.

I sat in the youth hostel and nursed a coffee for half an hour while the surgeon pronounced that Val’s eyes were ‘perfect’. To celebrate this, we hopped on a bus and went to the Café de Paris for lunch. Delicious, as ever.

Back in Wengen, it got colder still. No kids in the playground today.

Val spent the afternoon at Emily’s while I did a bit of IT stuff for a friend. We were glad to get home though, and there’s certainly no temptation to go out to the pub tonight.

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Yesterday evening the skies cleared, and we had a beautiful moonlit night.

This morning the sun was out, so it’s time for some exercise. We wander up to the village. Some of this season’s ski instructors were having staff training.

We strap on our snow shoes and head up the hill.

Modern snow shoes work really well. You can ascend and descend slopes that you’d never believe possible.

It’s quite hard work though, so plenty of stops are in order.

Switzerland are playing football later, so we’ll be heading out.