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We had a lovely dinner with Emily last night, and this morning we were up early for a Zürich breakfast by the river.

We need to get to the airport before the start of the England football match. We got great seats in the sports bar.

A good result for England. After a bumpy flight 800 kilometres north, we arrived at Sylt airport in a rainstorm. Sylt airport is a bit, er, quaint.

We got a taxi to our hotel, which is really nice. A bottle of wine awaited us in our room. The message on the collar of the bottle reads ‘the first bottle is on us’. This place looks promising.

We had a lovely dinner of steak and lobster, and tomorrow we’ll explore the island.

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Our summer holidays start today, and our first stop is Zurich. There’s time to see a few tourist attractions while we’re here. The Swiss don’t really go for skyscrapers, but there’s an exception in Zurich.

This is the Prime Tower. It’s hard to get a photo once you get close.

There’s a bar on the top floor, so naturally we went up to take a look.

Here’s a handbag shop made entirely from shipping containers.

Inside, you’d never know. The handbags are made from recycled lorry tarpaulins, and are all the rage. Val bought one needless to say.

Next to the handbag shop is a strange place called Frau Gerold’s garden. It’s a sort of otherworldly marketplace, with weird African clothes shops.

Dinner with Emily tonight.

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Hidden away in the upper part of the village is a London pub called Fox & Badger.

Chris, who owns the pub, is turning 70 this year, so it’s time for a party. We start with a barbecue in the afternoon sunshine.

Chris and wife Mai.

Note the matching polo shirts. We all had them!

As ever with these events it was a very international guest list. As well as British there were guests from the US, Canada, Thailand, Portugal, Holland and of course a lot of Swiss. Scenes from the pub.

Fox and Badger is never open to the public, so we really enjoy these rare events.

Another party tonight, this time it’s to celebrate Mike and Mary-Anne’s wedding.

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Dinner at Anne-Marie and Paul’s place last night.

Here’s the main course.

It’s Dave’s birthday this week, so Lesley bought some lovely sweets from the bakery.

A super night out. Today was quite pleasant, certainly a nice change from all the rain we’ve had recently. Wengen is back to it’s old self after all the excitement of the National Day.

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For the next part of the celebrations, it needs to be dark. A few of us popped up to Golden India for a curry while the sun went down. The children have spent the afternoon making paper lanterns.

The band marches through the village.

Followed by the bell ringers.

And for the grand finale, of course we had fireworks.

So that’s it for another year, a great event enjoyed by tourists and residents alike.

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Today the whole country celebrates the founding of the Swiss Confederation way back in 1291. Back then the country comprised just 3 cantons, but the principles of the constitution were attractive – it was basically a mutual defence pact, and more fiefdoms joined over the years. There are now 26 cantons, the most recent being Geneva in 1815. It was previously French. Here’s what’s happening in Wengen this afternoon.

Houses, shops and hotels are patriotically decorated.

Alphorns outside the Alpine hotel.

Squeezeboxes outside Foto Fritz.

Brass band by the hotel Silberhorn.

And of course, Colin and Steve outside Central Sport.

There’ll be lots more later.