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Lauberhorn is over, and the village can return to normal. Angela shared this lovely picture taken by train driver Stefan at Wengernalp.

A sunny day is forecast tomorrow, maybe time for a ski?

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It’s the big day. In Switzerland the Lauberhorn downhill race is the equivalent of the FA Cup soccer final in the U.K. or the Super Bowl in the USA. Thousands of fans make their way to Wengen to see the race, and millions more watch on TV. Needless to say, our noisy neighbours were back this morning.

In previous seasons we have been offered cheap tickets for the grandstand, but alas this seems to be a thing of the past. We opted to watch the race on TV in the Crystal bar, where we can enjoy beer and hotdogs whilst keeping warm. To the delight of the ever-patriotic Swiss, the race was won by Marco Odermatt. Here he is with the President of Switzerland, Viola Amherd.

Tonight there’ll be a huge party in the village. From our house we can hear the music playing and smell the bratwursts cooking. The celebrations will continue well into the small hours of tomorrow morning, and the trains will run all night to take weary revellers back to the valley.

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Another air show. Today we got pictures from our balcony.

Another good race this afternoon, won by Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin. Here he is.

The big race takes place tomorrow, and Wengen is getting busy. The World Cup village is complete, and is ready for spectators.

Lauberhorn weekend is almost the only time we see the police in Wengen. I doubt they have much to do.

There’s a lot of free stuff. This girl is cruising around the village giving away iced coffee.

Eventually the cold got the better of us, and we met Michael in the Crystal bar for a drink.

There’s lots of street food available, but we popped home for dinner. We’ll go back up to the village later this evening.

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The Lauberhorn races begin today. I popped up to the Crystal bar for coffee while Val did her German class, and afterwards wandered up to the church which is a good vantage point for seeing the air show. As ever, the show was really good.

While I was having my coffee Sammy, one of the owners of the bar, presented me with 2 valuable wristbands.

These will ensure that despite the presence of 30,000 race fans over the weekend, we can always get a seat in the Crystal for a beer or a coffee. Nice. Anyhow, the race was very good, and the winner was a Swiss skier called Marco Odermatt, so all the locals are happy. The organisers invited 1500 local schoolchildren free of charge, so there was a great atmosphere at the finish. Just like most big sporting events, you get the best view by watching on TV, which is exactly what we did.

More racing and another air show tomorrow.

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The hospitality venues for the races this weekend are almost finished. There’s a whole new pub outside the Eiger.

The tennis courts are turning into a mini village.

it’s amazing to think that all this effort goes into an event that lasts not much longer than a weekend. The races start tomorrow, and the village is already filling up with fans. Our usual Wednesday evening in the Alpine hotel was much busier than usual tonight. We can see the race course from our balcony, though it’s quite tricky to spot the skiers as they speed down to the village at 85 miles per hour. The weather forecast is good, so hopefully everyone will have a great weekend.

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Training runs for the World Cup ski races begin tomorrow, so the racers arrived today. Here’s James Crawford from Canada, getting onto the train at Lauterbrunnen.

Needless to say, the race teams bring masses of equipment. This pile of stuff belongs to the Austrians.

It’s quite nice to see that these international superstars have to load all their gear onto the train, just like we do. Here’s Swiss star Niels Hintermann returning his luggage trolley. He probably wants to get his 2 francs deposit back.

What with the national teams and the world’s press, there won’t be a spare bed to be found anywhere in Wengen for the next week or so. We usually get around 30,000 spectators over the race weekend, so things will get a little bit crazy over the next few days.

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The snowfall that started on Friday evening continues. We were well wrapped up on our way up to the Alpine hotel tonight.

Beves and Ibe put on a good night of music, and we trudged home. The footmarks that we made on our way up the hill were long gone on our way back down.