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It’s the warmest day of the year so far, so it makes sense to go high for our exercise. There’s a walk from the top station of the cable car up to the Gipfel (peak) of the Männlichen mountain. In all the years we’ve been here we’ve never done it. Time to give it a try. There’s still a lot of snow up here, and most of the walks are closed owing to avalanche danger from the mountains above.

The path winds its way up the mountain, and gets particularly steep towards the top. Thankfully there are ropes to help. Val reaches the peak.

Up here we’re at 2343 metres above sea level (7687 feet). No trees, and big patches of deep snow. Spring has only just arrived at this altitude; flowers cover the mountainside.

The walk back down was a lot quicker than the ascent, and we certainly enjoyed our ice cream when we got home.

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Last night we popped over to Gimmelwald for beer and pizzas next weekend with the Zwickys. Obligatory selfie.

The wet weather seems to be behind us for a while, and this morning we awoke to bright sunshine and mild temperatures. We caught the train to Wilderswil. Lovely old covered bridge.

We walked along the river towards Bönigen. There’s a shooting range here. Target shooting is very popular in Switzerland; just about every town and village will have a club.

Approaching Bönigen.

Bönigen is home to a kayak school. Val’s winter boss Ben works here in summer.

The steamers are doing good business in this glorious weather.

Gone fishin’.

Lots of wildlife.

A good walk. We got some shopping at Interlaken Ost, and treated ourselves to ice cream on the train ride home.

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It was freezing cold this morning, but the sun was out so I wrapped up warmly and we headed for the Schilthornbahn. Val was meeting Beanie for a walk, and I was going for a run. Beanie brought Mik (border collie) with her, and the three of them set off for Lauterbrunnen. I headed up the valley in the opposite direction towards Stechelberg, before turning around to try to catch Mik and the girls. I eventually caught them about halfway along the path. Mik likes a run, so he ran along with me for a bit.

We had coffee in Lauterbrunnen, where Sandro joined us. We hatched a plan to go to the mountain hostel in Gimmelwald for beer and pizzas next weekend, which will be nice.

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The weather this week has been truly awful. We’ve had wind, rain, cold temperatures and snow up at the top. Today it’s still cold but we are assured by the forecast that it won’t rain. We set off for a walk by the river from Lauterbrunnen.

All that rain means that there’s a lot of water in the river. It’s hard to have a conversation over the roar as the water cascades down the valley.

A bit further down, with an arty long exposure.

Furnace for smelting iron ore. There’s a lot of iron in the mountains further up the valley.

As we get closer to the railway halt at Zweilütschinen the valley narrows. We have to wait while a train passes by on its way up to Lauterbrunnen.

Eventually we reached Zweilütschinen. The forecasters didn’t let us down, and we remained dry.

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Not much to report recently, the weather’s been a bit mixed, and we got absolutely soaked on the way to Rocks the other night. Val went down to Bönigen to see her boss, and she came across this pair doing their best to spoil the tranquility by the lake.

We had a good walk around the village this afternoon. There’s a spot just below our house where all the Korean visitors go to get a good photo of the valley for their Instagram pages. I have to admit that the view is extremely good.

Lots of these blue flowers near to the railway halt at Wengwald.

Hello.

Cows are very social creatures. No idea what the conversation was about.

This afternoon we tuned in to watch the Formula One on telly, and it was actually quite a good race for a change. Later on we’ll have a stroll up to the Braunbaer for some music with Beves & Ibe.

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I’m due another run this morning, so I head down to the valley. The weather’s perfect; not too hot, and not too cold. I catch the bus to the Schilthornbahn stop and pause on a bench to sort out my headphones and wait for my watch pick up my GPS position. I set off up the valley towards Stechelberg before I turned around for home. It’s impossible not to pause and admire the Mürrenbach waterfall. This thing is more than a quarter of a mile high, in fact the highest waterfall in Switzerland.

I had a nice run along the valley, thankfully unworried by the tourists in their rental cars who sometimes get in the way. As always I enjoyed the simple pleasure of a relaxing sit on a bench at Lauterbrunnen station while I waited for the train back up to Wengen.

Back at home, the sunshine has encouraged our Wysteria to bloom.

Tomorrow is a big day in Wengen, as Rocks bar opens for the summer season. We’ll be there.

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The farmer who lives below our house keeps sheep. They all have bells, and they make quite a racket.

The sheep eat grass at a prodigious rate, so the farmer moves them from field to field every few days, and by the time they get back to their first field the grass has grown again. Lamb is very expensive here in Switzerland, so the animals are precious. Anyhow, after a day of torrential rain yesterday, it’s nice to see the livestock and the mountains again. There’s been snow up at the top.

Better weather is forecast for the next few days. Fingers crossed.