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There’s a saying here, that we only get 2 seasons in the mountains – winter and summer. Yesterday we were skiing, and this afternoon we’re off to a barbecue at James & Julie’s. Off to Interlaken we go to buy meat.

It’s busy everywhere, the fine weather tempting people out. On the way home the train was full of day-trippers on their way to the Jungfraujoch. Everyone wants a snap of the waterfall, and even though I see it every day, I can’t resist.

Back in Wengen the meadows are turning a vivid green. The livestock will soon be arriving.

The chicken wings that I bought at the Co-op are marinating in garlic and chilli, and the beer is chilling in the fridge. It’s a perfect day for the first barbecue of the summer season.

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It’s another lovely day, and once more we head up to Scheidegg. It’s soon time for coffee.

A pause at Eigergletscher. It’s warm, even up here.

Ali surfing the slush on the way down the Lauberhorn.

We had lunch at Scheidegg and jumped on the train back to Wengen. Gemschi (small deer) above the railway at Allmend. They are particularly numerous this year. Now that the surrounding snow has melted, you can see the monstrous avalanche that came down in February.

The ski lifts are open for another couple of days, but it’s really too warm now, so I guess that’s that for this season. It’s been a very good one for snow, not so good for the lack of bars, restaurants and international guests. Next season will be better.

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We had a good night out at Angela’s yesterday, with a splendid shepherd’s pie.

This morning Val had German whilst I did the shopping. The Co-op have a new brand of chocolate, and I got a bar for free at the checkout. This afternoon Val is off for her latest appointment at the dentist, and that gives me lots of time to clean the house and prepare dinner. Very domestic.

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The sun’s out this morning, so up to Scheidegg we go. Here’s Val, with the Lauberhorn all to herself.

Coffee at the Bahnhof.

Up at Eigergletscher. You can see the glacier behind Val.

At this point we decided we’d done enough. Rather than skiing down to Scheidegg and waiting for the train, we jumped on the Eiger Express gondola.

This takes us in the wrong direction to get back to Wengen, but the gondola is so fast that by catching the train from the valley we got home more quickly than if we’d waited for the train from Scheidegg.

Dinner at Angela’s tonight.

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Val is off to the dentist today, and I’m running out of beer, so I’ll go with her as far as Interlaken. We walked up to the station and our train was promptly cancelled owing to ‘a technical problem’. No worries, we’ll walk down to Lauterbrunnen. On the way down we found the cause of the cancellation. These guys doing maintenance on the track had obviously had something go wrong, meaning the train couldn’t pass.

The rest of the day went as planned. I found some super-cheap beer in Aldi, and Val enjoyed the views from the train on her way to the dentist in Brienz.

We plan to travel back to the U.K. for a few weeks soon, so this afternoon we booked our PCR tests at the health centre. What with all the testing when we get back, it looks like we’re going to spend considerably more on tests than we will on our airfares.

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The Jungfraubahn (railway company) have given us an extra week’s skiing this season, so we’d better make the most of it. There were hardly any other people at Scheidegg.

Salzegg, below Eigergletscher.

Restaurants are allowed to offer us seating on their terraces again. This is nice.

More skiing after coffee. Val on Lauberhorn.

It clouded over at lunchtime so we quit while we were ahead. A pretty good morning considering the season should have ended by now.

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Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon preparing vegetables and making onion rings. We’ve got steaks from the butcher, and each one is topped with a plump prawn.

Add some chips, asparagus and carrots, along with the onion rings, and smother with peppercorn sauce.

Beanie & Sandro left Wengen earlier this month (Sandro has lived here for 42 years). They’ve moved to Gimmelwald, which is a tiny hamlet across the valley, and today we’re going over to visit them at their new home. There is neither road nor rail access to Gimmelwald; the only way to get there is on this cable car which comes up from Stechelberg in the valley.

And here’s the house. It looks a bit rustic, but it’s been completely modernised inside.

We had coffee and cakes before wandering back to the cable car. Gimmelwald is home to about 100 people. You can buy milk, cheese, eggs and meat from the farmers, but there are no proper shops at all. They do have a pub, of course.

Gimmelwald is a bit higher than Wengen, and as you can see it was snowing. It’s snowing heavily in Wengen now too, very strange weather for April.