Yesterday’s snow continued into the evening. The council were busy clearing it until well after dark.
By this morning however, it had turned to rain. That made clearing the wet snow from the terrace quite a challenge. Rain makes the snow very heavy and greatly increases the likelihood of avalanches. Our ski area is therefore completely closed today – there are no trains going up from Wengen. Val had her German class this morning, and I’m cooking tonight, so this afternoon I’ll be mainly peeling potatoes.
It’s my turn to cook tomorrow, so I planned to get the heavy stuff from our Co-op this morning, and then pop down to Interlaken this afternoon for the rest. This morning wasn’t too bad. It had started to snow at breakfast time, but it wasn’t too heavy, so my quest for potatoes, wine and carrots was easy enough.
After lunch I headed down to the valley, with the snow getting heavier all the time. I wasn’t worried – it hardly ever snows in Interlaken. How wrong I was.
I got my shopping and headed back to the snowbound station.
That’s one of the biggest snowfalls I’ve ever seen in Interlaken, and I was very happy when the train reached Wengen. We don’t get cut off very often, but in weather like this I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if we do.
There’s a guy who comes here after a snowfall – he clears our steps and the garden path. He’s usually pretty good at guessing when the snow will stop, but yesterday afternoon his efforts were in vain, as the snow kept on falling. He was back this afternoon to do it all again. The village is looking pretty good.
Up in the village the sheer quantities of snow are beginning to cause a few problems.
It’s more or less impossible to get anywhere near the Indian restaurant.
Emily arrived early last night, she brought pork loin and lots of veggies. It was absolutely delicious.
Shortly after we finished eating it started snowing. The snow continued all night and it hasn’t stopped yet. My trip to the bottle bank was quite an adventure. Wengen is a snowy wasteland again.
Last night we went up to Anne-Marie and Paul’s place for a raclette. Much like its cousin the fondue, raclette is peasant food involving melted cheese. Needless to say, our modern version is a bit more sophisticated.
As well as slices of cheese, the essential components of a modern raclette are small boiled potatoes and dried or cured meat. Anne-Marie also prepared some roast vegetables and a nice salad.
The slices of cheese are placed in a small metal tray, which sits on top of a burner. While the cheese melts in the tray, spices or herbs can be added. The melted cheese is then scraped off onto your plate to be eaten along with everything else.
The burners that melt the cheese are powered by nothing more than a couple of tea-light candles, so the cheese takes a while to melt. This is the very essence of a raclette evening – the meal can go on for hours – it’s a very social event. Later on, Anne-Marie found something to go in Val’s hair.
Today we have blue skies and very low temperatures. Icicles on the Wisteria beneath our terrace.
It snowed overnight, and it’s been gloomy most of the day, although we did see a little sun at lunchtime. This afternoon we popped up to the village for some shopping and we were due another COVID test, so we queued up and had our nostrils swabbed. Emily was picked for a random PCR test, and she got a chocolate bar for being brave. We were all negative again, which is a relief as we’re off round to Paul and Anne-Marie’s for dinner tonight.
We had a treat last night – a fish and chips takeaway from Santos. Delicious. It’s windy and mild today, and stormy up high with a few lifts closed. Most people who went skiing were back by lunchtime.
The Figeller bar is open for takeaway drinks and snacks, but there are very few people around. A mannequin stands outside in the hope of attracting some customers.
Val has gone to the hairdresser, and apparently we’re due more snow tonight.
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