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This morning Val had her German class, and I popped up to the village to get shopping and go to the post office. After lunch we’re off down to the council office in Lauterbrunnen again. This time we’re sorting out our national insurance. Val already has an NI number because she works, but we both need to provide more information so that the authorities can calculate how much we have to pay. This is exactly the same financial stuff that we already provided for our residence permits, but we’ve learned by now that government departments here never share information with each other. Swiss bureaucracy can be maddening, but we have all the time in the world, and we’ll get there in the end.

The council have been busy putting marker posts along the paths. Around 50 kilometres of hiking trails are kept open through the winter, so there must be thousands of these posts.

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Ali spent yesterday afternoon baking, and Colin has brought some pork pies from the U.K. So yesterday we had a delicious dinner.

Colin’s flat downstairs used to sleep a family of six, so there are two sets of bunk beds in the bedroom. Getting rid of one of them will free up a lot of space.

We’ll have the mattresses to replace the somewhat tired ones in one of our guest bedrooms. James and Julie will have the frame for the holiday apartment beneath their house. It was a lot of hard work, but apart from our old mattresses which will be collected by the council tomorrow, everything has been re-used.

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The fine weather continues. We went shopping this morning, and then straight out for our walk.

The village is getting ready for winter. The ski lift has been installed on the nursery slope, and there are snow cannons everywhere.

Our house.

Ali has spent the afternoon baking, so dinner should be delicious!

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Colin arrived last night, he’s moving into the flat in our basement. Today therefore he needed to go to the council office in the valley to register with them. We needed to visit the bank to pick up our ATM cards, so we all went down together and had a walk. It’s a bit gloomy in the valley at this time of year, whilst Wengen, above, is still in bright sunshine.

We did all the paperwork and ambled back to the station. Despite the shade and the chill, Lauterbrunnen still looks nice.

We brought a lot of spare ribs from the UK, so it’s dinner at ours tonight.

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It’s another lovely day, not quite as warm as yesterday but still very nice for November. Yesterday’s walk ended at Wengernalp, and that’s where we’re starting today.

Mettlenalp is inaccessible in winter unless you have snow shoes, and it’s a nice walk all the way back to Wengen. The views are simply stunning.

Another pond with a reflection of the Eiger.

There were lots of people out walking this afternoon – it’s bound to snow soon, so it’s good to get as much in as we can before winter arrives.

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It’s another gorgeous day, so this morning we’re heading up to Eigergletscher. A huge new lift will soon bring visitors up here from Grindelwald in just 15 minutes. It’s due to open next month. Eigergletscher looks more like a city street than a railway halt.

A new piste, complete with snow cannons leads down the hill from Eigergletscher towards Scheidegg.

Val got this lovely shot of the Eiger reflected in the reservoir at Fallboden.

Above Scheidegg. It’s so warm we’ve all shed layers on the way down.

From Scheidegg we continue towards Wengernalp. Another reflection of the Eiger, this time in a pond.

We caught the train back to Wengen from Wengernalp. At home I swept the terrace and got the balcony furniture out. We’ll have ice cream later.

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The fog that plagued us all day yesterday has descended down towards the valley, and it’s a glorious day.

We walk out towards Innerwengen. Ibex in the village for winter.

A pause at Staubachbankli. Great views from here.

The goats came out to see us.

Back in Wengen, everyone is enjoying the sunshine, and restaurants with sunny terraces are doing a roaring trade.