Follow

Our day-to-day watches are old-school mechanical things, and like everything mechanical, they need some attention every so often. Of all the watch shops in Interlaken, only one is authorised to do the necessary work. Faced with the fact that this glitzy shop has a monopoly, we were expecting severe financial pain.

We handed over our watches to the watchmaker and gave him some details of their history. He sent us off shopping while he set to work. We had a nice coffee in a patisserie round the corner and even managed to resist the hand-made chocolates.

We cruised around the shops on the Hoheweg and eventually returned to the watch shop, to find our watches mechanically sound and looking like new. Val’s, in particular was absolutely glittering. More work followed, with adjustments to her bracelet including removing a couple of links, and a tightening of the clasp.

Eventually we were done. I swallowed hard waiting for the bill.

Zero.

Yes, you read that right. The whole thing was complimentary. I was absolutely astonished. So next time you fancy something new and shiny, please consider going to Bucherer’s in Interlaken. They’re awesome.

Follow

It’s another lovely morning. Ali has a day off so up we go to Männlichen. Really good snow today and very few people. We skied round to Scheidegg and had an early lunch. This afternoon Val had staff training on the Lauberhorn with her colleagues. A few snapshots.

Bar picnic in Rocks later.

Follow

It’s another beautiful day. Up we go for a ski. ‘Goggle socks’ which protect your precious eyewear are all the rage this season. I liked this one.

The Swiss children went back to school today, but there are still lots of kids on the slopes.

Even up here at the top the temperature is well above zero.

Back in the village it’s positively warm, and we feel ridiculously over dressed in our ski wear whilst others sit outside cafes in short sleeves.

Crazy Monday later with Duo Centrale at the Sunstar.

Follow

It’s Val’s first day without work for a while, so this morning we headed down to the Three Tells for their splendid brunch. We pretty much had the pub to ourselves.

It’s a lovely day, so we had a walk into Interlaken and a wander around. New mobile creperie doing a roaring trade.

Bookswap in an old British phone box.

Uptown Lights at the Sunstar later.

Follow

It’s time to go home for the great majority of the holidaymakers, and the village has returned to something like normality. Deserted at Scheidegg this morning.

The village needs a bit of a spring clean.

It’ll be nice and quiet now until race weekend.

Follow

In just 2 weeks time Wengen will host the best skiers in the world, and that means we’ll also have the world’s press and 30,000 spectators. Lots to do therefore. The army and civil defence will do much of the work, and they began work on the ‘World Cup Village’ today. The first job is to cover the tennis courts and part of the ice rink with tough plastic tiles.

Once this is complete the bars, food outlets and hospitality facilities can be built. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Follow

The 2nd is another bank holiday here, so it’s super busy again. One of Val’s colleagues got this shot of the queue for the First gondola in Grindelwald this morning.

Up the hill the sun is shining. Cruising down to Arven.

More queues on arrival.

There’s a takeaway on the dorfstrasse selling burgers, wings, kebabs etc. Outside the shop is a rotisserie cooking chickens. They always smell delicious, but demand is such that you need to reserve one earlier in the day. This afternoon I had the presence of mind to do this, so we’ve just demolished a lovely chicken. Yum!