Saturdays are a mixed bag. Before noon several thousand visitors will leave on the train. At lunchtime the village is really quiet, but soon the trains begin to bring this week’s guests, and for a couple of hours chaos reigns again. Kids can’t wait to play in the snow.
The weather is gloomy with light snow most of the day, so it’s Winter Olympics on telly while we look forward to live music in Rocks later on.
Another lovely day. Val phoned the spare parts company in Berlin about the shelf for our fridge this morning – they sent the wrong one first time round. They were very obliging and immediately sent another. Our next job was to pop into the Sunstar and sort out the barbecue hut for Sunday next week. The meat menu is actually 1 franc less than last time, but it’s still eye-wateringly pricy. After doing this we shot straight up to Männlichen and had a cruise around.
Last run of the afternoon down to Holenstein. Glorious.
We had a nice evening out with Ally, Colin and Terry down at the Steinbock restaurant in Lauterbrunnen last night.
This morning it was still foggy; worse than yesterday if anything. On days like this you basically have a choice of going shopping or climbing so high that you are above the clouds. We chose the former, but some of the lads went over to Grindelwald and got the bus up to Bussalp. From here it’s an 800 vertical metre climb up to the Faulhorn.
There are no ski runs or anything up here – you just have to get on with it on your own, but the views are incredible.
Meanwhile we found some dodgy looking stuff on sale in the Co-op in Interlaken. Apparently this stuff is supposed to be the food that saves the planet from starvation, but it’s fair to say it wasn’t exactly flying off the shelves.
Every winter the Tourist Office organise a big curling tournament called the Dolly Cup. It’s for locals and it takes place over 4 Tuesdays during February. Val and her ski school mates have entered a team.
I have no idea where the name of the tournament came from, but a quick Google tells me that lots of Swiss towns and villages have such an event, and it’s always called the Dolly Cup.
Val’s team naturally wear their blue uniforms; this is not just for publicity but also to keep out the cold on the ice. In the end they were beaten by a single point in a very close game. Nobody minds as the winners have to buy the beer afterwards.
Today it’s cold and foggy. Val’s ski school is running some training for resort workers so Val and Ally bravely went up to join in. Not much scenery to admire today.
Fancy dress at Scheidegg.
A lovely day today, and anyone who can ski is up the hill. School holidays have begun so there are lots of kids careering around. It’s all good fun.
The next few days are looking a bit grotty according to the forecast, and sure enough the clouds started rolling in this afternoon.
We put together a huge team for quiz last night. We’d drafted in Erin and Michael as we’d had a hint that there might be an American round of questions.
Anyhow, the plan worked and we won the Prosecco.
Today the weather was mostly overcast although we did see the sun once or twice. Flat light on Männlichen.
But much better in the trees down towards Holenstein.
Lots of fun in Rocks last night involving my favourite tipple, weissbier. Barmaid Caroline hasn’t quite got the hang of pouring it yet, so naturally she got lots of advice from the ‘experts’ on our side of the bar. Here’s Jack demonstrating.
A lot of Jack’s effort ended up on the floor. Eventually we got one right.
Today is Aliena’s birthday, so we’re off to the party. Lots of birthday cake of course.
Girls very excited.
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