Our friends Jack and Erin are in Wengen for one night only. Impromptu party in the Tanne bar last night.
This morning we caught the train up to Scheidegg and set off down into the next valley.
After a long trek we emerge from the forest and see a wonderful vista of Grindelwald.
We stop off at Aspen for drinks and ice cream, before walking the last half hour down to the hamlet of Schwendi where we can catch a train.
Good party in Rocks last night. It’s Ali’s birthday and Jon’s last day working in Wengen.
Bubbles are a thing now, apparently.
Today we have the craziest race of the summer. The Eiger Ultra Trail is a 101 kilometre route around all the local peaks. Runners start at 4.30am and hope to finish before dark. Many won’t. Passing through Wengen.
Up Männlichen next!
Finish area in Grindelwald. It’s a huge event with several thousand runners from all over the world.
Caught the train up to Scheidegg, but it was cold and gloomy up there. Good views of the glaciers though.
So we jumped on the Grindelwald train and got off at Alpiglen where it was a bit warmer. There’s a nice walk down to Grindelwald from here. The path is like a switch back.
The railway is never far away.
We pass the little restaurant at Brandegg, one of our winter favourites.
From Brandegg it’s a steep descent down to Grund, from where we get the train back home.
The weather forecast is good, but a glance out of the window informs us that it might not be such a good day for a mega-hike high in the mountains. Instead we plan a circular route around the village.
The path crosses the world cup slalom course. It’s ridiculously steep.
A little further along we cross the downhill course, just above the finish line. This is the Swiss equivalent of walking on the pitch at Wembley.
We arrive at the little hamlet of Innerwengen. It’s straight off a chocolate box.
The path continues to Wengwald. It crosses all the streams that tumble into the valley.
There’s a railway halt at Wengwald, but you have to press a button to signal the driver to stop. We were 200 yards from the station when the train came up the hill, but luckily the conductress spotted us running and paused to let us get on for a ride back up to Wengen.
This morning we caught the bus to Stechelberg at the top of the valley. The road ends there, but we can continue on foot. It’s a stiff climb up to the little hamlet of Trachsellauenen. Great views up to the Breithorn.
The glaciers feed meltwater into the river.
Stechelberg view on the way back down.
We had a late lunch in the village, then it’s a pleasant walk back to Lauterbrunnen along the river.
Went to the Sunstar last night to see Duo Centrale. Outside it was pouring with rain.
The downpour continued for most of the night, and today’s forecast isn’t good enough to plan anything too ambitious. We did manage to get a walk along the river in Interlaken before doing our shopping.
When we moved into this apartment in December it’s fair to say it was something of a ‘work in progress’. Indeed, the kitchen was still being fitted when we arrived. Since then we’ve been slowly improving things – slowly because it’s hard to get things delivered up here.
Anyhow, today we have a big improvement. Owing to an error with the original orders we’ve never had a door on our bedroom. As we only have one bedroom this isn’t exactly the end of the world, but it would be nice just the same. Today our door arrived.
Colin popped round and helped us to hang it. Here’s Val fitting the draught excluder.
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