Yesterday we lost one of our closest friends from Wengen, John Farnell. He suffered a heart attack while hiking in the mountains that he loved so much. We’ll remember John as the witty ex-squaddie who always had a good tale to tell, and for dragging us out of the pub and over to the curling rink at every opportunity. Rest in peace John, we’re really going to miss you.
Colder still this morning, but glorious sunshine. Our walk takes us above the village towards Allmend. Work is underway laying pipes for snowmaking on the slalom course.
The path turns downhill into the woods. It’s cold out of the sun.
Picking wild mushrooms is very popular here. You need to know exactly what you’re doing (we don’t), but these look like Chanterelles to me. We’ll find out later from the photo.
And here’s our little house on the nursery slope. If you look really closely you can see Val having a read on our balcony.
Weather forecast was pretty dismal this morning, but despite this the sun came out after we’d done a bit of shopping. We headed down the steep path that leads to Lauterbrunnen at the bottom of the valley. The path crosses the old railway line. It is gradually returning to nature, but having been constructed from stone and steel in the nineteenth century I think it’ll be with us for a few more years yet.
The new (1988) line carries very modern rolling stock.
Lauterbrunnen is quite pretty from the right angles.
We had venison pie for lunch at the Airtime cafe, after which the clouds rolled up the valley as the forecast said they would. Time to get the train back up to Wengen.
Another bright and cold morning. We head up to Mannlichen. Usual stunning views at the top.
And snow alongside the path.
We were the only people on the path to Alpiglen, but we heard voices close by. Never thought to look up! These guys passed a few feet above us.
As we begin to lose height the flora becomes more diverse. Edelweiss like the sunny spots amongst the heather.
Beautiful day for a walk. Here we are above the Gummi slopes.
Eventually we arrive at Arven just below Scheidegg. This is the hub of the ski area in winter. Looking up to Scheidegg.
Ski lifts are a blot on the landscape for most of the year.
We fill our bottles from a trough and continue downhill. The rough terrain gives way to pastures.
The Eiger dominates the lower parts of the walk. We could feel the cold air falling from the face.
Yesterday’s rain finally moved on around midnight, and this morning we awoke to a beautiful day with fresh snow on the peaks. Here’s the Breithorn in the distance, sun shining off the roof of our house in the centre of the photo.
We walked high above the village to a hamlet called Ledi. Some of the best views in the whole of the Alps can be found here.
Val, and the Jungfrau.
A couple of hours later we arrive at Wengwald, which is below Wengen on the way down to Lauterbrunnen. There’s a railway halt here but nothing else.
A very nice walk, and we rewarded ourselves with ice creams on the Eigerhubel back in the village.
It was raining when we woke up this morning, and much colder. Popped out to buy something for lunch and it started to brighten up.
After lunch we got the train up to Allmend with Sandro & Aliena.
Beanie & Larina were already there.
Our plan to walk back down didn’t go very well. The storm hit us about 100 yards down from the restaurant. The kids didn’t seem to care.
Larina loves anything pink.
We were all thoroughly soaked by the time we got home, but at least we had a walk.
Cakes and quiche for dinner last night; Rocks was packed and a good time was had by all. We raised 640 francs.
This morning Val had cake for breakfast and we had a wander around the village. Most of the farm animals have gone down to the valley now, but there are still a few cows about. The young ones are quite friendly.
Clouds are gathering over the mountains and we’ll have rain tonight and perhaps the first snow up at the top.
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