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It was Emily’s birthday this week, and she wants to go to the Schilthorn for brunch. It’s always a good day out, and the buffet was as good as ever. The mountain view behind our table looks like a picture, but it’s real.

You get 2 revolutions of the revolving restaurant to eat your fill – about 90 minutes. The staff are really nice though, and if you want to stay a bit longer they do their best to accommodate you. It’s a lovely day, here we are outside on the terrace. The views are incredible.

The cable cars that get us up here are being replaced. The scale of the building work is immense.

We descended to Mürren, and had a hike towards Winteregg to walk off all that food. The railway service that runs along here is being improved with new trains. This one is parked at Winteregg during testing.

It’s very hot, and beers at the restaurant were very welcome.

Super day out.

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It’s that time of year again. Yesterday evening I rooted around the house and retrieved my running shoes, Garmin watch, headphones and day glow jacket from their winter storage. It’s time to start running again. The temperature this morning was a balmy 4 degrees, but the sun’s shining so I wrapped up and headed out. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy doing this, jogging along listening to a good playlist, with the occasional interruption from my electronic running coach. I’m not sure I really need the hi-viz jacket here in sleepy Wengen, but it does help with the inevitable imposter syndrome.

The bright sunshine ensured that the temperature rose quite quickly, so a walk after lunch would be nice. There’s no point going up the hill as everything’s still snowbound, so we headed down towards Wengwald. The scenery down here never disappoints.

We’re planning a wander up to the village after dinner. It’ll be interesting to see which restaurants are still open now that the season is over.

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Preparations for the summer season are well underway. The fences around the tennis courts have been erected, so you can pop into the tourist centre and book a court. It might be a bit cold though.

Having not left the house yesterday, I spent the day shopping. Co-op in Wengen before lunch, and this afternoon we popped down to Lidl in Interlaken. We bought a lot of beer and some decidedly unhealthy looking food. It’s still cold, but at least the snow has stopped.

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It’s been a pretty awful day for weather. Val had an appointment in the village early this morning, and not long after she got home it started raining. By lunchtime the temperature had dropped sufficiently for the rain to turn to snow, which continued all day.
A notice on the website of our local council today confirms that we have a building permit (planning permission) for our renovations this summer. Our home is one of a row of four semi-detached houses, and all of them will have a complete exterior renovation and solar roofing, with heat pumps to replace the existing oil fired central heating systems. The council notice makes it all sound quite trivial:

”Renovation of the building envelopes and installation of an in-roof PV system with heat pumps (outdoor units), Stutz, Wengen”

The reality of course, is quite a bit different. Here is an extract from the plan for our house alone:

• Replace the oil-fired central heating system with an air-source heat pump,
• New roof,
• Solar tiles on the new roof to power the heat pump, with a battery to store any excess electricity, (I hope we get an excess),
• Replacement of the existing carpeted flooring with wooden floors throughout the house,
• Replacement windows with triple glazing,
• Thermal exterior cladding to improve insulation, and new wood facade,
• Replacement kitchen and appliances,
• Replacement bathroom, replace existing bath with walk-in shower, move existing window to accommodate changes,
• Refurbishment of guest bedroom sanitaryware,
• Refurbishment of cloakroom and downstairs WC,
• Redecoration throughout.

Quite a job, therefore, and that’s without what might be happening to the interiors of the other houses. The problem in Wengen, as with all remote locations, is a lack of tradesmen to do the work. We know that major renovations are planned for this summer at several hotels in the village, so competition for people will be intense. We have to move out at the end of the month to allow the work to start. That’s fine, and we have planned for it. We are far more concerned about the planned finish date, which is the end of September. Hopefully everything will be finished on time.

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It’s very warm again, but we’re heading up to the Schilthorn for the brunch deal that they always offer during April. It is the traditional end of season get-together for Val’s ski school colleagues.

The restaurant is situated above the village of Mürren at a height of almost 10,000 feet, and I had dressed for cold weather. It turned out to be well above freezing, which is almost unheard of at this altitude in early April. The brunch is a very nice hot and cold buffet. The price also includes unlimited Prosecco, which I suspect is what makes the deal so popular.

It was very nice to see everyone. After a couple of hours of indulging ourselves we caught the cable car back down to Mürren and had a nice walk through the village. When we eventually got home we were very grateful to find a long-forgotten tub of ice cream in the freezer.

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Today we’re off to Grindelwald to see Val’s colleague Wil. Grindelwald is home to a pizza restaurant called Onkel Tom’s Hütte which has acquired something of a cult following. It’s very small, they don’t take table reservations, and people happily wait an hour until it’s their turn to be seated. It’s a lovely spot.

Wil lives a couple of hundred yards away, and he’s known the owners since he was a child. He is therefore allowed to reserve a table on special occasions. There are only two things on the menu, salads and pizzas. We ordered one of each to share, and Wil had his usual pizza. Of course they sell beer too.

It was all delicious, and very reasonably priced. On our way back to the station we stopped off at the Avocado bar. The weather’s still really warm, so we sat in the garden watching avalanches crash down from the east ridge of the Eiger.

The pub was really busy. Tomorrow they’ll be closing for a month before starting their summer season.

We’re due one more day of this warm weather, before temperatures return to normal on Tuesday.

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The forecast says it’ll be a few degrees warmer than yesterday, so if we want a comfortable walk we’ll need to employ our summer tactic and start above the village. We can only go as far as the snow line, which is just above Allmend. Nice views back to the village.

We walk back down the meadow and through the forest. As we descend we get glimpses of the village. Everywhere is very quiet now, and this usually popular walk was no exception.

Most of the remaining hotels, restaurants and bars will close this weekend.