The farmer who lives below our house keeps sheep. They all have bells, and they make quite a racket.
The sheep eat grass at a prodigious rate, so the farmer moves them from field to field every few days, and by the time they get back to their first field the grass has grown again. Lamb is very expensive here in Switzerland, so the animals are precious. Anyhow, after a day of torrential rain yesterday, it’s nice to see the livestock and the mountains again. There’s been snow up at the top.
Better weather is forecast for the next few days. Fingers crossed.
It’s another nice day, so it must be time for a run down in the valley. Here I go.
The Lauterbrunnen valley always looks a picture at this time of year. Cows grazing in lush pastures, and waterfalls in spate owing to the melting snow higher up.
A very nice run on a super day. Uptown Lights at the Braunbaer this evening.
We travelled back to Switzerland yesterday and, as luck would have it, our buddies Beves and Ibe were on the same flight.
This was really good as they have a car, meaning we didn’t need to get the train from Geneva. Ibe dropped us off at Lauterbrunnen and we got to Wengen in record time – just 8 and a half hours door to door.
The weather was a bit gloomy and cold when we arrived in Wengen last night, but this morning the sun was out and we enjoyed some lovely views on our walk up to the Co-op.
Everything is very green, and Wengen is in fine fettle. There’s very little open in the village, but we got what we needed from the Co-op and the bakery. We had a stroll back up this evening for a drink and were rewarded with a fantastic evening view of the Jungfrau when we got home.
I started my running programme while we were in the UK, so I’m looking forward to a run down in the valley tomorrow.
Three years ago a local lad called Ryan Regez caught a plane to China. He was off to the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. He returned to Wengen a month later with the gold medal, and enjoyed a hero’s welcome.
Last month he packed his bags again and headed for St Moritz, a few hours away by train. The Freestyle Skiing World Championships were taking place there. This time Ryan returned to Wengen with not one, but two gold medals. His ‘official’ homecoming took place this afternoon, and the whole village congregated at the Figeller bar at the bottom of the nursery slope.
The kids from Wengen ski club formed a guard of honour.
We knew there’d be some sort of grand entrance, but nobody knew exactly what was planned. We got a clue when the cable car stopped immediately above the bar.
The doors opened, and out jumped Ryan attached to a winch cable.
The cable cars are quite high up, so it took a while to winch him down.
Eventually he neared the ground.
A quick run through the guard of honour.
And here he is.
Lots of interviews, lots of people to thank.
A super afternoon, bravo Ryan.
Wengen is pretty much closing down now, and the summer season will start at the beginning of May. We’re off to the UK for a few weeks tomorrow.
It’s another warm, sunny day in the Bernese Oberland, and for most of the bars, restaurants and hotels here in Wengen it’s the last day of the winter season. Wengen still has a few visitors though, and this morning the mini-golf was busy.
Sunny weather means lots of free electricity for us, so we did all our laundry this afternoon. Later on we’ll be calling in at Rocks for a beer or two, before heading to the Indian restaurant for dinner.
The weather keeps on getting warmer, so we grab some sandwiches and head for the lake. The bus drops us off at Bönigen, a small village on the western shore of lake Brienz.
The water level in the lake is about half a metre lower than it should be owing to an acute lack of rainfall so far this year. The steamers, which usually use Interlaken as their point of embarkation, instead have to pick up their passengers here at Bönigen.
It’s still very early in the ‘summer’ season, so there’s very little traffic on the lake, despite the beautiful weather.
We had a nice walk back to the railway station along the shoreline.
Back in Wengen our roof has predictably had its best day ever, producing an astonishing 119 kWh of electricity. As we were out for most of the day we only managed to use about 10% of this, and the rest has been sold back to the grid.
… a day makes. Yesterday there was a big storm up at Scheidegg which closed the ski lifts. It was cold and windy in the village.
24 hours later…
Today we have perfect spring weather. On days like this the solar roof produces way more electricity than we can use – about 110kWh. More than 80% of today’s output will be sold back to the grid.
There was a good crowd at the Braunbaer yesterday evening for Colin & Steve’s last gig of the season.
This weekend the Braunbaer, along with all the other hotels and bars in the village will close for the rest of the month.
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