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It’s a sunny Saturday, and the village and all the public transport will be crammed with day trippers. We can avoid all that by hiking on our local trails high above the village. We got the ski lift up to Allmend and paused to see the racers on their way down. It’s the Inferno Triathlon today, and the guys and girls who do it are the toughest of the tough.

Here’s the programme for this crazy race:

Swim in lake Thun: 3.1 kilometres,

Road bike: Oberhöfen to Grindelwald, 97 kilometres,

Mountain bike: Grindelwald to Stechelberg via Kleine Scheidegg and Wengen, 30 kilometres,

Run: Stechelberg to the summit of the Schilthorn, 25 kilometres.

So that’s 155 kilometres, or almost 100 miles. Here they go.

We watched for a while and climbed towards Männlichen, stopping at a bench for our lunch.

Inspired by the triathletes, we continued to climb and we got a good deal higher than we’ve ever managed before. Eventually we turned for home.

Here’s an airborne view of the triathlon course. Press play.

The winner was Samuel Hürzeler from nearby Wilderswil. He completed the course in 8 hours and 47 minutes.

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The village band was playing while we were sitting in Rocks last night.

A little later, along came the Trychlers (bell ringers).

We were up early today, as I have a morning appointment at the optician. The clinic is in a great spot by the river. View from the waiting room.

A tribute to the Queen in the English garden.

One advantage of having a morning appointment is that it means we can have lunch at the Cafe de Paris. It was delicious as always.

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We had a very nice dinner at the Victoria Lauberhorn for Val’s birthday last night.

Val had some lovely lamb.

Colin, meanwhile, has gone to his house in France. It’s in a sleepy little village in the middle of nowhere, and guess what? It’s really busy!

Today has been bright but a bit chilly, and now that the kids have all gone back to school the village is quiet once more.

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We had a nice quiet day today, with lunch at Cafe Waldschluecht and a walk around the village. Edelweiss on the Sunstar terrace.

This afternoon Val is at the hairdresser, and later on we’re having dinner at the Victoria Lauberhorn.

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The weather’s better today, not exactly warm but at least it’s dry. We caught the train down to Interlaken and had a stroll down the Lombach river.

It takes about an hour to get to Neuhaus on the lake. It’s a nice spot.

We sat and had a beer. It’s quite windy, and there are half a dozen kite surfers on the lake. They fly along.

We hear the hoot of a steam whistle. The steamer is pulling in.

Neuhaus is quite a distance from Wengen, but by getting 2 busses and 2 trains we were amazed to find we were back within an hour.

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Yesterday’s sunshine is a distant memory, and this morning we woke to rain and distinctly chilly temperatures. I went down to Interlaken for shopping. The rain got worse, and I got absolutely drenched walking back to the station. Not to worry – I got some nice schnitzels for dinner and an considerable quantity of cheap beer.

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It’s hot again, so we need to go high if we want some exercise. The north face trail over at Mürren begins at 2000 metres, so we should be ok. A series of info-boards describe each of the north faces along the way.

We climb up to a ridge called Schiltgrat. We often ski up here.

We stopped for sandwiches at about half way. Here’s the view from our bench.

After our lunch stop it’s downhill all the way back to Mürren. We stopped at the Eiger opposite the station and enjoyed a beer, before heading home. Colin is cooking tonight.