What a difference a night makes!

Sat 30th January.

         What a contrast to our arrival last night.Dawn broke about 7.30 with the sun creeping over the mountains giving as chocolate box view of the mountains and the village, so after a late breakfast we headed up the hill to Wengen village with its swarms of skiers and skateboarders heading for trains and cable cars to take them to their intended slopes.

         We decided after perusing Wengen (all of 15 mins) to head down the mountain railway.These trains are fantastic and British health and safety is replaced by Swiss common sense.Our first stop was Lauterbrunnen nestled in the valley and the terminus for our train and then  we switched trains for Interlaken which is so named as its on a piece of land situated between Thunnersee and Breiner see.

             The trip was amazing especially as this railway doesn't let a little thing like snow get in the way.The way down from Lauterbrunnen was dotted with chalets and winter barns for the cattle.

              For the military history bods like me we passed an old military airfield just outside Interlaken which flew F5s before it was decommissioned a few years ago leaving it for the model aeroplane fliers.Before that it flew Hunters.

            On arrival into Interlaken I thought I had arrived into back into Hong Kong as it was full of orientals.At least I'll know where to come back for dinner later on in the week.

This was a  Japanese garden in the mainstreet

            We had a daunder between its two stations looking at shops along the way as Lady Watson had decided it was a good idea to break the zip on her anorak so we were now on a mission.We succeed in the last shop (as you do).
                               

Another Japanese garden pic

 Our plan after shopping and sightseeing was to head back to Wengen for dinner before the hungry skiers had came back from their endeavours.When we arrived at Lauterbrunnen station they were just in the process of hitching a snow plough to the front of the train and this was done in about 3 minutes without any huing and puffing I woud expect from British railway workers

.It is a thing I'll repeat again this week no doubt.So once again after 3 train trips back up the mountain we ended up in a restaurant which served up a delicious goulash soup followed one of the most unusual main courses I have seen-Swiss military noodles-They even  came served on a solid fuel camping cooker.Put it this way even I was struggling to finish it.

Just the thing to keep these Swiss squaddies warm

                                   We waddled back to the hotel looking forward to the promised snow of the following day.Speak to you later.