Wengen winter 2007-2008
Skied down to Holenstein and round to Scheidegg - quiet on the pistes but amazingly busy in the restaurants!
Our home this winter.
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17th December. A windy day
Cold enough for John to water his cabbages in daylight. Minus 9 at breakfast time, snowing gently.
Customers expected soon. None here at the moment that's for sure. 10 people in our gondola this morning.
Looked ok at the top - nice day. Skied down to Lager.
The trip up Lager was pretty scary - storm came in from nowhere. Scurried back up to Mannlichen and into the Berghaus. All hell broke loose outside!
All the lifts closed, and it was getting worse. Time to beat a retreat. Bob got caught on Mannlichen and had to ski his customer down to Grindelwald.
And needless to say it was a beautiful afternoon down in the village.
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18th December. Nice day, very quiet.
Not many people about this morning, Wixi in good shape.
The new Honegg piste. A 6-seater lift and a couple of dozen fixed cannons. Must be expecting Prince Charles or Terry Wogan.
Skiing with girls is ok I suppose, but you always get one who insists on wearing a carpet.
They made lots of snow, but we don't need it!
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19th December. Much milder, almost like spring.
Mad Professor Fussigbussler doing his crazy experiments on top of the Jungfrau again? Either that or they're doing 5% off at Central Sport.
Quiet on the way to Brandegg.
Cold enough down here to run the cannons 24/7.
Short days, temps dive as soon as the sun goes over the mountain. All runs open down to Grindelwald.
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20th December. Murren.
Urs and his mates doing their free beer folklore thing last night. I didn't know that drinking competitions were part of Swiss folklore, but everyday's a schoolday, as they say. Download the video! (1.6Mb, mp4) - your iPod will love you forever!
Oh yeah we went to Murren today. Coffee at Winteregg 11.00am - Maulerhubel - Murren - Almendhubel - Birg - Schilthorn - Birg - Kanonenrohr - Maulerhubel and back at Winteregg for lunch. All very nice - Murren is like a ghost-town.
However, I am bothered by something which seems well, just wrong - it was on the bar at Piz Gloria. Have a good look - it's an advert for marmot oil. Apparently it's good for all sorts of things - including massage. How do you get oil out of a marmot anyway? Do you press them like olives? Sounds messy.
Schilthorn run - there are some people at the top of the pic and for all I know they're still there. Kanonenrohr was the usual dog & pony act.
Don't tell me you've never wanted to do this! Oh yeah - did you know that there's a piste at Murren called 'Hindenberg'. No, me neither.
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21st December. The shortest day.
Extreme pushchairing!
Big slide on Mannlichen - still fancy skiing the powder under the lift?
Wengen looking great at the moment. It's the village season-opening evening tonight. This means shops open late, kids handing out chocolate and alcohol everywhere you look.
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22nd December. The whole world arriving in Wengen.
Unbelievable. They actually ran out of trains at Lauterbrunnen - looks like everyone has decided that Wengen is the place to be this Christmas.
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23rd December. Shopping.
Incredibly busy - loads of mums, dads and kiddies.
View from the top of the Metropole in Interlaken. Nice lunch.
My favourite shop in the whole world ever.
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24th December. Ski Ski Ski
Rabbit loose on the nursery slope. It is rumoured to be living amongst the chamoix on Mannlichen but I don't think anyone really believes it.
Bumps, on Bumps. The piste down to Mary's opened a couple of days ago and it's just perfect.
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25th December. Champagne!
See you in February.