Wednesday 7 December 1983 – Grindelwald
The roofs
were all white with snow this morning when we woke up. There had been a gentle
fall during the night and the whole town was white. There was not much left at
street level by the time Matt got down there, but there were a few cars covered
in white which he loved.
We served
ourselves the continental breakfast including cutting slices from the largest
loaf of rye bread we had ever seen – it was about 24 inches long and ten inches
wide! We left the hotel fairly early to catch the 09.27 to Interlaken and managed this with time to
spare. The taxi was comparatively expensive at f7.80 ($3.40) but worth it as
our single suitcase is rather heavy.
With a bit
of time to spare I tried to change our SwissAir bookings and landed up having a
big row with the myopic girl at their office. We feel we should head for Salzburg rather than Munich
and yesterday when I checked in Berne I was
told that this would not be a problem and would cost no more. The clot this
morning decided otherwise and would not change her mind. With time running out
I finally left her with dire threats.
The journey
to Interlaken was beautiful – all the
countryside around Berne which only yesterday
was brown and green was covered in snow which got thicker as the morning
progressed. There was a bit of sunshine here and there and although there was
still quite a lot of cloud and mist about
there were still some truly lovely views, especially around Lake Thun.
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| On the way to Grindelwald |
The stop in Interlaken to change
trains was about twenty minutes and to Matt’s great joy he was able to get his
hands on some snow again. The trip up to Grindelwald was nothing short of
magnificent and the scenery breathtaking. It was snowing gently (at last!) when
we arrived and the snow on the ground was about two feet thick – magic for Matt
who had never seen snow falling before.
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| Bellvue Hotel |
We found a
very pleasant hotel, aptly named Bellevue.
It was a bit of a way from the station, especially when carrying a heavy
suitcase on a somewhat icy road. But it was worth it. The outlook is
magnificent with both Eiger and Jungfrau in
view. There is a miniature golf course opposite the hotel so while Rab and I
were doing a bit of washing, Matt was over there messing around with the snow.
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| Matt's first snowman |
After we had
finished our chores we strolled up through the town pausing only to build a
snowman. Obviously this is an acquired skill because we landed up with a stunted
ugly dwarf! All good fun though. (We
didn’t realise that there are many different types of snow, some of which may
be better for snowman building than others.) We had suppe and wurst at a stand-up bar
in the main street with a couple of beers as lunch. Most of the shops were
closed as it is Mittwoch and early closing. We managed to fit in afternoon tea
– Matt and Rab had vermicelli made from chestnut puree which we thought rather
awful and very rich - I settled for a
small cheese tart.
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| The view from our hotel room |
We returned
to the hotel via the Sports Centre to see if we could get in any skating or
swimming. The skating rink is only open for 45 minutes each day and would have
cost us about f12 ($5.20) to get in plus the cost of hiring skates while the
swimming pool cost twice as much. Not on, we said as we trekked on home. Rab
wrote a few postcards while I relaxed and Matt explored the rest of the
village. After that we walked down to the Post Office to get the cards off,
checked on some details of the trains with the Railways and then carried on
through the village as night fell.
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| Rab and Matt enjoying the snow |
The other
side of the valley became a deep purple/pink colour which I found fascinating
but which did not seem to impress my companions. Maybe my defective colour
vision created a different spectacle for me. The lights of all the little
villas scattered across the valley gradually came on making a lovely vista. We
had a very nice cheap meal back at the Sports Centre restaurant. We shared a
cheese fondue for f22 ($9.50) and found it pleasant but not as good as raclette.
After
watching a couple of kids playing ice hockey for a while we headed back to the
hotel for another early night. What a day!!
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