Switzerland August 2019 Pt 2

Wednesday

Train from Wengen to Kleine Scheidigg. From Kleine Scheidigg to the Jungfraujoch (the col below the summit). Nice new train. The train stopped at Eismeer station (3159m) in the tunnel so everyone could get out and look through the viewing windows to the Ischmeer glacier. This station is one up from Eigerwand which was the one connected with the 1936 tragedy. Since 2016 Eigerwand is no longer in use.

At the top, 3454m at Jungfraujoch you walk round on a signposted route. It was ok and we were lucky to see the views before the weather came in and obliterated everything. I didn’t go in the ice palace or out on the snow as I am still wary of slipping. I stamped my Jungfrau passport and had a horrible and expensive sandwich. Decided to go back down. The train does not stop for viewing on the way down but the ticket person gives you a small bar of chocolate, clearly something UK train operators need to adopt. I looked around Kleine Scheidigg. Cheapest postcards! Then I walked down to Wengernalp station, nice to leave the crowds and the selfie sticks. Caught the next train down from Wengernalp. Bought an almond croissant from the nice bakery in Wengen to make up for the sandwich and ate it near the church. Dinner of salads, vegetable (spinach) roll and veg, cheese and bread. The boys (Adrian and Mark) and I are going to eat out in a Swiss resto tomorrow but W the bigot asked if he could tag along and it was not easy to say no although I was very tempted. We have recruited some more to the party so I should be able to avoid the nasty old git. Why he wants to eat with 3 queers is beyond me. I have failed to shake him off at meals.

Fluffy the Alpine chough
Aletsch glacier

Thursday

Today involved a great many types and changes of transport. Train to Lauterbrunnen, cable car to Grütschalp, train to Mürren. Mürren was delightful, traffic free, high. I fancy a holiday there. Walked through the village to the cable car to the Schilthorn (2970m). You go up most of the way to Birg and switch for the final 500m. Misty. I was 11 when On Her Majesty’s Secret Service came out and I’ve wanted to go to Piz Gloria on the Schilthorn ever since so this was a dream come true for me. It’s all very silly but I loved it. Had a ristretto in the revolving restaurant. We stayed about an hour but it was much more relaxed than the Jungfrau so a pleasant visit. Back down in the cable cars to Mürren, ate my very nice cheese and tomato on whole-wheat sourdough sandwich from the baker’s in Wengen then a cable car to Stechelberg. Onto a bus to the Trümmelbach falls which is a touristy thing. I walked up the 140m of the falls. Ok but back with the pushing and shoving so not as enjoyable. Falls were pretty amazing, all inside the mountain. Took the lift some of the way back down. Onto bus then train to Wengen. Out to local restaurant with Adrian, Mark, Jim, Tony, Janet and Phil. I had a dark beer, rõsti, crème caramel. Janet and Tony shared fondue and Janet had a flaming ice cream. Good company and good fun. W the bigot had changed his mind about coming with us after all. Perhaps 3 really is 3 too many queers. He had to make a dig at me of course and referred to my “ostentatious hat”. When I haven’t got anything to do I’ll consider how to pimp my cap. Or not.

These get used to great effect by Diana Rigg
I should really just let James get on with sorting out Blofeld
Piz Gloria
Quite a long way up
Inside the Trümmelbach Falls
Fluffy the Alpine Chough

Friday

Cable car to Männlichen. Walked to Kleine Scheidigg, bumped into Chris and Linda going the other way round. Arrived at Kleine Scheidigg, sat in cafe and Jo and Mark pitched up going the same way round as me. I had an ice cream and some juice, back to no sugar on Sunday. Chatted with some Australians but they wanted to talk about Brexit and I just want to put my head in a bucket. Looked through the telescope at the north Face of the Eiger. I can’t imagine how Uli Steck climbed it in 2 hours and 22 minutes. Caught the train to Wengen with Jo and Mark. Shopping in co-op. Packing. A free farewell drink from the hotel (small beer for me, you can get beer in 20, 30 or 50 cl. amounts). A dinner with cheese in everything including cheese soup, reports of this were not great. I had salad starter, salad is just cold food really, nearly always cold omelette or quiche. Then further carb overload of cheesy pasta, potato, cheesy quiche, sauerkraut. Apfelstrudel and small choc meringue. Sat by the church with Jude and Chris. I have now walked the whole of the route between Männlichen and Wengen.

Eiger from Kleine Scheidegg
Toothy rocks of Männlichen

Saturday

I woke at 2.37 which was rubbish because the alarm was set for 4.30 and of course I couldn’t get back to sleep. Switzerland is an hour ahead to make matters worse. I went down just before 5.30 to find members of the group sitting in the Poirot entrance hall in the dark waiting for the call to breakfast. It really looked like we were waiting for the dénouement. I didn’t think I’d want to eat but managed my usual breakfast and made a large cheese sandwich for later in the day. We trotted off to the station in the dark, the luggage and Olive went by milk float. Train to Lauterbrunnen, train to Interlaken, train to Basel, train to Gare de Lyon. On this train we had 32 reserved seats but some people had already sat in them and didn’t want to move, however we managed to sort this out without any fighting! The train did not have any guidance as to where the seat numbers were located on the outside of the carriage so unfortunately most of us were at the wrong end of the carriage which meant we had to do a lot of passing suitcases over people’s heads as basically the selfish seat stealers had created a total log jam. We all eventually got our seats. Bus to Gare du Nord, passing Place de la Bastille and Place de la République. Very hot in Paris, over 30 degrees. Eurostar to St. Pancras, at one point there was a call for a doctor, farewell to fellow travellers (I shook W the bigot’s hand very formally). Got onto train to Leeds at King’s Cross by a whisker to find Ruchi and her mother travelling to Peterborough. They were being helped by a Millwall fan, who also helped me with my bag, He was keen to demonstrate that not all Millwall fans are racists or homophobes and actually he was a nice man! Got to Leeds, straight into M&S to get a salad as part of reverting to my high veg diet. There was a large woman who was totally off her face struggling to adjust her bra. She asked the checkout guy to help her, so he tried to but unfortunately her large breasts escaped, all mightily unnecessary. Leeds station full of very drunk people, but also quite a lot of coppers. Got onto my train to Halifax, with only a few drunks on it. Arrived Halifax and got into my taxi and home just after 9.30. I had been awake for a very long time. I was looking forward to my lovely bed but I knew it would be hard to walk in the door to the empty house but actually it was even harder than I had imagined, just wanting Carol to be here. There is nothing I can do that makes it any better, the double grief is shit. I’ve fallen back to earth.

Place de la République
Gare du Nord
Welcoming us to Eurostar

Switzerland August 2019 Pt 1

Friday

It took me hours to pack my bags. It felt very strange to be setting off for a holiday with no Carol to see me off. No-one to give the contact details to.

I went on the Grand Central train from Halifax to King’s Cross. I sat with a couple of actively retired vicars from Halifax. They told me about their 4 sons. The wife vicar was Swiss and delighted that I was travelling to Switzerland!

I walked to my hotel on the edge of Russell Square in the heat. My room was on the top, 7th floor and was even hotter than outside, no air con but noisy from lots of huge air con units in the courtyard below. Also smelly from frying in the kitchen.

The first thing I noticed in the room was that a person could climb out of the window. Not a good way to go.

I got on the bed and promptly fell fast asleep.

Then I went to Waitrose in the Brunswick centre to buy breakfast. I have to leave too early to get the hotel breakfast.

Back for more dozing then out to Carluccio’s for beer, cheese and pea salad and veggie balls with hummous, broccoli, tomato and a very thin crispy bread thing. All very nice. This ended up as the best dinner of the holiday. They asked me if I had any allergies. Guess this is after the Pret mess.

If I ever do anything like this again I’ll book my own hotel, a Premier Inn would have been fine.

Opposite the President hotel off Russell Square
Delicious!

Saturday

I was too hot to sleep well. Got up at 5 and took a taxi to St. Pancreas. The driver was way too chatty for so early.

Met the tour leader, Philip and some of the party of 31. First of several reminders to be vigilant, a lesson from being gay for 40 years is that you always have eyes in the back of your head and assess situations quickly, at least I do, survival.

Sat next to Jim from Kansas. Ate my fresh fruit and yoghurt.

Once at the Gare du Nord we walked round to the Gare de l’Est. I bought a salad in M&S which I had on the TGV, still sitting next to Jim.

Arrived mid afternoon in Strasbourg. Nice clean and cool hotel Mercure opposite station. The room was on the 4th floor and was even easier to fall out of than the President in London.

I went and looked at the cathedral which was heaving. Got told off for not taking my cap off. I suspect God has better things to worry about but of course I apologised and took it off. I find people taking selfies more bothersome. Some people had gone in just to sit and fiddle with their phones.

We went to a restaurant very near to the hotel called Le Dix. I sat at the wrong table with an 80 year old bigot. What fun. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one who found his opinions didn’t go down well. He was anti vegetarians and vegans. Kept repeating the same “joke” endlessly, about 10 times. Made unsatisfactory comments about queers.

For my dinner I had veggie quiche, aubergine tomato cheese thing, would be great on cold winter day! Fruit tart. Small glass of beer courtesy of my new Welsh friend Adrian.

On Eurostar
Never forget

Strasbourg

Strasbourg cathedral

Sunday

Nice buffet breakfast. Fruit, yoghurt, rye bread, cheese, tomato, juice, coffee. This turned out to be the best breakfast of the holiday.

Trotted off to Les Ponts Couverts which I expected to be enclosed but they were not. Perhaps they had been in the past. It was nice walking before it got too hot. I tagged onto a random tour group briefly. At a bakery the leader said this is where I buy my bread, it’s very good, there was a queue out the door so I got a sandwich from them which was ok.

Returned to hotel to reconvene. We got on a very comfortable train to Basel, then crossed on foot into Switzerland at last, got stern looks from the frontier guards.

Train 2 took us Interlaken Ost. From there train 3 to Lauterbrunnen and then the smallest train up up up to Wengen. No vehicles are allowed in the village except for the electric truck that took all the bags and some of the less mobile people up to the Grand Hotel Belvedere which is grand to look at. They let a few small vans in but no private vehicles.

My room is on the top floor, fabulous views, top notch for cleanliness, lovely clean air, smell of woodsmoke. I actually felt something like happy. The first time. The windows are the worst yet for safety.

Dinner was a help yourself buffet, I had salad, pasta and creamy veg, cheese and dark bread. Ok but not haut cuisine.

Monday

Breakfast buffet, I had fruit (tinned, WTF?!) and yoghurt, cheese and bread and coffee.

I walked through the village, getting cash on the way. The co-op for salad and a nectarine.

I set off for Wengernalp but it was hot so I got halfway and hopped on the train at Allmend. Had a conversation entirely in German giving some directions to an elderly woman. At Wengernalp (1880 m) I wandered about until I found a quiet bench to eat my salad. The salad was very boring, needed a dressing. I found the dressing sachet at the bottom of the box, so the last third was ok. I started to walk back down and chatted to a Swiss woman keen to practise her English. Then I met a young Canadian who was an absolute delight. We took photos for each other. She restored my faith in humanity. I got back to Allmend and got the train back from there.

Bimbled about. Lipton’s apple and cinnamon tea in my room.

Dinner: salads, quiche and gnocchi and green beans, fruit mousse.

Went with Jude and Chris to sit near the church and watch the sun go down on the mountain. Popped in church, immediate feeling of calm and peace. Watched hang glider come down off mountain in rapidly failing light, bit scary to watch but we think they landed ok.

Enormous fireplace in the hotel

Allmend station

Tuesday

After breakfast of fruit and yoghurt and a boiled egg, we went up to Männlichen by big cable car from Wengen. I then walked another 100m of ascent to the peak at 2345m. Back down to the village to catch the train to Lauterbrunnen. From Lauterbrunnen to Zweilütschinen, from Zweilütschinen to Grindelwald. I popped in the co-op for another salad and then through the village to the small but very long cable car rising from 1034m to 2168m. I had my picnic at the top, did a bit of the “cliff walk” a metal path dangling over precipitous drops and then back down, getting a car to myself. As I got into the car an alarm went off and a man ran across to the controls. The alarm stopped and I went off down the mountain. A car coming up contained Tony and we waved at each other. He later told me that on his descent, there was an announcement about a problem and that passengers were to remain calm in the cars. The upshot of this story is that nothing further happened and he was safely brought to land without having to dangle. However this is one of my worst nightmares!

Back in Grindelwald I had my first ever iced coffee, it was ok, not sure if I want lots more of them but it worked well in the heat.

Too hot so I, and others from our party, took the train to Kleine Scheidigg and then another back to Wengen.

Salad, goulash, mousse. Sat with Adrian and Mark outside.

Indeed!

Reminiscing about the empty hotel in Gruyeres

I’m so glad I write travel diaries. This was a strange adventure that happened to me before I began writing this blog and it seemed good enough to tell the story, nearly 8 years later. It was the beginning of my conscious decision to take up walking in the mountains more seriously, so I booked on a walking trip in Switzerland. They booked me in the varied accommodations and sent me a route to follow each day, my luggage was transferred from one accommodation to the next. Simple. And mostly it was, although I wasn’t very fit, and it was terribly hot, 30s at the end of June and I don’t do hot. It had been very hot in London before I left and then I stupidly managed to get sunburnt on my first day in Switzerland.

27/06/05

Trudged up steps to old church and finally reached the Hotel de Ville. I keep arriving at nice, clean hotels wet with sweat and greasy with factor 50 and usually fairly dusty and dirty to boot. Gruyeres was quite busy and bustling on arrival, it is touristy on quite a small scale – the bars shut early, it gets dark early and people go to bed early and get up early. I had the usual long shower and then a lie down, and watched Lindsay Davenport playing at Wimbledon.

I had my dinner sitting outside near to the hotel and talked to some American women. I then went for a little walk in the cool of the evening. I returned to the room and found a new use for the Gideon bible as a window wedge to let some more air in. As I was still so hot I decided to take a day off the schedule the next day.

The town had shut down as soon as it was dark around 9pm. At about 11pm I was feeling very thirsty. I left the room to get a cold drink only to come across a man in a very neat cream coloured business suit who asked me for a room! I explained that I was just a guest and that I was looking for a drink. There were no staff in the hotel at all! I tried to help him to get a room but there was no-one in the hotel to give him a key. He decided to go off and try the brightly lit hotel on the edge of the village.

I still desperately needed water. I found a big kitchen with lots of fridges and helped myself to 2 bottles of water and a beer. I went back to my room and heard someone walking about, I heard a loo flushing too so this at least meant there was one other person on the premises.

The next day I met the other guest, a Japanese woman who also thought it was all most odd. It’s not as if anything terrible happened but it’s the what ifs. What if I’d locked myself out of my room. And what about the poor man who just wanted his room that he’d booked.

Now that I’ve written it, it doesn’t seem so weird but it was at the time!

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