Thursday and Friday

On Thursday we went on a really good hike. Much of the morning was spent going uphill and my pace can only be described as dead slow as my rubbish lungs struggled to cope with the thinner air. We drank lots of water- there are water troughs with lovely clean, cold running water along the footpaths so we could refill regularly.

Last night it started to rain and there was a double rainbow over the valley (the pic doesn't show the 2nd one very well).

During the night there was a tremendous thunderstorm and we woke up to pouring rain. I had visions of us having to stay in and play board games but luckily blue skies started to appear after breakfast and the rain stayed away all day. We hiked right round the valley and I decided looking at Grindelwald from the hillside that it is like a model village - pristine houses, trains running like clockwork, cows dotted round the meadows.

We have found Switzerland to be incredibly expensive and have had to shop very carefully. I picked up a small tin of frankfurters in the Co-op only to hastily put them back when I realised the tin cost over £6. We invested in a Swiss Half Fare card which has been well worth it - 50% reduction on all of our train fares and also on the Matterhorn and Jungfrau excursions.

The hostels here are relatively expensive so we kept the cost down by staying in a 4 bed room. Hmm - had some roommates coming in late,  some getting up very early and making noise. Fortunately for the past 2 nights we have had the room to ourselves. Good job too as one of the wooden slats under Martin's top bunk fell on me during last night and it fell to the floor with a clatter. I settled back down but kept wondering if any more would fall so I got up to change bunks. As Martin popped his head over to see why I was up another slat fell off.
The bed was fixed today and I was given a bar of swiss chocolate as an apology - which Martin has eaten as it contained nuts!