Lauterbrunnen, Bernese Oberland - SWITZERLAND

WEDNESDAY 3RD FEBRUARY 1999

Again the sun god shone down on us and we set out early for our last day of skiing. We arrived at Wengen just after 9am and sat down near the station to work out a plan of attack. For today we were going to be ambitious and ski all the resorts we hadn't made it to. Unfortunately the transport and distances thwarted us and we gave up on Murren, which is located on the other side of the valley over Lauterbrunnen. From Kleine Scheidegg we spent 30 minutes skiing down to Grindelwald through the trees on a lonely path. At the end we came out onto the ice next to small chalets and a babbling brook and had to cross country over to the gondola station where buses depart for the area of First above Grindelwald. Although this involved a half hour wait and we sadly decided to give up and take the 20 minute (Europe's longest) 6.6km gondola ride back up to Mannlichen.

For what was left of the morning we skied our favourites and headed over the railway line to the Wengernalp. By lunch we returned to the trees and stopped in the same place as on the first day and polished of 3 chocolate bars and two drinks each. For some time we lay in the snow looking up at the towering mountains above until we were forced to move on by my bad circulation.

Yet another wonderful afternoon of skiing raced passed and by the end of the day we had perfected our skiing style (or maybe not so perfect). Isn't it always the way? Just when you've caught up it's your last day. Oh well perhaps we'll go again after dropping Peter off at Geneva!! By 5pm the forested area spat us out and into the village, where we set out for a few beers and a taste of Swiss cuisine. The restaurant reeked of smelly swiss cheese, where Pete and I decided on the cheese fondue and Dave opted for the Rosti (or big hash brown type thing). AUD$100 later we returned to the cold and made our way back to the bar for another drink. The hour of 11 ended our mission and soon we were on the last train back to Lauterbrunnen.