Lauterbrunnen, Bernese Oberland - SWITZERLAND
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The patter of rain continued on the roof this morning and our worst fears were confirmed. The banks of snow and road outside had turned to mush, making it almost impossible to walk on, let alone to drive over. We dug most of it away beside the car with shovels and with the help of a Land Rover was towed out of the ditch we were placed in. Then like a formula one scene the magic bus ran along the flat and then raced up the steep hill leading out of the campsite. Dave had done it and once in central Lauterbrunnen it was all downhill to Interlaken - don't tell the Swiss we had summer tyres and no chains. In Interlaken we stopped to make a few phone calls and began the organisation of our Middle Eastern sojourn. By mid-afternoon the clear motorway took us back to Bern in well under an hour. I spent the next two hours unpacking our valuables from the van, whilst Dave went downtown to pick up all our photos and to savour some of the carnival atmosphere being held to ward off the evils of winter. At 6pm we headed off in the drizzling rain to pick up Frank and Chris, a friend from University. In poor driving conditions the four of us sped off in the combi towards Biel. Outside Biel, in one of the villages around the lake, the locals took us into a restaurant cellar where copious amounts of sausage cooked in grappa were to be served. This is a centuries old tradition and only served during the months of January and February in a special room underground. With 12 others packed on two tables we were transported back to medieval times, tasting fine wines, sausages larger than the width of your arm, potato salad and red cabbage. We were thrust back into the 20th century by a huge slice of Viennetta ice cream and after the others had gulped down a shot of fiery grappa we all made our way back to Bern. After parking the combi back behind Frank's the four of us headed downtown in the pouring rain. The pulsing sounds of drums and a plethora of instruments rang out across the sky and from the rose garden we saw a rainbow of flashing colour. The Swiss had come out to party all in costume to ward of the winter ghouls and we were almost the only ones in plain clothes. The main street was absolutely littered with stalls from ice bars selling beer to food stalls selling multi-cultural favours. Bands from all over the country would play to their hearts content every hundred metres or so. The costumes were some of the most elaborate I've seen and included things like a man dressed as a pencil, giraffe, businessmen attached to human-sized mobile phones and briefcases and a multitude of colourful swirling fabric and carnival masks (like something from Rio without the nudity!). We spent the early morning hours on a cellar or pub crawl and, like in a small village atmosphere, bands would weave their way in and out of the pubs and restaurants with all the instruments of a symphony. At 3am the guys decided there wasn't enough girls in the nightclub and then we made our way home to fall asleep dreaming all the colours of the evening. |