After a long training day starting with a 6am session at Barry’s, plenty of punches into head and body during solid sparing at fightzone and with the highlight of catching up with Sam (my assistant at Blackrock) I made it to city airport. On time. No stress. Skyworks offers some great flights to Basel/Bern leaving after work Fridays (7.15pm) and coming back early Monday morning (lands 7.30am). So you get the full weekend away.
Andre picked me up from the cosy Bern airport. After most passengers got off in Basel we were a full 5 people on the plane (felt very much like a private hire by now). Two border police officers met us (respect), a full three pieces of checked luggage required pickup and after 5mins all was done. Amazing. A snowy ride to my friends weekend place in Interlaken (50km) ensued. Winter!
After a somewhat late night we drove to Grindelwald. Amazing place and completely snowed in. Plenty of tourists around including many Asians as usual to take the Jungfraujochbahn to Europe’s highest train station at 3,450m (‘Top of Europe’) and gaze at the famous Eiger north face. I went there myself during my last vist in September 2015 and completed my 22 day push up challenge there.
It was snowing like crazy especially further up the mountain (we went up to First, 2,200m) and new snow looked at lot more than the official 20cm. Temperatures between -11/-15 degrees and extremely poor visibility. So instead of nice powder runs we found ourselves repeatedly digging us out from waist deep snow. After a few runs we called it a day and went for lunch at Bergrestaurant Schreckfeld. A goulash soup each (SFr 10.50) and a beer (SFr5.5 – dry period took a break this weekend ;o) were all reasonably priced.
Back in the car the smart BMW notified Andre of low tire pressure – we had a caught a nail. Amazingly, it took only 90mins from calling the BMW service mobile to having the tire fixed (on a Saturday afternoon). This service comes will all BMW’s in Switzerland Andre told me (being in charge of a BMW garage himself). Then we had a bit of time and went to see Rene in the reggae pub ‘Jamming Corner’. Relaxed place for locals. A schnaps called ‘Grüne Zunge’ is apparently his specialty – but we passed gladly. After a quick stop at Andre’s paragliding centre we made it home. Time for a traditional cheese fondue – chef Andre in action! Very tasty!
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The 15min walk to town was welcome after such heavy dinner (the cheese fills you right up). First stop was Ice Magic a local specialty, white mulled wine. While drinking we watched a bunch of local ladies engaging in a game called ‘Eisstockschiessen‘. It’s very similar to curling, but without the brushing as a group of local girls explained alongside a few tips as to where we could go out tonight. I liked the tumbles most ;o)
We decided to hit ‘HighLife‘ for a bit of rock music, good chat with locals (albeit some completely shit faced) and even a few timid dance moves. My highlight was meeting my new favorite girl. Bit skinny, but with overwhelming style and charm! It turned into a pretty late one …
Sunday morning was slow. More for Andre than myself. No boarding today and unfortunately we also missed paragliding – which Andre’s paragliding teacher had offered. Well, well. Instead we headed for the city of Thun for a late lunch. Not bad city, but expected little more. The ‘Rösti’ was nice though.
The drive home was swift (60min) and after a brief rest we headed into Basel to meet with camping neighbors Ernst and Helen at their Basel apartment. Mona, who hadn’t come to Interlaken feeling unwell, joined us. Andre had to deliver a few things and then we all gathered in a smoke filed kitchen over a beer. Soon we headed back home in great anticipation of gratin for dinner. Thank you Mona! Extremely tasty.
Thank you Andre & Mona for a wonderful weekend. See you soon!
