Well, this is it: the final day of our trip to Switzerland. It's been a fantastic week, with many... diversions that have kept us constantly amused. Thai curry a la Emily and Robbie was delicious last night, although the overall dinner of the week was clearly voted to be the spectacular fish pie.
This morning was started with a wonderful cooked breakfast - a veritable feast of sausages, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms, and we now look forward to a day of hard travelling.
Finally, we would like to thank:
Bernard
Gillian
Finesse
The Canadian woman who saved us from eternal wanderings
The goat farmers
The woman at the Auberge Col De Soud
Robbie's family, for kindly letting us stay at their house
And many others
Until next year, a bientot!
- Robbie, Emily, Todd, Anto, Joe, Paul, Caz, Sasha
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Fort Switzerland
Seeing as how today has been our last full day together in Europe, we thought we should celebrate by spending it in style. As such, we lazed around the house for a few hours before heading to the shops to pick up a few souvenirs and the last bit of food, followed by watching the film Layer Cake. As I speak, Robbie and Emily are cooking up a thai green curry, which smells delicious.
The main highlight of the day has been fulfilling Caz's long-persistent wish - the construction of a mattress fort. It is a thing of beauty, and I should know - I'm in it! With two engineers and a team of logically minded people, you might expect counterweights and pivots, but sadly, this is not the case. However, it does have a door, ably provided by a folding mattress - even though Anto has currently stolen it to use as a seat. I'm going to sign off now, as with the roof overhead, there is little light coming in, and I can't see the keyboard.
- Bernard.
The main highlight of the day has been fulfilling Caz's long-persistent wish - the construction of a mattress fort. It is a thing of beauty, and I should know - I'm in it! With two engineers and a team of logically minded people, you might expect counterweights and pivots, but sadly, this is not the case. However, it does have a door, ably provided by a folding mattress - even though Anto has currently stolen it to use as a seat. I'm going to sign off now, as with the roof overhead, there is little light coming in, and I can't see the keyboard.
- Bernard.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Goat Appeal
Wow. That was quite some walk. After the production line had made everybody's sandwiches, we went to the cable car station, repeating a walk that we had all thoroughly enjoyed last year. The walk began with a short scramble up a slope to the top of a ridge, which revealed some brilliant panoramas, and where we had a drink and a quick snack, whilst taking many photos. We then processed along a ridge, with craggy rocks and a steep decline on one side, and a steep decline covered in flowers on the other, walking through a six inch wide gully that twisted around rocks and generally threatened to twist ankles. Luckily, no-one was hurt (except for perhaps their pride) and after a time the path flattened out and moved off the ridge, leading to some more pleasant walking.
As we descended into the valley, we arrived at the fabulous lake, on the way scrambling past old trees, rotting roots, and even seeing a fox at one point! More menagerie mayhem to follow. We walked half way round the lake to a lovely clearing where we had lunch last year and quickly ate our rolls. Entertainment was provided by much discussion of Lake Placid, what to do when attacked by sharks or crocodiles, and the best way to kill an alligator; accompanied by Caz taking a quick dip (having brought her bikini all that way).
Note from Caz: Cold!!
Lunch over, we recommenced the walk, heading through the small skiing town of Bretaye. This is where the fun starts. On the way out of the deserted village, we passed a group of goats, outside a farmstead bedecked with enormous cowbells. However, one goat was separate from the others, and, somehow, free. She came over to say hello, and we fussed over her for a minute or two, before heading off. She dutifully followed. Now, this was amusing at first, until we got to the first cattle grid, where we thought we'd lose her. However, it was a particularly ingenious goat, and she figured that she could walk under a fence and round the side. This was when we started to worry.
A few hundred metres later, she strolled up a hill, taking a right where we took a left, and we thought that that was the end of our goat friend. Not the case. A few moments later, when we'd given up, we heard the tinkle of her bell and there she was again, catching up. Houston, we had a problem. Running didn't work - she just started trotting, and then a sort of misaligned gallop that allowed her to keep pace. At every turn, she followed us, and always managed to sneak around the cattle grids. We were beginning to despair by the time we reached Auberge Col de Soud, which was the start of yesterday's walk. Various plans involved fashioning a harness from grass that would take her a while to eat through, and leaving Paul behind to hold her while we went off, with the idea that he could outrun it. A rebel faction even wanted to just carry on, and see if the goat would follow us all the way back to Villars. These dreams were crushed though when a passing car stopped and asked us what we were doing with a goat, and told us in no uncertain terms that it was illegal.
We then got to discussing the possibilities of a delegation returning the goat to it's home back in the hills, but no-one was ecstatic over the idea. Stuck for a solution, we returned to the hotel and tried to get help. Fortunately, due to Robbie's incredible french-speaking skills we managed persuade the owner to call the farmers, who heroically came to the goat's rescue in a jeep. The goat turned out to be called Finesse, and we had a bit of laugh about the whole situation. After we bid her goodbye we were soon skipping down the mountain side, following a path we took the previous day, our five hour excursion complete.
- Gillian.
As we descended into the valley, we arrived at the fabulous lake, on the way scrambling past old trees, rotting roots, and even seeing a fox at one point! More menagerie mayhem to follow. We walked half way round the lake to a lovely clearing where we had lunch last year and quickly ate our rolls. Entertainment was provided by much discussion of Lake Placid, what to do when attacked by sharks or crocodiles, and the best way to kill an alligator; accompanied by Caz taking a quick dip (having brought her bikini all that way).
Note from Caz: Cold!!
Lunch over, we recommenced the walk, heading through the small skiing town of Bretaye. This is where the fun starts. On the way out of the deserted village, we passed a group of goats, outside a farmstead bedecked with enormous cowbells. However, one goat was separate from the others, and, somehow, free. She came over to say hello, and we fussed over her for a minute or two, before heading off. She dutifully followed. Now, this was amusing at first, until we got to the first cattle grid, where we thought we'd lose her. However, it was a particularly ingenious goat, and she figured that she could walk under a fence and round the side. This was when we started to worry.
A few hundred metres later, she strolled up a hill, taking a right where we took a left, and we thought that that was the end of our goat friend. Not the case. A few moments later, when we'd given up, we heard the tinkle of her bell and there she was again, catching up. Houston, we had a problem. Running didn't work - she just started trotting, and then a sort of misaligned gallop that allowed her to keep pace. At every turn, she followed us, and always managed to sneak around the cattle grids. We were beginning to despair by the time we reached Auberge Col de Soud, which was the start of yesterday's walk. Various plans involved fashioning a harness from grass that would take her a while to eat through, and leaving Paul behind to hold her while we went off, with the idea that he could outrun it. A rebel faction even wanted to just carry on, and see if the goat would follow us all the way back to Villars. These dreams were crushed though when a passing car stopped and asked us what we were doing with a goat, and told us in no uncertain terms that it was illegal.
We then got to discussing the possibilities of a delegation returning the goat to it's home back in the hills, but no-one was ecstatic over the idea. Stuck for a solution, we returned to the hotel and tried to get help. Fortunately, due to Robbie's incredible french-speaking skills we managed persuade the owner to call the farmers, who heroically came to the goat's rescue in a jeep. The goat turned out to be called Finesse, and we had a bit of laugh about the whole situation. After we bid her goodbye we were soon skipping down the mountain side, following a path we took the previous day, our five hour excursion complete.
- Gillian.
There And Back Again
Tuesday was a day that would test our strength to the very edge of our knowledge, trying even the staunch resolve of the hardy DofE veterans in our group. A wake up call at the criminally early time of 10:15am would prove to be the first of many trials that would permeate the coming day. Following a quick trip into Villars town centre to buy the bread for lunch, the actual process of making our sandwiches for lunch began. And lo, disaster struck. In attempting to open a fiendish packet of corned beef, Joe managed to break the ring pull opener clean off the can, rendering the end of this task an unreachable dream. However, not one to give up, we soldiered on fiercely, and ended up with enough corned beef to satiate the appetite of Anto.
Sandwiches completed and carrying enough snacks to feed an army, we headed off down the hill, into the deep unknown, searching for Le Bevieux. The walk took us down through Villars again, and then we continued on the downwards theme for most of the walk, taking us through such fantastic locations as the picturesque Arveyes, where we met the fluffiest cat ever. Though it was predominantly black, it was described as ‘really marmaladey’ – which makes us wonder what sort of marmalade is served chez East. We also saw a number of derelict old shacks, a pair of abandoned baths, and we even caught a glimpse of a snake at one point.
It took us about three hours to realise that we might just be a little bit lost. At this point, we were in La Foret (we think), and looking for a triangle. Instead, we headed off down a path and managed to find ourselves a few minutes above Devins, but we were lucky enough to accost a very nice Canadian lady, who sympathetically listened to our French before telling us where we were in English. There was an incident with a cyclist and madly jumping up and down, waving arms and screaming 'Monseiur, monsieur, arretes!'. Apparently Le Bevieux was in completely the wrong direction, and about an hour away, but she told us that Bex (the largest town on the mountain, which was at the bottom) was just a short walk away. In the end, we headed to Bex, and took the tram back up, taking pride in the fact that we at least saw Le Bevieux station as we passed through.
We whiled away the evening playing Spot the Intro, after an improvised Bolognaise from Joe and Robbie. The game lasted for quite a while, though after we finished the approved version, in which we scored about 30% each, we gave up and started going through all 99 tracks, picking out the ones that we knew and having a rather entertaining karaoke night.
Wednesday was our most successful day when it came to wasting as much time as possible. As times grew desperate, three intrepid explorers managed to summon the energy to venture out the house for food. After a well-prepared meal of fajitas, including chicken which tasted as good as it smelt, we settled down to watch ‘Pulp Fiction’. It’s safe to say that the black humour was well-received by the majority of people, which was fortunate as it was followed by ‘Snatch’. (Brad Pitt, yay.)
After a lazy morning, we were fearful that a repeat of Wednesday would occur. Unfortunately this train of thought was shattered when Robbie forced everyone to move and decided to push us up a mountain. Our exploration was almost cut short when the train pulled up to the station and we were not there. Our sprinting skills in unlaced-trainers were pushed to the limit as were Caroline’s weather-predicting skills.
“It’s gonna be miserable and rainy” she said in vain.
“No, don’t be stupid” came the response.
Oh how wrong they were.
Up the mountain were many exciting distractions for the young mind, including a little handmade-shelter of sticks and a big barn. After much procrastination, we made it to the end of the wood/mountain and safely home. Despite nearly constant drizzle.
For tea was a BBQ in the rain, which may sound worrying considering the presence of hot fire standing next to a wooden house. The blaze was truly tested when our burgers managed to cook completely in a minute. These tasty burgers were accompanied by veal and spicy lamb sausages, baby potatoes and veggie kebabs.
That night we participated in some light-hearted drinking.
No comment.
Friday so far: Todd woke up at half ten, and was joined by everyone else two hours later. We’re currently waiting for the shops to open to go and buy some fresh baguettes, to prepare a tasty and nutritious lunch for our hearty walk to visit the mountain lakes of Bretaye. More to come.
- Bernard.
Sandwiches completed and carrying enough snacks to feed an army, we headed off down the hill, into the deep unknown, searching for Le Bevieux. The walk took us down through Villars again, and then we continued on the downwards theme for most of the walk, taking us through such fantastic locations as the picturesque Arveyes, where we met the fluffiest cat ever. Though it was predominantly black, it was described as ‘really marmaladey’ – which makes us wonder what sort of marmalade is served chez East. We also saw a number of derelict old shacks, a pair of abandoned baths, and we even caught a glimpse of a snake at one point.
It took us about three hours to realise that we might just be a little bit lost. At this point, we were in La Foret (we think), and looking for a triangle. Instead, we headed off down a path and managed to find ourselves a few minutes above Devins, but we were lucky enough to accost a very nice Canadian lady, who sympathetically listened to our French before telling us where we were in English. There was an incident with a cyclist and madly jumping up and down, waving arms and screaming 'Monseiur, monsieur, arretes!'. Apparently Le Bevieux was in completely the wrong direction, and about an hour away, but she told us that Bex (the largest town on the mountain, which was at the bottom) was just a short walk away. In the end, we headed to Bex, and took the tram back up, taking pride in the fact that we at least saw Le Bevieux station as we passed through.
We whiled away the evening playing Spot the Intro, after an improvised Bolognaise from Joe and Robbie. The game lasted for quite a while, though after we finished the approved version, in which we scored about 30% each, we gave up and started going through all 99 tracks, picking out the ones that we knew and having a rather entertaining karaoke night.
Wednesday was our most successful day when it came to wasting as much time as possible. As times grew desperate, three intrepid explorers managed to summon the energy to venture out the house for food. After a well-prepared meal of fajitas, including chicken which tasted as good as it smelt, we settled down to watch ‘Pulp Fiction’. It’s safe to say that the black humour was well-received by the majority of people, which was fortunate as it was followed by ‘Snatch’. (Brad Pitt, yay.)
After a lazy morning, we were fearful that a repeat of Wednesday would occur. Unfortunately this train of thought was shattered when Robbie forced everyone to move and decided to push us up a mountain. Our exploration was almost cut short when the train pulled up to the station and we were not there. Our sprinting skills in unlaced-trainers were pushed to the limit as were Caroline’s weather-predicting skills.
“It’s gonna be miserable and rainy” she said in vain.
“No, don’t be stupid” came the response.
Oh how wrong they were.
Up the mountain were many exciting distractions for the young mind, including a little handmade-shelter of sticks and a big barn. After much procrastination, we made it to the end of the wood/mountain and safely home. Despite nearly constant drizzle.
For tea was a BBQ in the rain, which may sound worrying considering the presence of hot fire standing next to a wooden house. The blaze was truly tested when our burgers managed to cook completely in a minute. These tasty burgers were accompanied by veal and spicy lamb sausages, baby potatoes and veggie kebabs.
That night we participated in some light-hearted drinking.
No comment.
Friday so far: Todd woke up at half ten, and was joined by everyone else two hours later. We’re currently waiting for the shops to open to go and buy some fresh baguettes, to prepare a tasty and nutritious lunch for our hearty walk to visit the mountain lakes of Bretaye. More to come.
- Bernard.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Chapter III
Today was a day of highs and lows - the height of the chalet, and the lows of the co-op in Villars town centre. After a late night last night, we finally arose at about 11am, to a breakfast of pesto pasta (we were out of milk...).
After doing nothing but playing cards, reading and watching music tv for another hour, we finally decided it was time to hit the shops; co-op style. Heading down to the town centre held many photo opportunities along the "scenic" route, finally catching a glimpse of the mountains in the distance through a small break in the near-solid cloud cover.
Once back at the chalet, we settled down to 'A Scanner, Darkly' (a film about drugs and the breakdown of modern society) before Joe, Robbie and Emily began preparations for a dinner of fish pie. After two hours in the kitchen, and the need to sieve our white sauce, we settled down to a meal outside, taking advantage of the limited sunshine. The meal was enjoyed by all, although perhaps not quite sufficient to feed a group of hungry teenagers and so was followed by a selection of cereals for dessert. The evening will be rounded off by a game of Mafia in which unsuspecting villagers are whittled off one by one by the attentions of not only highly organised criminals but also their own neighbours, set to a soundtrack of The Girl from Ipanema.
Hardcore.
- Bernard.
After doing nothing but playing cards, reading and watching music tv for another hour, we finally decided it was time to hit the shops; co-op style. Heading down to the town centre held many photo opportunities along the "scenic" route, finally catching a glimpse of the mountains in the distance through a small break in the near-solid cloud cover.
Once back at the chalet, we settled down to 'A Scanner, Darkly' (a film about drugs and the breakdown of modern society) before Joe, Robbie and Emily began preparations for a dinner of fish pie. After two hours in the kitchen, and the need to sieve our white sauce, we settled down to a meal outside, taking advantage of the limited sunshine. The meal was enjoyed by all, although perhaps not quite sufficient to feed a group of hungry teenagers and so was followed by a selection of cereals for dessert. The evening will be rounded off by a game of Mafia in which unsuspecting villagers are whittled off one by one by the attentions of not only highly organised criminals but also their own neighbours, set to a soundtrack of The Girl from Ipanema.
Hardcore.
- Bernard.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
In The Beginning...
... There were delays.
Arrival at the airport was delayed, because Paul wouldn't get up and Robbie needed to shower, the check in was delayed, because there were problems with the baggage handling and the flight was delayed because... well, we don't know why. But after all that, we arrived in Switzerland for the mountains, the fresh air and... clouds.
After a few trains, we got to Villars, and started up the walk to the chalet. Unfortunately, Sasha and Caz's first view of the house and neighbourhood was obscured by said clouds, but they were suitably impressed by the short tour. We then spent much of the remaining afternoon lounging around the house, playing various games and planning the rest of the week. Dinner was a spaghetti alla carbonara according to Delia Smith, i.e. just eggy pasta, from Robbie and Todd, and then we played Trivial Pursuit until we were close to falling asleep where we sat.
We slept in late this morning, and then wandered down the hill (which seemed a lot shorter on the way down!) to catch a mountain train that's basically a tram, to catch a bus to the baths, which were basically a swimming pool. Having descended below cloud level there were some lovely views, which Caz and Sasha admired especially, as the rest of us had seen them before, although the weather was not very sunny.
After a number of exciting adventures at the baths (including the discovery of a tourist's wallet, credit cards and passport in the changing rooms, a humorous interlude in the queue involving the bizarrely translated tourist blurb and Joe abusing his height advantage to catch snow in the ice-room) we returned to Casa Heminway. The views from the tram were naturally somewhat less exciting the second time round (although they did have the novelty of appearing in reverse order) and the journey passed with no further incident other than recognising the bus driver as the same man who dropped us off.
After our return, little happened until dinner, although Joe somehow did manage to persuade Paul into wearing some normal shirts, leaving Paul feeling a little bereft of meaning in life, and to while away the hour or so before dinner, we were amused by the comic rants of Ross Noble.
Dinner! omg, what good can be said about it!! Some complete muffin had bought sausages the size of Belgium and with these our 4/5 intrepid cooks tried to produce a traditional sausage and mash dish. There were a lot of leftovers. The ratio of sausage to mash was comparible to the mass of a small pony and Jupiter. It was also discovered that the problem of a complete absence of any normal, tasty milk was solved with a much more vegan option. It was actually pretty tasty.
- Bernard.
Arrival at the airport was delayed, because Paul wouldn't get up and Robbie needed to shower, the check in was delayed, because there were problems with the baggage handling and the flight was delayed because... well, we don't know why. But after all that, we arrived in Switzerland for the mountains, the fresh air and... clouds.
After a few trains, we got to Villars, and started up the walk to the chalet. Unfortunately, Sasha and Caz's first view of the house and neighbourhood was obscured by said clouds, but they were suitably impressed by the short tour. We then spent much of the remaining afternoon lounging around the house, playing various games and planning the rest of the week. Dinner was a spaghetti alla carbonara according to Delia Smith, i.e. just eggy pasta, from Robbie and Todd, and then we played Trivial Pursuit until we were close to falling asleep where we sat.
We slept in late this morning, and then wandered down the hill (which seemed a lot shorter on the way down!) to catch a mountain train that's basically a tram, to catch a bus to the baths, which were basically a swimming pool. Having descended below cloud level there were some lovely views, which Caz and Sasha admired especially, as the rest of us had seen them before, although the weather was not very sunny.
After a number of exciting adventures at the baths (including the discovery of a tourist's wallet, credit cards and passport in the changing rooms, a humorous interlude in the queue involving the bizarrely translated tourist blurb and Joe abusing his height advantage to catch snow in the ice-room) we returned to Casa Heminway. The views from the tram were naturally somewhat less exciting the second time round (although they did have the novelty of appearing in reverse order) and the journey passed with no further incident other than recognising the bus driver as the same man who dropped us off.
After our return, little happened until dinner, although Joe somehow did manage to persuade Paul into wearing some normal shirts, leaving Paul feeling a little bereft of meaning in life, and to while away the hour or so before dinner, we were amused by the comic rants of Ross Noble.
Dinner! omg, what good can be said about it!! Some complete muffin had bought sausages the size of Belgium and with these our 4/5 intrepid cooks tried to produce a traditional sausage and mash dish. There were a lot of leftovers. The ratio of sausage to mash was comparible to the mass of a small pony and Jupiter. It was also discovered that the problem of a complete absence of any normal, tasty milk was solved with a much more vegan option. It was actually pretty tasty.
- Bernard.
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