Marionettes in Charleville-Mezieres

Marionnettes in Charleville-Mezieres

The day was finer but cold. A real nip of autumn in the air. We wandered into Charleville and found a boulangerie to buy almond pastries, brioche and bread. There was a large, grand, enclosed square at the top of the street, which looked really welcoming. Chairs and tables were being put out and there were signs all around saying that the world-renowned marionettes show was coming to town. But we hadn’t time to stay, and wandered back along the river Meuse, back to the van.
Five hours later we were at the Port of Calais, and with the minimum fuss and only 12pounds more, we were on the next ferry, which was only 45mins later. Couldn’t have timed it any better! Overnighting at our usual stop outside Folkestone. Incidentally though Kate was delighted that her boredom was soon to be relieved by our revised return, she warned us that we would have to expect company of three more females on Thursday. With her customary understatement, that could be three or five!!!

A La Retour

A La Retour

With a poor weather forecast, we set off back North, towards Kaysersberg. Only two hours away, so it was still early when we arrived. Even so the “aire”, a large car park within 5mins walk of the historic town, which held 80 spaces, had about 4 free spaces by 3pm!
As I mentioned before, when we called in here on the way down, Kaysersberg is a Christmas, Gingerbread of a town. Medieval, with houses dating back to the 1300s, a bridge fortified in the 1400s, it lies on the border between France and Germany. The locals speak French, but the street names are in French with German subtitles, and the delicious pastries all have German names- Kugelhopf, Linzer tarte, Quetsches. Qutcsches are blueberry tarts, and Kugelhopf are wonderfully light brioches, which can be savoury, filled with lardoons and cheese, or sweet, with raisins and almonds. As in Switzerland, the drink of choice is white beer, again something you don’t often see in France. There’s also a big thing about smoked pork, in sausage and ham form, garnished with “choucroute”/ sauerkraut! (We’ve brought some back to try for lunch tomorrow). Sitting in a café,eating sausage and choucroute, with white beer, surrounded by timber-framed buildings, dripping with geraniums, and you might imagine yourself in Bavaria!
The town was and still is famous for its pottery production, and there is a pottery market every Saturday- beautiful but pricey!
Albert Schweizer, the famous medical missionary, was born here. We visited his home/museum. He set up and ran a hospital in Africa, was a proficient organist, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He died in 1965, aged 90. That was when I remember learning about him in Padiham Green Junior School, aged 10!
On the way back to the van, we bought a few bottles of Gewurztraminer and Cremant, and I called in at a small “cave”, run by Francois Stoll. I apologised for my poor French and said how frustrating it was to try and have a conversation! He then told me about the story in the Bible of the Tower of Babel, reminding of how before this every one spoke the same language, and after the goings-on in Sodom and Gomorrah, we were punished by an inability to communicate with each other! Must look that up when we return! Lovely guy, who didn’t seem to mind at all that this crazy, English woman wanted a natter and was only buying two bottles of his lovingly-produced pinot-noir! The way out took me through his rambling “atelier”, full of wood and housing a 1930s motor-bike. When I told him that we hoped to cycle on the Route de Cretes,, he said he could never understand the attraction of cycling, when there were perfectly good engines there to do the job.

Route des Cretes

Route des Cretes, Vosges- The Ardennes

The morning started wet with little sign of improvement. We decided to abandon the cycle-ride, as it takes quite a while to take the bikes off the rack now, especially since we’ve made ourselves belt-and braces legal with a new light- board, clearly showing lights and reg . Having decided it wasn’t worth it, we motored up to the Col de Bonhomme (943m) and along the northern stretch of the Route des Cretes. This runs North-South for approx 50miles, through Alsace. Tommy, our van, handles fantastically well up and down mountain passes. It was raining harder and we decided to keep going, in fact, we both were concerned about not going back until the Sunday, as this meant we would miss Kate, who was returning to Uni that day. Let’s go back sooner, cos we’ve done what we wanted to do!
From the Route des Cretes, Sally Satnav took us into Luxembourg for about 20 mins (would like to research and go back there), and then into Belgium for about one hour, and then back into the Ardennes region of France, famous for it’s wildboar. We followed the Semoy and the Meuse rivers and ended up finding the only campsite still open, at Charleville Mezieres. Cheap enough, but what miserable weather to arrive in. I asked the cute, little receptionist if the weather was set to improve, cos she’d asked me if we intended staying more than one night, and she pulled a miserable face! So that’d be a Non. After helping her with a jammed stapler, we nestled into our “emplacement”. It’s lovely to shut the weather out, re-heat the last of the pre-prepared frozen meals, and open up a bottle of wine! All that time spent cooking and freezing meals at home has really paid off. Choose your meal in the morning, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw out during the day, then drive for several hours/ cycle or walk for several hours, return, stick it in a pan with some rice/couscous/potatoes. Ready in less than half an hour, about the time it takes you to drink your aperitif!!!

day 7: Rest Day

Day 7 Rest Day!

Whilst Ian went off on a cycle ride to Grosse Scheidegg, 1962m, a total climb of 1450m , crazy fool, I had a potter! I cleaned the loo, sink, tidied away clothes and boots, did a bit of shopping and got on with the blog. Cloudy and sunny spells today. I wandered into Lauterbrunnen, which is only ten minutes walk away and bought some Toblerone swiss chocolate. I was horrified to read that the butcher was selling “Frischer Pferde Entrecote”. Now, my A level German is a bit sketchy but I’m sure that means horse-meat!!! Yuk, in this day and age!!!
Foods and gifts are hellish expensive. I’m so glad we stocked up on food, drink, frozen home-made meals etc before we set off, apart from three rosti meals out, and the odd applesaft juice, which is the staple drink around here, apart from the obvious beer, we’ve not been to the shops. Thank God!
The main language is a sing-songy version of German, and they then seem to prefer English to French, but then there are a lot of American and Japanese tourists. But they don’t say “Danke” for thankyou, instead they say “Mersay” with the emphasis on the second syllable, which I presume is the Swiss “Merci”.
Wilkie- we’re off for a meal tonight at “your” hotel, the Hotel Oberland. He’s full inside at 7pm. So we’ve got to eat outside, but looking forward to it. We can always stick another layer on! Opted for this over the pizza place you recommended in Wengen, Di Sana, cos the weather’s not just as good now, and we like to have a list of goodies to come back for next time!
The locals are very friendly. The transport service is phenomenal. Trains run approx every half hour and cable cars constantly throughout the day. They run to a generous number of stations dotted all over the mountains. You can go up in an infinite variety of ways, walk along, stay overnight in a number of huts of varying comfort, and return by a number of conveniently- located other lifts. It’s like a walkers’ playground! You can bite off as much or as little as you want! But there really is no excuse for not going up into this superb mountain panorama.
“Shopping List” of things still to do!!!
1. Schynigge Platte – Faulhorn-overnight stay-Schwarzhorn-Grosse Scheidegg or First
2. Isenfluh area
3. Ascend Schilthorn via Rotstock hut and down by cable car from Birg
4. Walk in the Kiental area
5. Bring mountain bikes, cos”there’s some good mountain bike trails”, or so Ian says!!!
6. Do the Jungfrau marathon from Interlaken to Kleine Scheidegg in four hours!
7. Scale north face of Eiger before lunch!!!!!!
8. Eat Pizza at Di Sana, in Wengen.
9. Visit Zermatt, Matterhorn, Reichenbach falls, Meiringen etc etc etc

Ps poem on wooden “Hut” near First, to be translated
“Allzeit Frohlich, ist Gefahrlich Allzeit Traurig ist Beschwerlich Allzeit Glucklich ist Unmoglich Eins ums Andere ist Vergnuglich/Bergnuglich”
???To always be happy is hazardous To always be dreaming is wearisome To always be lucky is unlikely One without the other is Ahhhhh! I don’t know what that last word means at all. I’ll look into it when I get back.
By the way, Wilkie, they’ve covered the whole roof of that new hut near First with solar panels. About 40 of them. They look superb and the roof with wooden shingles is nearly done!

day 6: The Last Day

Day 6 The Last Day

The last day of our concessionary rail pass, that is, and the last day of our hiking journeys into the mountains. So one last effort to plaster blistered toes, don walking boots and head off on the train to Grindelwald, and then onto the magnificent First chair lift, which rises to an awe-inspiring 2168m. We were up a bit later than we should have been, but the cloudy start and sixth day’s activity on the trot, meant that we were a bit slower than usual. But after a quick adjustment to the route, we were off. We’d made a note of the last chair-lift off the mountain, which really is our only restriction on the day, however, more of that later!!
The original route of catching a bus, or as Wilkie calls it “a buzz”, to Bussalp and walking from there up to Faulhorn and onto the Hiendertellti route up to Schwarzhorn and down to Grosse Scheidegg would take us about 7hours and was virtually impossible without an overnight stop. It does n’t really look that far on the map, but distances are really deceptive. One mention about the walking times signposted around here. Now, we don’t hang around! We’re used to snacking and drinking on the move. But the times here are tight. They don’t take into account any stops for breaks, photo-taking, slowing down cos you’re getting tired! But basically, if it’s taking you longer than the recommended time for the hike then maybe you should think again! It’s so easy to think that that peak isn’t too far away, only to find you’re still climbing it at a brisk pace, an hour or so later!
We’d adjusted the route to go from First, up and down to the base of Schwarzhorn and reaching the top of Wildgarst, recommended in the Bernese Alps walking guide, returning by the same route to First. Fairly straightforward. There is a Via Ferrata ascending Schwarzhorn, but it wasn’t recommended in bad weather. It was a bit cloudy, so we’d see how we felt.
From First onto Bachalpsee lake (which we skirted in the Schynige Platte route a few days earlier), the path split and we followed it up and over the saddle, descending through a boulder field into the “Hinterberg hanging valley”. We passed along the shores of the Hagelsee lake. Trundling on over scree, we passed another tarn called Haxenseeli, with the bleak, dark walls of the Schwarzhorn mountain filling the view ahead. If you looked closely, you could make out the ladders and metal cables of the via ferrata, used to scale the Schwarzhorn ridge. Though the mist was down, only clearing occasionally with the swirling wind, I could see a few people on the ridge. Mad! We’d come across and used via ferratas on Kinabalu and the Pinnacles in Malaysia and in the Southern Highlands NSW, Australia, but I wouldn’t like to attempt the Schwarzhorn ridge unless ascending it in good weather. Not today!
More climbing through amazing rock formations, looking up at more striped and lined grey and browny rocks. That’s something I must do. Look up some idiot’s guide to geology, so I can start to understand what’s happened to these incredible lumps of grey, white and brown, striped, razor-sharp stuff!!! At the top of another saddle, Schwarzhorn was on the right, and Wildgarst was on the left. We reached the summit in about three and a half hours from First, exactly what it said on the signposts and in the guide! Superb views all around on a better day. Today a brief glimpse here and there, enticing you to come back again and try it another day!
We’d have to get a move on to get the last chairlift off. Otherwise we’d be faced by a further two and half hours walk back to Grindelwald, and there was no chance of that happening. So a quick oat bar and cheese butty, all of five minutes rest, and then trudge onwards. With the mist completely down, navigation was quite tricky, but with recalling what the way up had been like, and staring around for the white-red-white signs painted on boulders and scree, we made our way down as fast as sore knees could pick their way through the rocks! We past a young couple who’d got a bit lost, had had to change their route and asked us how far it was to the top of Wildgarst! We politely suggested they forget it! They’d got no chance of making it to the top and back in time! And if they’d got lost at this earlier stage, they’d find it very difficult higher up! Apart from them, we only met one other couple, who did go up Schwarzhorn, and we reckon that no-one else had been up Wildgarst that day. We’d got our wish of going to a much less visited area of the mountains!
We pushed on, Ian reassuring me that we were alright for time. But when we reached the First cable car, we realised that the last gondola didn’t depart in an hour and fifteen minutes, it departed in fifteen minutes! Since Sept 8, they’d brought it forward an hour. How close we’d been to having to add two and half to three hours walking very steep downhill onto what had already been five hours and forty minutes! Phew!!!!
On the way down, there was time to relax, count our blessings, and be grateful that on the seventh day God said unto the tired and weary, take the day off!!!!

Day 5:Chilling on the Eiger Trail

Day5 “Chilling on the Eiger Trail”

“Chilling” because this well-established walking trail takes you directly under the infamous north face of the Eiger, which casts a giant shadow over the trail, making it cold and sunless.
We set off walking into Lauterbrunnen at 9am and catch a train to Kleine Scheidegg, transferring to the Grindelwald train, and coming off it just one stop later at Alpiglen.
The Eiger trail leaves Alpiglen and comfortably winds its way up the mountainside back towards Eigergletscher hut (Eiger glacier hut). A lovely ascent which takes you underneath and close to the Eiger north wall. Absolutely awesome. On the way over we greeted people passing, and came across and English group. She recognised the accent as a Burnley accent, and I explained that we lived near Bakewell now. She said she came from Sheffield area! When we narrowed it down, it turned out she came from Froggatt, about 5mins walk away from where we used to live, and knew one of our present neighbours, whose husband organises the White Peak Walk which I’d completed in July this year! We concluded it was a small world and weren’t we having amazing weather and continued on our way.
We wound our way up to Eigergletscher hut, pausing to take even more photos of the stunning glacier, which seems almost within touching distance. Then back down to Kleine Scheidegg. At this point I feel I must apologise to Wilkie and Team for seriously letting the side down. We ditched the idea of making cheese butties ths morning in favour of a great lunch at a bar in K.Sch. We were so hungry and the rosti and schwenfilet plus two beers went down without touching the sides!!
After that off up the other “side” of K.Sch. onto the Mannlicher ridge, with more stunning views looking back towards Eiger, Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, and Finsteraarhorn (being the biggest at 4724m). It’s weird that it’s the biggest of the mountains and yet far less famous, but the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau are known best because they stand close together, I presume.
We met up with an American guy, from Memphis, who was “in love” with the whole area. When we said we were from England, he said he would love to spend some time walking there, and so I recommended Alfred Wainwright’s books, not just for the walking routes or the beautiful pencil drawings, but also for his dry, northern commentary. He said he would google him as soon as he got down the mountain, and that talking with us (well, me, really!) today, had been the best experience of his stay there! Methinks, he doth exaggerate, but kind, enthusiastic words, so typical of the Americans, which are only outnumbered here by large groups of Japanese visitors, some confined, sleeping, to trains, but some do make it out onto the more straightforward treks.
We caught the Mannlicher chair-lift back down the mountain to Wengen and then the train back to Lauterbrunnen. We rarely get back before 6-7pm each day because of the transport required to go on these walks. By the time food has been cooked and washing-up done it’s getting on for 9pm. Busy, full days!
Forecast if for more cloud building over the next few days, just as I hear it’s improving at home! May affect what we do over next few days, but we have had the best weather!

Day 4: Day Off

Day4 –Day off. “Using different muscles.Feet getting increasingly sore and blistered. Too much time spent cycling to get fitter, but feet feeling as soft as a baby’s bottom, as a result. Getting out of bed to go to the loo in the middle of the night was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable, with super-sore thighs. So it was decided that we would have an easy, “rest” day today. We’d use some different muscles and give our feet a break. We planned to set off nearer lunch-time, giving the sun time to get up and warm the valley. We did a bit of washing (they have real washing-machines, and driers and a fantastic free drying room, where we can put our wet towels overnight, although someone does seem to have taken a shine to our brand-new towel!) We did some repairs to a damaged window mozzie net, and I up-dated the blog.
We set off about 12am, cycling down the valley towards Interlaken. Yet another glorious, blue sky day. We cycled across the airport runway, pausing to take photos of some very large raptors, which looked a little like eagles. Then we rose above the lake and road, on a hilly section, pausing again at Iselwald, at the Hotel Bellevue. We made a note to come back here for a special wedding anniversary. It was a modest, small hotel, but had tables set up right on the waters edge, and they specialised in fish dishes, so that’s a promise! We quickly ate one of the famous cakes with a coffee- plum tart! Absolutely huge and equally delicious!! But it was 2pm, and we hadn’t had anything to eat. I find I can’t eat a proper meal when I’m working hard cycling!
Up and down again, on to the splendid Giessbach Grand Hotel. The whole area down by the lake has a very old wealthy feel about it, almost Riviera-style, with boats ferrying people up and down across the Brienzersee lake. The lake itself is expansive, separated from an equally large lake called the Thunsee, by the town of Interlaken. Both have a love turquoise colour, and on a day like today, with no wind, the water was still. I was surprised to find it quite quiet down by the lake, considering the stations are quite busy, but when you get out into the mountains it’s quiet there as well!
We took photos under the Giessbach falls which tumble down the mountainside at the back of the hotel, rather like the Lauterbrunnen falls at the back of the campsite. From the falls, onto the head of the lake and Brienz, which didn’t seem particularly striking, as we shot through it at a speed that a half-digested plum tart will allow!
We worked hard all the way from Brienz to Interlaken, on the opposite side of the lake, stopping at Interlaken to watch the paragliders landing in the field nearby, and called in at the station to buy some 1920s style mountain railway posters. Incidentally the Swiss will be working towards and celebrating 2012, like us, but for a different reason, celebrating the railway centennial, so it would be a great time to come back then, although I’ll be amazed if we don’t return yearly whilst we have the van, because we’ve both agreed it’s an amazing place!
From Interlaken it’s a gradual climb of 12k back to Lauterbrunnen, and I was ecstatic to see Lauterbrunnen railway station appear, around the bend, up the hill. I was feeling shattered but really pleased when Ian told me we’d just covered 41miles, yes miles not ks. Not bad for a rest day!
We ate a pre-prepared frozen chicken tagine with couscous and loaded up with all the food we’d missed that day, and stayed in to watch “Harry Potter” on dvd..
It’s weird but I can see what pulls Wilkie and team back to this area every year. We’ve only had one day in the valley, and we can’t wait to get into the mountains again. A bit like an addiction really, you do get a feeling of such euphoria when you@re up there in the sunshine, looking at those views!