Wednesday 11th June
On arriving at Grindelwald station , having come up the valley by train from Lauterbrunnen , you are met by huge signs proclaiming
I’d assumed it was just an message of local defiance against US trade tarifs , but turns out that First is in this case a location way up in the mountains north of Grindelwald, with a modern cable car linking them. So – we took it .
Our first walk followed a wide track rammed with tourists as far as a pair of small lakes – but the way on up to Faulhorn peak was closed by snow cover. At least there were nice views south to our favourite set of Alps : Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau ( just EMJ from here on, I think )
So we circled back down a quieter valley to Bort, a stop on the same cable car service, to try for a better route ( you know what they say : “if at First you don’t succeed, ride again” ).
This time we shared the ride with 2 charming Young Persons of Asiatic Origin – a Korean lad and Chinese girl. He designed semiconductors for Samsung , and when he heard of my old job, said grimly ” Ah, but IBM is not good“. Turned out he actually meant they were TOO good … at withholding payment for deliveries. ( It was ok when I left..). And he did admit that Nvidia is even worse (” they are the emperor“).
Chinese lass had just graduated from LSE and was taking a European break before heading to take up an HR role back in Beijing….with Tencent ( the Google / WhatsApp of China).
Ahhh, youth…
Anyway, we didn’t find a better hill track, but we did try an unnervingly-vertiginous suspended walkway
So that was nice.
A first class post. Jolly well done! 🙃