Blog posts about winter

Grindelwald, Switzerland

Grindelwald, December 2017

The best time to visit the mountain villages near our home is between the tourist seasons, when many hotels are closed and the valleys, cable cars and mountain cableways are much quieter. We drove up to Grindelwald shortly before Christmas, to visit the mountain restaurant at Schreckfeld, where deep snow and temperatures as low as -12°C greeted us.

Grindelwald, December 2017

A cold, cold afternoon

It had been a beautifully sunny start to the day, but by the time we’d driven up to Grindelwald, the clouds had taken over and the temperature had plummeted. We had to use a plastic loyalty card to scrape the ice from the inside of the cable car window, and the fondue at the mountain restaurant, for which…

A cold, cold afternoon
Niederhorn, Switzerland

Heaven is this

Sitting, cross-legged, a couple of arms’ length from the edge of a two-and-a-half-thousand foot drop to the valley floor, watching clouds drift across the lake into the distance.

Heaven is this

The early bird and all that

I was half an hour early for an appointment at the Spiez council offices this morning, so I went for a brief stroll through the woods to the top of the vineyards while I was waiting. It was so peaceful, with fresh powdered snow slipping silently from the trees and only two or three other people there walking their dogs. A lovely…

The early bird and all that

Brienz, Switzerland

Going through my photo archives, I sometimes come across images from long ago which I’d forgotten about. This view of the lake next to the office where I used to work dates back to December 2006.

Brienz, Switzerland

Locarno, Switzerland

At the end of a long afternoon’s drive from home, via Kandersteg, Brig, the Simplon Pass and a very narrow and windy road through the Ticinese mountains, we arrived at Locarno, on the shores of Lago Maggiore, just in time to catch the last sun of the winter day.

Locarno, Switzerland

Hondrich Hill, Switzerland

There are viewpoints all over the place near where we live. But this one proved to be a bit of a surprise. The sun had woken me comparatively early on a Saturday morning, so I wrapped up warm against the cold, donned my hiking boots, and set off and upwards from home with no particular goal. After crossing under the main…

Hondrich Hill, Switzerland

Männlichen, Switzerland

The mountain slopes near the world-famous Eiger are a destination for thousands of skiers and snowboarders in winter. On the Männlichen plateau, above Grindelwald and Wengen, the best time of day for photography is shortly before sunset, when the sports people have left for the day and only cable-car staff and a few sunset-hunting visitors are still on the mountain.

Männlichen, Switzerland