Yesterday was my last day in Grindelwald but Stephen, Michael, Lara and Oli are staying on doing sightseeing, snowboarding and skiing. It was a stunning day yesterday with the sun out. It was -8 degrees in the morning but when the sun comes out it really does change the complexion of the place entirely. Even though the temperature is still low it just feels much warmer when you can feel the sun.

Stephen & Lara tried out snowboarding yesterday morning and made some progress in getting the basics under control. Oli & Kirsten ski’d down the Bodmi slope 10 or 11 times to build up some confidence while Michael and Daniel went to ski in Mannlichen (which is at about 2300m and requires you to take a gondola to get to the ski area).

I had to leave to catch a train from Interlaken to Basel and then change at Basel and take the train to Cologne. It was 3 hours to Basel in a train and then 4 hours from Basel to Cologne. I had worked out that it took the same time to take the train as it would to fly (as I would have had to take the train to Zurich airport, check in, security etc).  At least on a train you can work, read, answer emails etc and there is WiFi so it was a lot more productive. What did strike me was the fact that there was snow the whole way during the train journey. It is unusual for there to be snow in Cologne but there were even places I could see snow when we pulled into Cologne last night. The other noticeable thing is that immediately you leave Switzerland (i.e. from Basel onwards), the landscape becomes flat and (dare I say) boring. It was an immediate transition.

Unfortunately it is back to work for me. So don’t expect much of a blog in the next few days. I will try to blog a few more times before I get back but given I am no longer with the rest of them I doubt I will be able to give a lot of what they are up to.

P (and for 1/2 day S, M, L & O)