Sunday, January 17, 1982
There was a thick white fog
when Elisabeth and Michel came to pick me up at 9:00. We drove toward Bern,
then Thun, then Zweisimmen where the sky finally cleared. We turned into Diemtigtal/valley, winding along a very
narrow road. No snow in the valleys. Arrived at the base of Wiriehorn where
skiers were coming to the bottom of the mountain, but were dodging patches of
grass. I had to try on two pairs of boots before getting a good fit. Michel
tried 5-6 pairs and never had a good fit. The rental here was only 20 CHF/$10
and we were able to leave our regular boots at the shop. We purchased a book of
62 coupons for 48 CHF/$24.
The chairlift was 4 coupons and the T-bar was 2
coupons (about 2.60 CHF/$1.30). I was a bit apprehensive of getting off the
chairlift, remembering Italy with the sudden dip at the end. But here there was
a slight incline and I managed okay. Elisabeth accompanied me on the chairlift,
leaving Michel to ride with a stranger. You could hear the crunching of the
skiers passing under us, as they hit the crusty ice patches. We then went to the
T-bar and there was confusion as to which side you had to leave the T-bar. I
was put on the left side, when I probably should have been on the right, since
you exited to the right. Elisabeth took off first and the sudden change in
pressure caught me unawares, and I was shunted to the left! I drifted into the
concrete base of the T-bar support! Embarrassing! I had to back off then wait
for the opportunity to cross the path of the T-bar to the right. We started
skiing, and for the most part I could parallel ski, but then there were icier
steeper sections. We went up again where I was prepared for the T-bar exit. We
heard some taped music and they appeared to be readying for ski racing. The
third time we went up, I pulled out my camera to take a few pictures and
Elisabeth wanted to take an action shot of me!
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| Wiriehorn coupons |
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| Wiriehorn ski racing |
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| Elisabeth and Michel |
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| Tamiko and Elisabeth |
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| Tamiko skiing? |
We got lunch at the crowded
restaurant which was cafeteria-style. We ate outside on the terrace in the
wonderful sunlight. After thick fog in Biel for a week, it was nice to see blue
sky. After lunch we decided to try the longer T-bar. Michel was ahead of us,
when I slipped on an ice patch making my ski wing out. My reaction was to bring
my feet together, which crossed my skis. I managed to uncross them, but my
balance was off and I slid off the T-bar, taking Elisabeth with me. We went
towards the skiing slope, hoping Michel would realize we weren’t coming up and
begin his descent. After a long wait, we started down anyway. It was steep and
icy; even the better skiers were falling down. We tried traversing and at one
point we turned around by lifting one ski and setting it down in the opposite
direction (ah, ballet fourth position?), then swinging the other around. We
made our way to the shorter T-bar and found Michel. He had come down a
different way, and reported he also had fallen off the long T-bar. We went up a
couple more times on our “regular” T-bar. On the last trip up on the T-bar, I
again did the crossed skis trick and fell off. Elisabeth could have stayed on,
but she got off with me. I felt terrible for spoiling her day with my
awkwardness, but she said we could get a free lift on the T-bar since we fell
off so close to the bottom. And we did! We got in our last run, and Michel used
the last two coupons for one more run. As we waited for Michel, we watched
skiers appear to ski off the edge of the slope and sometimes straight downhill.
The other sunny side of the valley was brown and green from lack of snow. When
Michel arrived we sat for a while on the terrace to take advantage of the sun.
Shortly after 16:00 the sun disappeared from this part of the valley. When we
went to take the chairlift down, I thought Michel and Elisabeth could finally
sit together, but Michel took off and left Elisabeth stuck with me!
Turned in our skis and began
the drive home. There was a long line of cars leaving the Diemtig valley, and
they had to merge with the line of cars coming down the Simmental/valley. Near Spiez we hit the Autobahn. Near Thun we
entered the thick fog.
We went to Elisabeth’s and
Michel’s house near Lyss, arriving about 18:00. They rent a very old farmhouse,
while the farmer lives next door in a new house! The farmer was attending to
some calves in a lean-to next to the barn half of their house.
We entered a hall, and at the
other end was a door into their half of the building. The kitchen had a tiny
refrigerator without a light, so they often used a flashlight to search inside.
There was a sink and stove installed next to a pot-bellied stove that provided
the heat. The ceiling was lined with burlap. The living room ceiling was beamed
wood and slanted, not more than 6’ high. One room was Michel’s office, full of
electronic equipment. The bedroom had been redone with wood paneling. A
bathroom was added on with a sink and shower. A toilet is down off the entrance
hall.
Elisabeth prepared a carrot
salad and a beet salad. Michel took me through a secret trap door in the
bathroom to his wine cellar. He had over a hundred bottles!
Michel began preparing Rösti,
by heating a pan and melting a handful of bacon chunks. Added a generous
handful of chopped onion and finally several cups worth of grated potato. (The
potatoes had been boiled the previous day and allowed to sit overnight.) The
mixture was allowed to heat several minutes, and then Michel took a plate and
put it over the pan, flipped the pan so the large potato pancake was on the
plate, and slid the pancake back into the pan to brown on the other side. He
then made Spiegeleier (literally
mirror eggs, actually sunny-side up eggs). They lamented they did not have any
meat, only the eggs, but that was fine by me! I was stuffed from my share of
the first Rösti, but Michel went ahead and made a second one. It was sooo good!
After dinner we went to an
organ concert at the Reformierte Kirche
Lyss/Reformed Church of Lyss. The church was brand new and sterile (well,
compared to Catholic churches!). Again, it felt funny for me to pay to enter a
church, as the concert admission was 10 CHF/$5. The organ was the most
prominent thing in the front of the church.
The organist, Andreas Scheuner,
looked like a thin school-master. He had a young assistant to turn the sheet
music and run from side to side to adjust the stops, or whatever!
The first piece was a classical
Sonata Nr. 3 in A-major by Felix
Mendelssohn. The next piece was the final movement of La Nativité du
Seigneur/The Birth of Our Lord, “Dieu parmi nous/God
Among Us” by Olivier Messiaen. It was more modern and to me was just a lot of
noise. However, Michel really liked it and I hope he was not offended when I
was not enthused about it! The last two pieces were sweet and smooth, almost an
anticlimax and certainly boring at points; Grande Pièce Symphonique by César Franck and Passacaglia
in E-minor by Max Reger.
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| Organ concert program |
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