In search of......

We spent the day in Wengen in search of a few things.

First of all, I am always in search of a picture of one of my favorite places. Here I am standing from the church looking down the Lauterbrunnen Valley with its 72 waterfalls. Unfortunately, the clouds had moved in when we finally got to Wengen.

When you take the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen and you are in search of seeing the valley get smaller and smaller, you have to sit on the left hand side of the train car facing the direction of travel.

"Wengen is located at an elevation of 1,274 m (4,180 ft) above sea level, it is part of the Jungfrau region and has approximately 1,300 year-round residents, which swells to 5,000 during summer and to 10,000 in the winter. Wengen hosts the classic Lauberhorn ski races of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in January."

"Wengen was first mentioned in official documents in 1268, and the origin of the name is unknown.

Primarily an alpine farming community, the village began to be visited by tourists in the early 19th century. Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley's History of a Six Weeks' Tour and Byron'sManf, in which the scenery of the area is described, were published in 1817. This literature became the advent of the modern tourism industry for Wengen. Felix Mendelssohn, to whom there is a memorial above the village, also visited in the early nineteenth century."

"Guesthouses and hotels began to be built in the mid-19th century, with the opening of the Launerhaus in 1859, with accommodation for 30 guests, and in 1880 the Pension Wengen was available to 100 guests. ^.The building and opening of the Wengernalpbahn in the 1890s made the village more accessible to tourists who previously had to walk up the steep slopes to the alpine village, opening the area for an expansion of tourism and the beginning of the ski industry."

In the early 20th century, British tourists started ski-clubs in the area, beginning in the nearby village of Mürren. By 1903 Wengen had an Anglican Church and two years later, Sir Henry Lunn formed the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club with Wengen as a destination ski area for the members. A British Methodist minister, Lunn first visited the area to organize a meeting of Protestant churches in nearby Grindelwald where he learned about winter sports such as skiing. He returned to the area in 1896 with his son Arnold, who quickly learned to ski, and both father and son realized the potential in the future of winter sports. The club was established a few years later. Members of the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club were required to have attended an English public school or one of the "older universities". Wengen's Curling Club was established in 1911.

"The first ski races were held in the early 1920s with the British downhill championship held in 1921; the following year a ski race was held between Oxford and Cambridge. These events were the first to have downhill races as opposed to Nordic races, which were held in other Swiss resorts. In Wengen, skiers requested use of the train system for access to the slopes; for some years trains were the earliest ski-lifts in the area. Arnold Lunn used the natural terrain of the mountains for the courses; the downhill event followed the slopes above Wengen and was called the "straight down": skiers went straight down the mountain. Also during this period, Lunn invented, and introduced in Wengen, the first slalom race, in which skiers followed the terrain through the trees, replaced with ski gates in later years. These events are considered the birth of modern ski racing and Alpine skiing."

If you are in search of when to report for military duty, just check the poster for your name, date, and location.

From August 1944 to the end of World War II, Wengen served as a sort of open-air internment camp for allied prisoners, mostly US bomber crews. Since the only practical way in or out of Wengen was via the cog railway, it was difficult for internees to escape.

Wengen has three churches: Anglican, Swiss, and Roman Catholic.

The Swiss church was rebuilt in the 1950s and overlooks the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

"English churches were established during the 19th century in nearby Grindelwald, Meiringen, and Murren. By 1912, Anglican services took place in Wengen's 19th-century church twice on Sundays. Desiring their own building, the Continental & Colonial Church Society erected a new English church, which was consecrated on January 15, 1928 by the Bishop of Fulham. The building is on the road formerly leading to the Mannlichen cable car lift. The new cable car station is, however, nearer to the center of Wengen."

"St Bernard's has been used for over 90 years for Sunday services and occasional offices, such as the memorial in 1949 for Anthony Carrick, a schoolboy who died in the mountains. The congregation in 1954 was described as consisting of people from many parts of the British Commonwealth and America as well as English-speaking Continentals."

The Roman Catholic church, St. Paul's, stands adjacent to the Falken Hotel and has a distinctive onion dome. Mass is celebrated on most Sundays in season.

There was a reason why we were in search of a church to pray and light candles. Our best friend's hair dresser, Kim, had been having trouble with her sciatic nerve. However, she just found out it is cancer of the bone. She has three children and they are not sure how this will end. So, we lit candles and prayed.

Are you in search of something fun to do?

In the winter, this is the curling area. Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles.  It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard.

From Wengen, you can look across the Lauterbrunnen Valley and see Grütschap and Mürren.

Going from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp on the cable car.

Wengen is your perfect village if you are in search of chalets and hotels perched on mountainsides.

Are you in search of a way to get something up to the top floor?

Wonder if the Jungfrau Marathon runners were in search of the route to follow up to the finish line!

Searching for an idea for all the pine cones?

Today, I was in search of a person who sent me an email a few weeks back regarding the Wengen Cheese Festival.

Dear Deborah

I was looking for pictures of our cheese festival on Google. I came across your website where, to my great surprise, I found a lot of great pictures of our festival.

Will you be there again this year?

As we usually don't have time to take photos ourselves at the festival, we're always a bit poorly positioned.

That's why I wanted to ask you if you would make some of your photos available to us for commercial use and how much it would cost per picture to use them.

With best regards

Verein Chästeilet Wengen

How difficult is it to find a person associated with the cheese festival? I went to the Wengen information building and told the lady I had a strange question to ask of her. The lady said, "Go for it." I had her read the email and then I asked her if she knew this man who wrote it. Well, she told us where we could find him so off Michael and I went.

This is quite legitimate. I will send him some pictures I take at the festival at the end of the month so we will see.

I asked if I could take a picture with him because people will never believe this. He was very kind and obliged.

Wouldn't it be something if my picture or pictures gets chosen!!

Our searches today were quite fruitful.