First There Was Switzerland

August 2005 and eight of us went off to Grindelwald for a nice holiday in the mountains. Plenty of walking, sleeping, eating and sunshine. Yeah right! When we arrived it was raining, and it continued to rain solidly until the continent experienced some of its worst floods for 40 years. It was carnage and the eight of us (swollen to thirteen by the addition of Simon, Margot and the children evacuated from their campsite) tried to get some sleep. That night there were landslides and floods all across our area, and having been flown hastily back to our chalet in Grindelwald (where we thought we would be safe!) from a rapidly flooding Interlaken, we all wished we were somewhere a long way away. The noises and vibrations from the landslides were so severe in our valley we thought it was curtains for us all. Mark and I pretended to be brave by hanging out of the windows in our boxer shorts to see if we could find out what the fuss was all about, but we really were all bricking it and didn't expect to see morning.



Next day the sun came out - just to prove it still existed - and to everyone's surprise we all woke up in our beds, in the chalet, instead of floating down the river as we expected. There was now no power, phone lines, road or rail lines in the village, but everyone started selling/giving away the little food they had. As time went on the power eventually came back and a temporary road was made down the mountain and life got almost back to normal.

Then I proposed to Sarah. It was all quite quick really, what with only having met her in June and being engaged by the end of August, but it was something I knew I had to do. From the moment I met Sarah I knew we would never be apart and our time in Switzerland confirmed that I should ask her to marry me. Fortunately Sarah said yes, which left me with a wet knee from kneeling in a puddle and a feeling of "what happens now!"

How about another holiday?.......