Trailing English eccentrics in Switzerland

By Tony Grant

The Swiss do, of course, know a thing or two about precision timing.

We had stopped a passer-by in the town of Moutier to ask how long it would take us to drive to the top of the Weissenstein.

Going south, this is the last ridge in the Jura Mountains.

It was the spot where the English writer Hilaire Belloc first caught sight of the Alps rising out of a heat haze, perhaps 130km (80 miles) ahead.

Even in summer, the weather can be variable in Switzerland

After a moment's calculation, the woman answered: "It'll take you 26 minutes."

Not 24, nor 27 but 26 minutes.

We motored off but moments later had to stop at a railway crossing.

This will make a mess of her timing, we thought.

Minutes ticked by as a small red train dawdled across in front of us before continuing a leisurely climb through green slopes dotted with white cattle which, we later discovered, were wearing authentic Swiss cow bells.

Several hairpin bends later we were at the top. A spectacular view unfolded with, sure enough, shimmering away in the distance, the Alps.

We took a quick look at the watch and we found the journey up the Weissenstein had taken precisely 26 minutes.

The woman clearly knew her train timetables and had factored the level crossing delay into her estimate!

Powerful moment

Belloc's first sight of the Alps must have been a powerful moment for him.

He knew he would have to cross those mountains on foot a few days later and, even though it was summer, they were covered in a worrying amount of snow and ice.

Snow in summer: For some people, the only way is up

I was in the little town of Ulrichen trying to discover what today's Swiss make of Belloc's belief that Catholicism was the cement which bound Europe together.

Suddenly the peace was shattered by what appeared to be the local chapter of Hell's Angels sweeping down the road towards the spot where I was waiting to cross.

I shrank back to let them go by but Switzerland is a courteous place.

Even the Hell's Angels are polite.

The leading bike stopped and as the other machines pulled up in an orderly line behind, engines roaring, its rider motioned politely for me to go ahead and cross.

It was mid-July, but suddenly a blizzard blew up as we ascended the steep mountain road.

It soon became clear how tough Belloc's Alpine walk must have been.

We thought we had found the guest house where he had spent the night close to one of the mountain passes.

It was mid-July, but suddenly a blizzard blew up as we ascended the steep mountain road.

Thick bands of fog closed in around us, and the temperature dropped below zero.

As Mount Everest climber Beni Fahner told us later, if you're not properly prepared, these mountains can be killers at any time of year.

And, he added, the climate has changed significantly since 1901.

There was five times more snow back then.

Do you suffer from vertigo?

A landslide forced us off the main road onto a long diversion up precipitous mountain tracks.

It was not a journey for those who suffer from a fear of heights.

A quick sideways glance out of the car window confirmed it was a very long way down - and there was no safety barrier at the side of the road.

Swiss mountains can be heavy-going for man and beast alike

Fog turned to driving rain, but eventually we found the guest house.

The place had been in the Rufibach family for seven generations and they still had the 1901 guest book.

We leafed through its yellowing pages with keen excitement.

But Belloc, although he may have written an awful lot in his time, but he never wrote in this book.

Waterfall battle

Back down on the plain, the weather conditions were sublime by the shores of Lake Brienz.

Thomas Cook was ready to pull a gun to climb the Swiss peaks

Belloc had caused a stir here scrambling down a mountain and arriving in the town early in the morning.

In those days the locals could not see why anyone would want to go to the top of a mountain.

It was dangerous after all.

There were brigands up there, not to mention loquacious Anglo-French authors.

Sitting by the waterside, watching a paddle steamer making its way slowly across the lake, a 1910 vessel, built not long after Belloc passed through, we fell into conversation with the town's young newspaper chief, Urs Gossweiler.

The locals at the turn of the century, he said, became used to eccentric visitors from Britain.

The Englishman most fondly commemorated is Sherlock Holmes - his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a summer visitor to nearby Meiringen.

Thomas Cook, founder of the travel agency that bears his name, was one of them.

He too was determined to go up the mountain to admire the view.

It is said he had to pull out a gun to persuade someone to take him up.

The Englishman most fondly commemorated is Sherlock Holmes.

His creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a summer visitor to nearby Meiringen.

This was the setting for Holmes's violent battle, under the town's famous waterfall, with his arch-enemy, the villainous Moriarty.

Today, needless to say, there's a Holmes Hotel, a Conan Doyle Square and a Sherlock bar.

Poor old Moriarty? He goes largely unremembered. But then he was the baddie.