Please note that this article refers to the area surrounding the village of Grindelwald in the Lütschine Valley in the broader Grindelwald Valley, southeast of Interlaken in Switzerland. It is not related to the character of Gellert Grindelwald in the Harry Potter novels and films.

 

The village of Grindelwald itself does not feature in the story. This is maybe just as well for the sake of Grindelwald since it spares it the vitriol handed out to Interlaken by Jessica. This would no doubt have come its way since in terms of marketing itself to the tourism trade at the tackier end of the spectrum, Grindelwald is cut to an extent from the same, Alpine cloth as its larger counterpart down the valley.

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This is understandable, however, since there are plenty of reasons for tourists to flock to the village. It is surrounded by beautiful scenery within a couple of minutes' walk from the village streets. The ski season is an excellent reason to come to Grindelwald and the surrounding valleys and mountains are easily accessible by virtue of ski-lifts, cable cars and the like. It's one of the places where you can find your way up the Alps without actually having to undertake a hike akin to the sort of exercise normally reserved for trainee paratroopers. Don't worry if serious hiking is your thing though: there are all the normal trails in place for you to walk up to the top instead of taking a cable car. You just need to watch out for greater numbers of walkers (as opposed to hikers) coming down the paths in the opposite direction after catching a ride to the top.

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The name itself applies not only to the village but also to the whole valley and, importantly for the book, to the glacier range above the village, comprised of the Lower and Upper Grindelwald Glaciers. You can see these in the photos above, the Lower on the left and the Upper on the right. Looking at these, you may be feeling a bit underwhelmed and wondering, "Well, they could presumably find a pencil, never mind a clarinet, in about ten minutes flat." If so, do bear in mind that the photos were taken in August when the glaciers are at a very low point. Global warming is taking effect too, sadly, but the latter half of the summer is not generally a good time to see glaciers at their fullest regardless. The glaciers are also a bit further away from the point of photography than appears to be the case. The story is supposed to take place in early summer so the glacier would be a bit more sizeable.

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Having retrieved the clarinet (apologies for the spoiler here but I don't think it's that much of a giveaway since it wouldn't be much of an adventure story if the basic mission went completely unaccomplished), the three protagonists fly from the glacier down the Grindelwald Valley into Interlaken by paraglider at daybreak on the Saturday morning. This would be quite an undertaking, given that it's around half an hour by train between the two, but they do start from a very high altitude and paragliders can cover a considerable distance under the right circumstances. Although I'd like to try regular paragliding one day, I confess to not having tried out this stunt myself and ask your forgiveness for this oversight of truly diligent author research. However, as Alice describes the paragliding descent in Chapter 15, "Plan C Goes South", "the is the most lunatic plan I've ever heard". Assuming that that statement is based on reality as much as artistic license, then I'm happy to attribute the aviation elements mainly to creativity. If anyone has attempted to do what Harris, Jessica and Alice do in the book, please do let me know. You can use the contact form on this site, so long as you're still alive enough to do so.

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