In the summer vacation in 1946 I was one of a group of six students at college who decided that as travel in Europe was now easier we would spend a fortnight in Switzerland. We were all members of the UK Youth Hostels Association which, on a reciprocal basis, gave us membership of the Swiss Youth Hostels Association where a night's stay and breakfast was very cheap. To save money we went across the Channel by boat and caught a train from Callais to Basle. It was scheduled to take just under 11 hours but there were frequent stops and diversions because the rail track in France was still under repair where miles of it had been blown up or otherwise damaged during the fighting, and the journey across France took just over 23 hours. The carriages were all pre-war Pullman Cars though I don't think they had been serviced or repaired at all during the war. But although they were somewhat shabby they were comfortable enough - except that there was no catering service, just an empty, bare kitchen.
      Three or four times when we stopped at a station the stationmaster would go along the platform apologising and announcing that there would be a delay of three or four hours, and anyone who wanted to get off and go for a meal was welcome. Were asked to check out at the office and check back in again when we returned so he was sure everyone was back on board. We took advantage of this, and as France was still using the Old Franc, with the exchange rate at 240 Francs to 1 GB Pound, we found we could have an excellent meal, with a couple of bottles of quite drinkable wine, for a total bill which, when divided among us, came to the equivalent of about 2 shillings each - that's 10p or about 15c in today's money. In Switzerland the exchange rate was nothing like so much in our favour, but even so we spent a very cheap fortnight hiking from one hostel to another.
     One at which we spent two days was, if I remember correctly, called Scharnborg Hassenmatte, an old castle-like stone building like a fairy tale castle. As it happened we were the only visitors, and were the first English people to visit since 1939. The warden and his family made us very welcome. They spoke very little English, but fluent French and German, so we all got on well. In the evening they entertained us with Swiss folk songs with the warden playing his guitar and his three young daughters singing. As it was a fine evening we sat outside, and the performers used a low balcony as a sort of stage, which is where I took this picture during a break in the songs while the warden was tuning his guitar. The camera was a 1920s Kodak VPK and I had managed to get a couple of rolls of 127 Panatomic X before leaving home, and bought three more in Basle where film was in plentiful supply. I don't remember what the exposure was, but the camera had only two speeds, marked 1/25 and 1/50, so it was probably a hopeful 1/50. The maximum aperture of the lens was f/7.7, and I usually shot at f/11. The camera was fixed focus, so I didn't have to bother about judging distance.