One More View

A "high mountain" cow
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The main thing we wanted to do yesterday that didn’t get accomplished was to ascend via the cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen. This was our day to pack up and drive back to Milano. But Kathy said, “Not so fast. I want to see the view from up there.” We had to admit that the heavy clouds that kept us from about doing this yesterday were not around on this day. So we took the car up, up, and up until we reached the high ridge above Wengen. There are stupendous views from up here. You can look way down into the beautiful Lauterbrunnen Valley or you can look over the other side of the ridge and see the town of Grindelwald sitting beneath the north face of the Eiger. Or you can turn around and look all the way back down the valley to Interlaken and the two lakes (thus the name Inter-laken, or “between the lakes”). What surprised us was the fact that there were cows way up here strolling along and eating what little grass grew at these heights. We all asked the same question: “How did they get way up here?” The obvious answer is that they walked, but even if they took the foot path we were still about 4,200 feet above the valley. That was a steep climb I wouldn’t even attempt. So how do cows do it? Well, unless any of you know the answer, we’ll just have to leave that for another trip to discover.

Not another mountain pass!
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We eventually got on our way to Milano but not without going over more mountain passes. You just can’t get out of Switzerland and into Italy without going through a pass. This time it was two of them, the Grimselpass and the Nufenenpass. If you’re doing them by car you spend all your time doing “S” curves in second gear (and sometimes in first) always slowing down on sharp curves because you never know when you’ll meet a huge tourist bus coming at you on the next “S” curve. It’s more than a little nerve wracking. But, hey, that’s the price you pay for all this gorgeous mountain scenery.

"Not so fast. I want to see the view from up there!"

The longest parking lot in Italy!
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We couldn’t wait to hit the autobahn near Lugano that would take us all the way into Milano—our destination. Once we got on that well-maintained road we could really make time. Well, that’s what we thought. But almost as soon as we got on it we encountered traffic trouble, and we just sat there in one of the longest traffic jams I have ever witnessed. We were bumper to bumper and literally parked for almost an hour on this road that regularly sees speeds well over 100 miles per hour—that’s the way the Italians, the Germans, and now, evidently, the Swiss all seem to like it. We never discovered the reason for the traffic jam but we made it to Milano a lot later than we had hoped. Fortunately, we found a pizza place right across the street from the Serena Hotel that stayed open into the wee hours of the morning. We were almost too tired to order dinner, so we gave that chore to our Italian- fluent son to do for all of us. And that’s the way Eric seems to like it—get out with the Italians, in their own environment, forget English and go with the local flow. Wish Kathy and I could do it as easily as he does. Ah, well, maybe some day!