Catching the PostBus in Brig

In 1956, my grandparents and father (who was 23 at the time) were on a driving tour of Europe, and they drove over the Simplon pass from Switzerland into Italy, en route to Milan. As they headed down the mountains, the brakes failed on the rental car! My dad was able to manage with the hand brake, and when they got down to the first village in Italy they were able to get the brakes repaired rather quickly (with an impromptu overnight stay in the town, though) but this is still something they talk about. I wanted to see this for myself, but when you travel by train between Geneva and Milan, you mainly see tunnels, not scenery. A Swiss friend told me about the PostBus, and there is one that travels between Brig and Domodossola, Italy for about $35 USD. It was fantastic -- the buses are clean and nearly new-looking, there was hardly anyone on the bus (which stops just like any other service, on this day dropping off young people on their way home from school, kids who clearly live way up in the mountains but attend school in Brig), and the views... well, "breathtaking" is an overused word but I can't think of a better one. I saw snow-capped peaks and even a distant glacier. I saw waterfalls -- some even channeled over the roadway by special concrete structures to also protect the roads from avalanches in winter. I couldn't believe that I saw chalets up in places where it seems no human being should or could live -- but they do. I was well able to appreciate how it must have been to be traveling downhill over these roads with no brakes! If you get the chance, do it. You can pick up the train again in Domodossola and continue on into Stresa or Milan or Venice.