High on a Hill with a Lonely Goatherd . . .

Dateline Gimmelwald

Vsitors to this Swiss alpine village were left clinging to the mountainside overnight when the cable car stopped running for an unknown reason (or so the operators said). This village sits very high in the alps opposite the famous Eiger, Jungfrau and Monch peaks and just below the Schilthorn peak. The Schilthorn is notable as the location of that famous James Bond 007 movie (you know the one with the guy who nobody remembers as James Bond, George Lazenby).

As intrepid visitors strolled the high mountain paths struck with awe and fear by the staggering beauty of the scenery and left hyperventilating by the abyss between the slopes, they were also bewildered by the eery silence when they noticed no more cable cars moving up or down. The only people able to go down to the valley were the many crazy people swooping this way and that hanging from big parachutes.

Faced with their worse nightmares all coming true at once, the visitors made the best of the situation by going to the Mountain Hostel for many beers and more Swiss specialties, this time in the form of raclette, potatoes and cheese. Mmmmmm. Tomorrow is another day and they decided to worry about it then because they had booked their night at Leisi’s Heart Place. Leisi was at the next table drinking her own beer. When the visitors made their way back to the Heart Place because the clouds had finally cleared from the Jungfrau and they needed to take more pictures, Leisi told them to go to her cellar and help themselves to more beer. And they did.

Morning came early and they quietly went about their preparations. Silently they made their way to their fate.

When asked about their impending ordeal, Visitor One replied, “I can’t talk right now. I am trying to positively visualize drinking cappuccino and eating a croissant in Lauterbrunnen.” Lauterbrunnen being the town with the train station back to Interlaken.

Visitor Two responded with more determination, saying “I will live the rest of my life here in Gimmelwald, rather than hang glide down the mountain.”

At the cable car station they learned the only way down off the mountain – a minivan drive up to the higher village of Murren along narrow mountain paths, and then a ride down on “the smaller cable car”. Visitor One vowed not to open her eyes again until she was off the mountain and she didn’t, especially when the cable car operator said that “this is the steepest cable car in the world” to the 32 Chinese tourists that crowded onto the already half-filled car. You can trust the Swiss, they know what they’re doing, right?

Cappuccino and croissants never tasted as good as they did that day in Lauterbrunnen!!

Now here it is your moment of mosaic. From Aventicum.