Assassination attempt on Trump yesterday. Mixed emotions all around in our group. After our ill-fated excursion yesterday, we opted to drive south on the highway instead of taking the train ferry again. It's a longer way around but takes you up and over the Alps, promising some exciting driving and some great vistas.
It’s Sunday and that means everyone in Europe is out on the Swiss highways. Just in the process of getting gas, we jostled with about two dozen cycles. They were loud and raring to go, men and women.
The roads were jammed with cars, bikes, motorcycles and, just to make things a little more exciting, huge tourist buses.
The road climbs up and up through the valley, up the pass. There are a lot of hairpin turns that keep you on your toes. You warily start around the blind curve inevitably meeting a string of motorcycles precariously leaning just up to the center line.
The routine of the day was Don the navigator going, “Look at that JT! - don’t look!” or “that’s amazing” every five seconds tempting me to turn my head. We made out way up to the pass which provided tremendous views to the north and south. There were patches of rotten snow and small icebergs in the lake.
When we arrived, there were already hundreds of bikers and more coming all the time. It was a scene. There are at least two hotels on top plus a large bar and restaurant. We decided to grab some lunch. We sat outside in the blazingly bright sun and the cool air. The waitress only spoke German so there was some complicated pantomimes in order to make ourselves understood. The food was tasty which, compared to restaurants in the U.S., was somewhat surprising. Swiss restaurants tend to serve a lot of similar things- bratwurst of course, some form of breaded pork, grilled chicken breast, a charcuterie plate, barley soup and bread.
After lunch we continued on our way. We had gone barely a ¼ mile when I had to pull over and take a pic. There are endless vistas. You could spend days just photographing. Going down the other side was mind blowing. The switchbacks zigzagged for miles. There were endless streams of loud motorcycles and hell-bent bikers going balls to the walls downhill. I had one bicyclist on my tail for miles.
Eventually we came down into the valley and things leveled out. We passed an endless series of tiny towns spaced very closely together. They all had similar architecture- thick, ancient looking bare wood structures, some of whom came right to the edge of the road. How old were these buildings? It was hard to tell but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were at least 100 years old. There was almost no activity in some of the towns. It was like they were abandoned. While on our way, we passed several apricot stands. I’m thinking to myself, “They grow apricots here?”. But it turns out that the sheltered valleys with ample rainfall make a perfect environment to grow fruit. Finally I had to stop. We pulled up to a stand just off the side of the road in a small village. I bought a basket of fruit. On the way back to the car, I noticed a large decal on a car in the parking area. It was a cartoonish logo for Faceplant Gin. Cool. Then looking around, there was the Faceplant distillery right next to the fruit stand. Of course we had to check it out. It was a tiny operation. They make only a certain amount of different flavored gins using local fruits and botanicals. We all had a taste and I had to buy some. It was expensive, so I bought just a small souvenir sized bottle. After enjoying a few gin and tonics in the following days, we knew we were coming back for more!
We happened upon a very long walking bridge called Gom’s Bridge that spanned a roaring river and a deep gorge so we stopped and explored. It’s a suspension bridge and it doesn’t take much to get it bouncing and swaying. I held onto my phone very tightly.
Driving to St. Niklaus
As we drew closer to the AirBnB, we decided to pick up groceries. We were passing through Visp which was the last decent-sized retail area before we reached our destination. “Hey, there’s a Coop!" (the local grocery chain)”.“Oh, it’s closed.” We Googled grocery stores and every one of them was closed. It’s Sunday in Switzerland. That’s how they do it. We checked a couple more. No luck. Finally, after we had just about given up hope, we spotted a gas station/convenience store. Score! It was well stocked and we bought everything we needed: bread, cheese, wine and fruit. We drove the final 15 miles to our rental. The directions were good up to a point. We drove up and up and up until it seemed like there would be no more houses but suddenly we were in a small development of small hotels, shops and houses. Our directions got us very close. By now we were way up high with sweeping views of the city of St. Niklaus below. We crept along narrow lanes and eventually ended up on a one-lane road that went up at a nearly impossibly steep angle. The car began to slip. We knew that we were in the wrong place and we knew that we might not make it out of there. A group of teenagers were out walking and coming towards us. One of the boys spoke English and told how to get out of this predicament. I managed to turn the car around in a series of precarious maneuvers and we rolled back down the path. We reached a crossroads and stopped, not sure which way to go. It happened that a couple sitting up on their porch had witnessed the whole debacle. The woman came down and tried to get us going in the right direction. We went back to the point where the debacle had begun and tried again. The house was right there, just a half block away. Thanks Google.
Home at last! Weary and hungry, we stumbled into the house and dropped our stuff. We were blown away! The house is huge with three bedrooms and a bath downstairs and a large kitchen/dining room, bathroom and living room upstairs. Windows wrapped around two sides of the upstairs facing the mountains. The kitchen is well stocked with three sets of silverware, two coffee pots and the largest and most varied set of glasses that I had ever seen in a private home. The house was also furnished with ample and comfortable furniture. I could live here. We all immediately migrated to the porch to savor the late afternoon and light.
St. Niklaus lies in a narrow canyon and the sides are very steep. We can look straight across to mountaintops across the valley and see many houses and barns. These structures are on impossibly high and steep slopes. We couldn’t figure out how you could possibly drive up there and speculated that the only way up is by gondola. But how do you move several buildings-worth of materials and home furnishing all the way up there? Crazy. At those altitudes, there are small meadows interspersed where cattle graze. Farmers we passed are cutting and putting up hay for their livestock.
Don prepared a loverly charcuterie platter with the breads, meats, cheeses and avocados that we had bought and we cracked Don’s Face Plant gin for a ceremonial toast. Man is that stuff good! I must pick up another bottle for the trip home. We supped on the porch and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine. Later I took a shower and washed my clothes. We spent the next couple of hours just relaxing on the porch.