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Saturday, Sep 9 - Back Through the Alps
We had breakfast and said good-by to James, Denise and Pinot. We decided to drive the slow way up through the Alps instead of taking the Gotthard Tunnel. We took a wrong turn at Alessandria, but finally ended up zipping up the motorway at over 100 mph. Just after the border with Switzerland, we stopped for lunch and ate a picnic above a gorgeous waterfall. Wine included.
From there, the Alps shot up in elevation, and we drove through continuous, beautiful alpine valleys, past waterfalls, through villages with pretty churches.
We crossed one valley on the Gunterbrücke bridge, which was built to accommodate the shifting landscape, which moves downward 6-10 mm each year.
We began to see the highest peaks, covered with snow and glaciers.
At one point we ran across a monastery tucked into an alpine valley, high above the tree line.
At Brig we turned eastward and headed toward the Rhone glacier, the headwaters of the Rhone River. We drove up some daunting hairpin turns (see them going up the mountain in the photo below), then saw the huge waterfall surging from the lip of the glacier edge. Wow! It cascaded thousands of feet into the valley.
Then we happened upon a surprise. A the top, for 3,50 Euro, you could hike out to see the glacier itself and cross a scaffolding to explore a glacier cave. We were astonished. The glacier was surrealistically huge, full of crevasses. People walking on it were like ants (I put a white box around some folks hiking on the glacier in the second photo below).
Inside the cave, the ice was blue, and we could hear water roaring beneath our feet and flowing and dripping everywhere around us. If you look closely, you can see Pat on the scaffolding that took us into the cave.
They had photos from 1947 and from 1996. The last 10 years the glacier has shrunk over 100 feet in height and receded way back from the cliff edge. It used to hang over it. In 1947 the ice expanse was enormous and filled the entire upper valley. It was sobering to see the changes. Below shows the edge of the ice field in 1996 and the edge of the ice field now.
This was the highlight of the day. Cold air blew down off the glacier – it was like a gigantic refrigerator. What a marvelous experience!
Just west of the village of Fiesch, a woman suddenly stepped into a crosswalk. The car in front of us slammed on its brakes to avoid hitting her. We then slammed on ours, and that’s when we heard a horrible scraping sound behind us. Turns out a motorcyclist had been following us a bit too closely. He had no option but to turn his bike on its side and slide. He wound up tumbling several times. Pat immediately pulled off to the right to prevent him tumbling into or under us, and the car in front of us stopped, too. The motorcyclist got up, but he was hurt. He favored his leg and didn’t move his left arm. Fortunately he had on a helmet and a thick jacket and pants. Pat moved his motorcycle out of the road, and a local lady said she would take the injured guy to the hospital. This was good, since he only spoke Italian.
Apparently in Switzerland, police aren’t necessary if there’s an injury, but I still felt weird driving away. It was really no one’s fault, other than the pedestrian who mysteriously vaporized, and the motorcyclist who was following too closely. We felt a bit shaken and concerned for the injured man.
After the glacier, we crossed through the pass at Furka. Such lush valleys and stark, craggy mountains! The most beautiful, awesome mountain range I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to imagine Hannibal bringing elephants across them in bad weather. After a while the switchbacks began to feel endless, but finally we came out at Amsteg and headed for Zurich.
We took another wrong turn just before Zurich, and then it turned out we’d put the wrong address into the “Frau Blücher” navigation system. We ended up downtown right along the river. So I guess we got to see the city of Zurich.
Finally we put in the right address and found our way to the airport Renaissance Hotel. We were so glad to get out of the car! Because of the mountain driving and all the stops, it took us 10 hours. But I do love Switzerland. It’s clean and quaint, and the Alps are fabulous. We are so glad we had Frau Blücher on board to guide us around, though. The roadways are not intuitive, and once we understood her instructions, we did quite well.
