Summer 2009

OK people...no more individual emails..they are way less efficient than Le blog, which I might point out No One seemed to miss. But here it is!!!

Greetings from the mountain top. We are in good ol faithful Lech. This year we are in an apartment higher up on the mountain so the view is quite spectacular. I will try to get some pictures of this thing. It is like a movie, watching the weather change....this summer has been low on the sunshine, so there is a lot to watch: fog, rain, wind, lightening, all this with a wood burning fireplace. not bad.
Frederick is having a time I tell ya...gets to tag along with Luis Schneider, the scion of the family that owns the Hotel Alhmof, where we stay in winter. But way more on them later.
Frederick goes to the little town kids club for tourists where they are let loose on the town for scavenger hunts, rock climbing, swimming, and various moutain-y activities.
Thomas and I hike up and down and up and down. We have developed a routine similar to the trajectory of an opera: it starts slow, and the characters look good and fresh. But from here it deteriorates quickly, to the steepest, most miserable point on the walk where one begins to loathe the person who brought her there and decide to take action. (poison comes to mind) i find a tiny infraction...fume about it..and rush up the mountain to Thomas to "share" my feelings. Last time I felt he had mentioned his (gold medal winning) ex girlfriend in a comparative way that I did not appreciate ...like he was hinting I sucked at this. It was all perfectly obvious.
Poor man. (I am anything if not predictable). He takes his cue, murmurs words of apology and hands me lemonade. And then I look up and look at my watch and see the view, and see it really hasn't been that long and I just about burst into an aria. It is so god damn beautiful. But as happy and relieved as I am, I am more chastened-really, pouting like this in front of the mountains. They are the main character in this drama....stoic, noble, endlessly patient. They listen to all our crap...all the silliness and flightiness of humans. They stay (mostly) still and listen. I know they are supposed to be dangerous; But I don't see it that way..it's the wind and the cold that kill us. If you think about it, the mountains have to endure the cold as well. They just do it better than we do.

So I get my act together and Thomas and I walk happily together to the top. Strangely, it is at the end that I often have the most energy. Sometimes we even run down the parts that are not too steep....and it is absolutely the best- the yellow of the egg as the Austrians say. It defies description... like flying but better. My legs are so tired, but they can't be contained...because they are giddy to fall spastically, joyfully downhill, down toward this beloved little town. We have been known to woop like little kids past cows and mountain goats and serious farmers..down down toward the church steeple.

And the mountain watches. And maybe cracks just a little smile.

Pictures soon!