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Scheckhorn & The Eiger
Wednesday
‘Is that blue sky?’ we burst with glee as we asked our editor.
‘Perhaps you should open the drapes first,’ was the testy response.
A person has to be optimistic when there is only a short window of opportunity. Then, all windows look blue and bright. Fortunately, it turned out just as we hoped. For the full day, the sky was cloudless although the air was crisp for most of it. We would have given ‘odds’ that after the weekend, winter had certainly arrived. Seems that the season change will hold off for a while. Talking of ‘odds’, the stock market wants to go down and is doing just that when it suddenly changes its mind and roars upwards. Not an easy way to make a ‘buck’ or a franc.
This brings us to business. In Europe, we have a new work schedule. It’s funny but in San Diego, we must be ready for work by 6am, 6:30 the latest. Here we have to be working by 3:30pm or earlier. This means we can sleep really late, right? Thus far, we find that we are never late for work at home (home?) but have been late for business each day since Wednesday—six in a row. How can that be? The reason is that we are always up on a mountain. Three hours late for work the other day, two yesterday. We were almost embarrassed. We can get away with this because after all, we are in the company of our editor, our boss. We are not as stupid as we look.
Bus and bike road
‘We are climbing to Grosse Scheidegg today,’ we were informed. “But we’ve been there twice already,” we exclaimed. ‘You’re thinking of Kleine Scheindegg. This is on the other side—another mountain.’ “Sounds like the ‘ugly sibling’,” we said, trying some levity. All we get is the rolling eyes as we wait for the lenses to pop. ‘What’s gross is that it is a big, beautiful climb. Now get ready.’
‘Okay. How long is it?’ we gently asked because we noticed our editor is nursing blisters. Not on her hand as you might expect from an editor who overuses her red pen. The feet are having some difficulty because she has new hiking boots. We warned her not to get pastel pink boots to match the new hiking outfit, but what do we know?
‘The time should be well over 5 hours, ten or eleven miles and 3300 feet elevation gain. We are going to be able to stand very close to Wetterhorn, which is next to Schrekhorn, alongside The Eiger. We will travel east through the town, into the forest for a while, past the Wetterhorn Hotel and then straight up to the destination. The latter part is very steep so have a good breakfast,’ she instructed us very firmly. We can’t say for sure but it seems that a little Germanic discipline is creeping into our editor.
Pondering at Scheidegg
It turns out that her assessment was accurate. It was a tough climb but well worth it as we flirted with our favorite snow covered mountains and one or two of their glacier companions. With near perfect weather, it was most enjoyable. On the return, we made one wrong move so for the latter part of the descent, we came through the small villages. It was interesting to see how the one road snaked past each house. In the smallholdings, the farmers, their wives and some children were cutting grass, bailing it and preparing for winter. We smiled. In San Diego, our winter preparation amounts to swopping the swimsuits with the sweaters—a one shelf switch.
The day before we bumped into Englishman, Paul Vernon near the lake (picture attached), fortunately, nobody was hurt. We recognized him today outside the store and entered into conversation. He is an interesting and charming fellow who has just left Goldman Sachs to settle in Zurich. We think he will add much needed color to the city.
How many more nights? We can only stay two more because we have to be in Geneva for Shabbos. We depart for Israel on Sunday-- the days of awe approach rapidly. ‘You got it,’ says the Innkeeper, managing to force a little smile; or was it merely breaking wind as we used to say, when a newborn appeared to smile.
A great Shabbos to you,
Jenni and Jeffrey
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