Saas-Fee, Switzerland---What Month is it anyways???
So we take off northwards out of Turin towards the alps. The drive northwards is fabulous, and we stop for the morning in a small town on the shores of Lake Maggiorre. This is my third time to the Italian lake district in my life, and each time it is impossible to take for granted the staggering beauty of the lakes and surrounding mountains. Lake Como, Lake Lugano, Lake Maggiorre. All amazing. After a stip in a picture perfect small Italian lake village, a stroll and coffee, we are off to make our way to Switzerland.
No "autostradas" for us, we are armed with our Michelin map, a somewhat functional on-board GPS in the car, so off we go onto the small local roads through to Switzerland and the alps.
It was a journey that will be hard to forget. The first stretch was a tiny road, filled with green valleys, after about 100 switchbacks, green kids and the back, and green wife in the front. The road got narrower and narrower, and periodically there were 'roadworks' where basically the road had fallen into a canyon and they putting a road back where the road should be. We did not get a shot of this, but we've all seen the 'falling rocks' signs when driving in the U.S. Sometimes words, sometimes a symbol of a car, and 'rocks' falling above the car. Well, on this road, they had 'falling car' signs, showing that you better stay on the road, or you can expect the road to crumble from the weight of your car, sending you hurtling into a canyon. That being said, it was beautiful, we popped out of another valley, and soon we are at the Swiss Border. After a five second scrutiny of my four year old daughter's passport, my family and our minivan was admitted into Switzerland.
So where were we headed? When Kim and I were assembling the trip, we deliberately left a two week hole in the schedule, after Tuscany, and before we got to Paris. We did not know whether we wanted to "head west" to the South of France, Provence, Cote d'Azur, and then make our way to Paris, or whether we wanted some cooler weather after lots of warm days in Asia, and some sweltering days in Europe. Needless to say, if you have been following this blog for the duration, we decided to head North towards the Alps. The two days in Turin got plugged in, since we were heading north, and we now had a 'five day hole' as we had nabbed a Chateau in Megeve for a few days, prior to meeting my sister, brother-in-law and their kids in Chateau country for a few days, as they rejigged their London – Paris trip schedule to spend a few days with us. So we had five days to kill.
We bought maps again. Sorry, but on-line does not give any context. Like a lot of things on-line, you go rapidly from big-picture, context filled content, to something more reductionist. Like the backpackers with their "one book for Europe" if one is looking at a small view of an area on line, and can only zoom on 11" areas, you do not get a sense of context of where a journey can take you. If you have a four foot by four foot map, you can, and it's fine to augment with homework on the internet, or GPS devices in the car.
So we were headed north. Como and Lugano were wonderful the last time we went, but too far east, as we had to make our way to the Chamonix/Mont Blanc/Megeve area. Interlochen, a popular tourist spot, too far north. Ritzy areas, like St. Moritz, and Gstaad…not in the right direction. So we started looking at Zermatt. Looked wonderful, Kim had been there with her mom eighteen years ago, looked great with the kids. But then we thought…'everybody knows Zermatt, where else can we go'. Searching on the internet, the next valley over, surrounded by fourteen 4000+ Meter high mountains, was the town of Saas-Fee. Kind of past Brig and hang a left before Sion (see sign above). A town that where the first road was cut in 1951, making the days on Donkey trails unnecessary. A town that had it's own distinct identity and dialect of German, as it was basically cut off from the much of the world for centuries, as it was up a beautiful and stark valley that had no geographic or strategic importance to anyone, so they were left along.
But first we had to get there. And as we headed up the hillside, the weather started changing, and it started getting COOOLLLLDDDERRR…
The landscape starts getting more desolate, and as we approach the Simplon Pass (See road sign above, 6100', closed between November and end April)---It starts snowing on us. I'm going to spare you the shots of 'we left Turin this morning where it was 27C/80F and we are now standing here in our shorts and t-shirts in a snowstorm', but there we were, standing in an Alpine pass, middle of July, glacier behind us, getting snowed on in our Shorts and T-Shirts.
July, what July? We get to Saas-Fee, where our Hotel Du Glacier was one of the most wonderful and unexpected stops of the trip, as was the entire town and valley of Saas-Fee. It truly was another world. But once we got to town, what was the first thing we needed to do? Find Roman ruins? Visit an Egyptian museum? Nope, shop for winter clothing, as given our itinerary, we were sorely equipped to handle weather that was just above the freezing level, no matter how scenic the mountains and the town. So we shop, and we prep for the next chapter…
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