Wednesday 16 August 2000. We have reached the highest point that our coach can get in the High Alpine Pass. It's minus four degrees centigrade, but strangely it doesn't feel all that cold. We went out in T-shirts and were comfortable enough without having to put on the jackets that we carried just in case.
We had hoped to catch a glimpse of edelweiss, but it was too early in the season. Up we climbed, past the final and highest car park and, leaning over the railings, we saw the glacier below us.
There was even a funicular that you could ride to take you down to the glacier surface. We opted to stay up on the road though, we weren't wearing suitable footwear for prancing about on ice.
Glaciers flow like water. Just very, very slowly. And whilst they are doing that, over the years they break off and pick up lots of tiny bits of rock and end up looking more muddy than ice. Just the very top of the glacier was approaching white.
It looked like tunnels had been bored into the side of the glacier so that you could go inside it to get a feel for the chill of the place...
I had brought a telephoto lens for the camera These were the days where I was experimenting with digital which was only in its infancy and today was important enough for me to have my SLR film camera with me. I could see that down in the cracks in the glacier the ice shone with that wonderful turquoise colour.
Having gone down the funicular, people are now climbing up a series of around 30 steps to reach the edge of the glacier. One or two from our party made it down.
We carried on walking up the road until it petered out in a cluster of buildings, bars, shops and restaurants.
We found a souvenir shop! Yodelling teddy bear anyone? Miss Franny? She turns quickly with a guilty look. Have you been sniffing the Schnapps bottles again Miss Franny?
I simply can't make up my mind which of these Tyrolean hats suit me the best... We are 7,500 feet above the level of our home. It is minus four degrees centigrade. We are dressed in T-shirts with bare arms. We buy ice cream...
Outside a helicopter is buzzing to and fro across the mountainside, the crew scanning the larger crevices on the off chance someone might have fallen down one. Actually that would be extremely scary - some of those crevices are very deep! It's time to return to the coach before a crevice comes for me...
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