Nice Glow
Thursday. The day began with mild summer weather, but in the afternoon, clouds rolled in and it became uncomfortably warm and humid — reaching 29°C in Canterbury. It felt as if we should be expecting a storm, but none materialised. Work was extremely busy: non-stop from the moment I sat down at my desk, to my brain-fried stagger from the building around six. Didn’t even manage coffee at lunchtime. Nothing of interest happened in the evening — just quiche and a headache for supper, and an early night.
Gabriel’s Swiss Adventures were far more interesting than my day — he’s off on a mountain excursion: Glacier 3000 is a straightforward way to get yourself up to nearly 3 km without having to learn ice climbing first. A two-stage cable car from Col du Pillon drops you on a high, mostly white planet of rock, snow and concrete, with a Mario Botta summit station, the Peak Walk suspension bridge between two summits, and a scattering of other ways to separate visitors from their nerves (and francs) such as the Alpine Coaster and glacier walks. On a clear day you can pick out a roll call of celebrity peaks – Matterhorn, Eiger, Jungfrau and even Mont Blanc sulking on the horizon – and on a not-so-clear day you can at least enjoy the bracing wind and wonder why you didn’t just stay in Gstaad.
