My good friend MJ asked some weeks (months?) ago how are the Alps. I tried to avoid the question with a smart ass answer, but , first, I’m sure she didn’t buy it and second, all this time I’ve been thinking that MJ deserves a better answer. The problem is, I still don’t know how to answer that. I don’t think, I can describe the Alps for you, my friend. Instead, I’d like to tell you about my experiences. I hope, that’s fine for you.
My very first memory of the Alps is from my childhood. When I didn’t want to drink my milk, my mother used to say: “Why you don’t like your milk? Look, it’s delicious! It’s of happy cows from the Alps!” So, my first mental note on the Alps was that that place is a cow paradise!
Later in the eighties I followed on TV the Japanese cartoon series “Heidi, the Girl of the Alps”. There were not many cows there, but I learned that the Alps natives get homesick very easily. A person I talked to has recently confirmed this fact. So, looking back, it’s funny how watching a Japanese series in Latin America I learned something about Europeans!
When I watched that cartoon, of course the landscape and scenery was all like a fairy tale, some kind of fantasy land. At that time, I would have never imagined that years after I would be sitting at in an office on the 5th floor of some building with windows facing the south of Munich, where the horizon is marked (in clear days) with the contour of the Bavarian Alps.
This year I’ve been fortunate enough and enjoyed the mountains in all seasons: in winter I slept in an igloo, in spring and summer had some biking tours, a ridding weekend, some excursions also in fall. The best is that each time I have had excellent weather, which makes things much more enjoyable. I don’t know if it’s the contact with nature, the possibility of doing something different from the daily routine, to enjoy a magnificent landscape, but each time I’m close to the mountains it’s a great experience.
