Cool Destination

If you can afford it, visit Switzerland. Probably one of the most expensive places I've ever spent time (Denmark ranks well up there), but well worth the time and money invested.

In Luzern I saw the most moving physical memorial I've ever seen. I've been to Verdun, 9/11 ground zero, the Punchbowl cemetery and the USS Arizona memorial in Hawaii, the US Vietnam memorial, and tons of other places of honor and veneration around the world, but nothing has ever hit me and stayed with me like this monument to the Swiss mercenaries who died defending the Tuileries in 1792. It is incredibly simple, yet enormously moving.

Tried to go to the Montreux Jazz Festival (http://www.montreuxjazz.com/index_fr.aspx) in July 1988. Just hopped in the car in central Germany after getting a week off, and drove south toward the Austrian frontier at Mittenwald. Stopped along the way for a few nights of cold hefeweizen and outstanding Bavarian cuisine, and some rampant sex with the first wife. Then on to the heart of the Alps and Montreux. Got there about noon, and hit the tourist bureau for help with a place to stay. Everything was booked up, but I'll give it to their municipal tourist folks, they eventually hooked us up with this outstanding little pension about 3000 feet up on the shoulder of a massive mountain looking straight down at the city and the lake. It was about a 45-minute drive to and from where we were staying into town, but the view during the day and the nights was worth it, as was the incredible Alpine solitude up there. Great place to stay.

Naturally, we completely struck out on festival tickets. I've bought my share of scalped tickets, but have never completely failed like this before. Nothing to be had, at any price, for any show. Completely, absolutely, totally sold out. So we hung around town, had some great food, went to see every single bit of the local color, and then headed slowly back into Germany from there. Great trip, even without the music.

Saw On Her Majesty's Secret Service the other night, and the brief shots of Bern reminded me of many visits. I know the Baerengraben is a sacred symbol of the city, but it left me cold and depressed and ashamed to be a human, watching the way those bears were penned, down in a stone hole, reduced to begging for peanuts and other scraps thrown by insensitive tourists, idiots who thought it was the best entertainment they'd ever seen. I always loved to walk to the Barengraben across the main bridge there, after walking up and down the old city streets with all of those great shops. Great place to visit, absolutely stunning.

Loved all of the high mountain passes in the summertime, way up there at 10,000+ feet, with no guardrail, seeing the roadside memorials, and the rusting hulks of the cars, way, way down there on the slopes. Gotta admit, though, that my favorite Alpine pass was the Timmelsjoch from Austria into Italy, up from the lovely Oetztal in Austria and that fantastic descent into northern Italy. Loved the tunnels, like the Simplon.

Really enjoyed the lake region at Locarno, Lago di Como and Maggiore. If I'm not mistaken, this is where Lucas filmed a lot of the on-the-ground Naboo scenes in the latest Star Wars flick. Magnificent, unaffordable real estate.

Really liked Interlaken, and had some of the best cuisine in a number of restaurants there. Visited Zermatt on a crystal-clear day, with the Matterhorn showing magnificently all day long. Absolutely stunning. This is the only mountain I've ever seen where immediately, without me even thinking of it intentionally, the thought popped into my head, "That pinnacle must be achieved." I'm no mountain climber, not in the least, but that human desire to conquer leapt to the fore as I gazed upon the Matterhorn.

On the road up to the train station into Zermatt, stopped at a roadside pull-off to take some photos and to take in the incredible scenery. A good 100' down the incredibly steep and dangerous 2000' slope was lodged a silver dairy cannister. No way I was going to climb down to retrieve it, and anyway, what the hell am I going to do with a used Swiss dairy cannister? Return it to the Greater Swiss Dairy Council for a reward? Fill it up myself? Nah. So I grabbed a fist-sized rock and gave it a gentle toss. I pegged the cannister on the very first try, and it began to tumble down the scree slope. It fell forever, a good five minutes, getting smaller and smaller, the sun glinting off it as it fell. Not a sound came up from the ravine. Finaly it hit the massive boulder at the bottom, and with the most spectacular, spinning, tumbling movement, went right into the raging alpine river way down at the bottom. My dad and I watched as long as we could as the thing floated away, on its way to whatever lake and/or river lay ahead. I'd like to think it made it to the Rhine and the North Sea some day, but I very much doubt that.

Driving on a beautifully forested road north of Winterthur, I heard on the radio that Bob Crane had been found dead in LA. Fly, thee, to thy rest, Hogan.