A long-standing ambition to start the Cross-Swiss walk in more style by traversing the Rhätikon, the long limestone Swiss-Austrian frontier ridge, was fulfilled in August. Ken started by air & train to Klosters, up the Madrisa egg railway & then an afternoon walk over the Schlappinerjoch to Gargellen in Austria. To start the walk proper, there was quite an arduous day over the Sarotla Pass & three minor passes to the Lindauer Hut, renowned for its good food. The next day started with a long plod over the Ofen Pass under the glorious Drusenfluh, followed by the higher Verajoch & lower Cavalljoch, which took him back into Der Schweiz. Then, more plod to the Schesaplana Hut with its austere (very) Swiss cookery & a bad night's 'sleep' in the lager. The last day of this part of the trip went over the Grosse Furka back to Austria & a traverse into Liechtenstein past the Pfälser Hut & down to Steg, where he arrived, semi-dead to find the only hotel closed. So he thumbed a lift through the tunnel into the Rhine Valley & stayed at Triesenberg. He walked down past Vaduz Castle (very pretty, this bit) & along the Rhine to Buchs in Switzerland again, then thumbed a lift into the Toggenberg, where he spent the rest of the week. The deteriorating weather produced dramatic effects on the Churfirsten overlooking the Walensee. Then, a last & very wet plod over the Vorder Hohi to pretty Weesen on the Walensee (the one illustrated by Liszt in the Swiss Années de Pelerinage).

One breakthrough - for the first time, no one laughed at Ken's parasol-cum-brolly but many realised & said that it was a good idea.
Ken forgot to mention his Swiss Alpine Club 25-year Veterans badge received last year. He thought it was due this year.

Desperate for a holiday in October after the show & Warsaw trip, Philip Davies (our local independent Travel Agent) suggested Taormina in Sicily. Now, we had never considered Taormina despite Ken's Uncle Eric's recommen-dation (he captured it in 1943) because of the Mafia-ridden nature of the island but the town is undoubtedly beautiful, set 700 feet up on a steep sea cliff. We visited Syracuse, which has a Greek theatre carved from the solid rock, seats included (shades of the Islington Union Chapel) & Etna, an only too active volcano but we could not get near the crater, although the tour round was interesting, as there are quite large towns on it. Etna grows 10cm per year, net of erosion, which is fast in geological terms. From our hotel balcony on clear mornings, we could watch explosions emitted by the crater & the consequent clouds of nasty fog. Taormina has a huge Greek theatre of its own, modernised by the Romans. The gardens were laid out (typically) by one of those eccentric 19th century English women, Florence Trevelyan, exiled with vast funds by her family for screwing the Prince of Wales (Edward VII).

Etna from our hotel balcony