A Lesson Learned

A Lesson Learned

Juliana and I are going to leave Germany and go to Switzerland. I am finally going to see the Matterhorn.  Juliana says she is going to show me the mountain and she has booked a hotel room at Zermatt. I worry whenever she has things planned. I have no idea what she might have up her sleeve. She informs me that we are booked for two nights. She makes one stipulation—we will not climb the Matterhorn as she jokingly reminds me of my fall at the castle. Actually, during the 1970s, so many people were climbing the mountain that the Swiss government had to limit the number of people that could climb at any one time. The waiting period at that time was about two years long. June is not prime climbing time. The weather is changing and the rocks are expanding and contracting, which makes for some dangerous conditions. The government closes most of the more challenging routes during the early summer. Switzerland is the place to take the family. This is an exquisitely beautiful country. God looks favorably on the Swiss. The United States has ten God-given rights while the Swiss have twenty-six. They have rights up to their eyeballs. Yes, they have the right to bear arms; in fact, every male citizen, 19 and over, is part of the local militia and serves for a period of six years. Women can volunteer to serve in their local militia. Initial training for a militia member is eighteen weeks of military training. They are also required to attend monthly training sessions unless they are attending school. Yes, that means training every month and learning how to use a weapon…what a novel ideal. Their weapon training does not include shooting road signs. "The Swiss do not have an army, they are the army.”  Switzerland has been able to maintain their neutrality in European wars because of location and its local militias.

Juliana and I leave the castle by way of the narrow-gauge railway. This time we take our water and food with us. The trip takes three hours. The narrow-gauge railway runs through some of the most scenic parts of the German, Swiss, and Austrian Alps. We are fortunate to meet several couples on the train. Someone asks Juliana where we are staying and she replies, “The Omnia.”  I get a very bad feeling when I see everyone’s sudden reaction. Not having any idea about the hotel at which we are staying, I wonder what is wrong. Then someone says, “Oh! God, I always wanted to stay there.”  Now, I am feeling better. Our new friends are rather excited about the Omnia. The consensus seems to be that they all want to see our room. Juliana invites them to see the room and to supper. They politely decline the supper. Juliana convinces them that I will cover their supper and we would love to have them. We will all meet at the Omnia for supper. I figure this is going to cost me a pretty penny. I begin to calculate that six people at about ten dollars per person would cost me sixty bucks. Remember this is in 1972 U.S. dollars. Multiply that amount by four and you have the total in 2013 dollars. I am just a poor sergeant making $360 a month. Juliana pokes me in the ribs and hands me a note. To my relief the note says, “I got it, do not worry.”  I am still hurting from the loss of my camera. I am hoping to buy one in Zermatt, but funds are tight for me.

At the train station, Juliana breaks away to make some telephone calls. When she returns, she tells everyone that arrangements are complete. I do not understand why you need to arrange for a simple supper, but I will soon find out. Zermatt does not have motorized transportation. There are no cars in the town and everyone gets around on horse, foot, or bicycle. We are both carrying packs that weigh nearly 40 pounds. The packs contain all our clothes and camping gear. Juliana tells me that we will have a ride to the hotel. A horse-pulled carriage arrives at the station to take us to the hotel. Our new friends are able to go with us to the hotel because they wanted to see our room. When we get to the hotel, I understand why our friends are so eager to see the room. My God!  I have stayed in castles and in five star hotels since knowing Juliana, but the Omnia is something you must see to believe. This is the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in and it has the most spectacular view. From our room, we can see the Matterhorn and several other major mountains. We can see the whole town from the other side of the room. It is beautiful. Well, it is beautiful until I look at the room price on the door. In the off-season, which June is, the price per day is DM 3,600, which is equivalent to $1200 at that time. I tell Juliana, “We really do not have to stay in a place this costly; this is almost three-month’s pay for me. She told me not to worry because a close friend of the manager made arrangements for us. Since it is the off-season, they will not use this suite. We will only pay for the housekeeper. Our cost for the two days is to be DM 100 or about thirty dollars. This price, however, did not include the dog fee. I forgot to mention that while we were there, we had a Saint Bernard. You can rent a Saint Bernard for your visit to Zermatt. Our Saint Bernard is Fredrick von Bier, but we just call him Bear and that seems to suit him. I do not suggest you rent a dog at the Omnia because is it very hard to leave him. Our dog, after we rubbed his head a few times, became completely devoted to us. He knew what stores he could go into and what stores he had to sit outside and wait for us. He shared the suite with us and if it got cold, he had no problem crawling into bed with us. I almost cried while saying goodbye to him.

As I previously stated, the room is a suite designed for as many as 12 people, and it would take that to pay the seasonal rate. If you stay in this suite during the ski and climbing season, it will cost about $10,000 dollars for the minimum of four days. The suite is on the top floor, has a balcony overlooking the city, and has a view of the Matterhorn. The balcony joins a glass observation room with a very powerful telescope. You can watch climbers on the surrounding mountains. The bedroom is huge. While this suite may have up to 12 people, inhabiting it during ski season, for us—there is only one bed. The bed is approximately the size of three king size beds. While attending college, I rented apartments about half the size of the suite’s bathroom. The bathroom consists of porcelain and tile. There are two tubs the size of Olympic swimming pools and two combination showers, massagers, and a sauna. I could live in the space of one of the showers. The showers were wonderful. You step in and shut the glass door, which opens and shuts like a refrigerator door. Once you close the door, you can set the temperature at what you desire and proceed to shower, massage, or sauna. As soon as the temperature reaches the desired setting, a steady spray of water ensues. If you choose the massage mode, you lie on a bench while a high-pressure spray massages your back. In sauna mode, steam jets surround you and you can adjust to your comfort level. Bear prefers the shower at 50 degrees Celsius. The bathtubs have heaters that maintain the temperature you desire for as long as you wish. The bathroom alone would cost more than the average house.  We also have a real fireplace with a semicircular couch sunken into the floor. This is luxury I never before enjoyed and will probably never see again.  If can find some pictures of it, I will post them.

We agreed to meet with our friends from the train for supper. The evening meal at the hotel is black tie. All we have is lightweight hiking and climbing clothes. We failed to pack any formal attire.  I mention this to Juliana and as usual, she has a solution to the problem. She shows me to the main closet where formal wear, from small children sizes to any size you would wish, adorns the racks. The other side is the same for women. I ask what this is all about and she replies, “This is a ski resort, no one packs formal wear to travel to a ski resort.”  You may be wondering why they serve formal meals if no one prepares for it. They do so because it is time-honored tradition; tradition has not caught up the fact that today, people other than royalty visit resorts.  You do not have to be royalty to stay in the Omnia. You can comfortably fit 30 people into this suite, even though the hotel specifies “twelve.”  If you share the room price with several people, you get all the luxury for the price of a two-star hotel room.

Juliana did not find any clothing she likes, so we go to town to buy a dress for her. This is fun because our Bear goes everywhere we go. It is actually fun to walk through the town and shop for a dress. Juliana finds the perfect dress and she buys a new camera for me. So, now I do have some pictures hidden away. We spend most of the first day exploring the town. For me, Zermatt is like being on another planet. The whole place is so alien to me. I never saw such extravagant luxury. There are not any cars on the streets, only horse-drawn carriages. The temperature is in the low forties, which feels like winter on a June day.  Later that evening, the people from the train meet us at our suite. I wish I could remember their names but it has been forty years. Our guests are overwhelmed with our suite. The telescope is contained within a glass enclosure that rolls away when you wish to use it. The telescope is for watching climbers on the Matterhorn and surrounding mountains. As soon as one of our guests sees the telescope, he wishes to use it. He focuses the telescope on a mountain south of the Matterhorn. He seems excited about what he is seeing and wants us all to see it. I look through the telescope, but am not initially sure of what I am seeing. There are just two red objects swaying in the wind. Our guest explains: In 1952, two Japanese climbers climbed this very difficult vertical cliff. At some point, one of the climbers fell. This pulled the other climber off and the rope caught them, probably killing both instantly. As of 1973, no one has been able to get them down. That was a terrible way to start a dinner date.  

The meal was worth every penny for me, well, Juliana pays but you get the idea. I underestimated the price by a factor of twenty. The meal consisted of shrimp and escargot for appetizers, baked Salmon on a bed of brown rice boiled in goat’s milk and wedges of blue cheese, white asparagus boiled in butter, and the dessert consists of traditional German chocolate with cherry cream filling. Each course is complete with its own wine, but brandy is served with dessert. If you do not drink alcoholic beverages, you will die in Germany. A glass of wine or a tanker of beer costs the same as a glass of water.

Nightfall from the suite is beautiful. On the balcony, you are able to look down on the lights of the city and you can see the climbers’ lights on the various mountains. Bear is a real sweetheart. He has to be between Juliana and I all the time. When we get ready for bed, he decides that it is time to play. Bear weighs close to 200 pounds. He loves to run and jump on the bed. When he finally gets tired, he makes a nest in the middle of the bed. We wasted our time telling the front desk we wanted a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call. Around 5 a.m., Bear decides it is time to play trampoline on the bed. We are awaking early so that we can hike to the top of the mountain on which the hotel is built. This hike up the mountain is going to be very important for me.

During my early college days, I took an introduction to Philosophy class at the University of Arkansas. In this course, we studied existentialism. In the book Being and Nothingness, John Paul Sartre declares, “You are responsible for your disabilities.”  I thought at the time, being a little naïve, this was a mean statement. My understanding changed while upon that mountain. The climb we are making is not a technical climb. There are some high steep cliffs with narrow paths. I am worried about taking Bear, even though people assure me that he will have no problems. In fact, I should be more concerned about myself. The round trip will take about six hours. At the timberline, we meet a young man. He is resting on his way down the mountain. He actually begins climbing at 3:30 a.m. and explains that he gets an early start to avoid meeting many people on his climb because it takes him so long to move. This young man has two prosthetic legs. We say goodbye and continue onto the summit. At the summit, there is a cross on which you are supposed to leave something.  Juliana leaves a red scarf and we start our hike down the mountain. Around noon, we meet the same young man that we met going up the mountain. He is having trouble in places with his new artificial legs, but he continues. Without saying a thing, we decide to walk with him.  He seems to welcome the company and he tells us about his legs. He is in Germany at the hospital in Frankfurt. He lost his legs when he hit a personal land mine. He was with the 101 Airborne. We arrange to meet for supper. When we joined him later, an attractive German lady accompanied him. After supper, we all went to our suite and shared cheese, sausage, and wine while we watched the light from the mountain and looked at stars in the telescope. They stayed over in our suite that night. Poor Bear did not know which bed needed him the most. Therefore, he spent the night traveling from bed to bed. This was our last night in Zermatt. In the morning, we were going to have to say goodbye to Bear. My problem with the French existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, was resolved. I realized that, in some manner, we are all disabled. What we do with our disabilities are our responsibilities. This young man could decide to lie in bed and feel sorry for himself, but he chose to climb the Matterhorn. It was a valuable lesson for me.

©2013 Michael L. Wright