Fulfilling Dreams - Swiss Travel Fantasies

Diane Arbus said the word fantasies means " to indulge in reverie. to create or develop imaginative and often fantastic views or ideas. Doing things I'd fantasized about in my sheltered childhood" I was raised in a very sheltered childhood. I escaped through movies to worlds I thought I would never see and imagined adventures I would never be able to do. I have been very fortunate in my adult life to live out many of those childhood fantasies. Counting my blessings I often think of my family. I often wonder what dreams and fantasies my parents and grandmother had. I think about what they wanted to see and do but but were never able to fulfill those dreams. My mother never traveled abroad. She was a child of the depression and a young adult of the World War II years. Travel was just not an option for her. My father was raised in the country. He had a seventh grade education. I doubt he ever thought about Europe or world travel growing up. But he did get to travel to Europe. And it was no fantasy. He was drafted during World War II and almost died from war wounds in Italy near Rome. My grandmother was born poor and struggled most of her life. She married a young soldier she met during the World War I years. They met when he was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland near her home town. They married and they moved back to his home in Indiana. To my grandmother that was a huge move. She gave birth to her first child in Indiana. The child was still born and she went into a great depression and just wanted to return to her home in Maryland. So they returned to Maryland and that was the extent of her travel for her entire life.

I love this photo. This was my grandmother in her late sixties. She lived just a two hour drive from the Atlantic Ocean yet had never been to see it. I remember this day how she stared out at the ocean for the longest time fascinated with the waves and the sand. She is sitting here with my sister Shelley and my father. She was his mother in law and he treated her with love and respect. They are in Ocean City, Maryland. To this day Ocean City is still a favorite destination for my sister.

One of my mothers fantasies was to visit New York City. She wanted to see a taping of The Tonight Show and maybe even a Broadway play. She never got to New York. The thought of taking a car or train to New York was just beyond her comprehension. We did have vacations growing up. We visited Ocean City. We took mountain trips to Skyline Drive and The Blue Ridge Parkway. My father loved his boat and we spent many vacations on his boat up and down the Chesapeake Bay.

I was never satisfied with any of that. I had big fantasies and places I wanted to see. I watched the world through the imagination of the James Bond movies. I wanted to see Switzerland where James Bond skied down the Schilthorn from Blofeld's sanctuary Piz Gloria on top of the mountain. I wanted to see Thailand where James Bond dueled with Scaramanga. And I wanted to see the Eiger in Switzerland, the mountain Clint Eastwood climbed the mountain in The Eiger Sanction. These were big fantasies. I was never satisfied with the safety of staying home. I wanted to get out and see the world. And I have been blessed as an adult to do this.

Twenty years ago I did get to visit Switzerland. It was a huge fantasty come true. I got to take the cable car 10,000 feet into the Alps and visit the top of Schilthorn where Piz Glora, Blofeld's home was located. The building is actually a rotating restaurant where I had lunch and a James Bond martini shaken not stirred.

In 2014 I had the opportunity to visit another fantasy location. Jams Bond Island in Thailand. This was the home to Bond villain Scaramanga. I was very excited about this vacation. However I slipped on a wet curb in Chiang Mai, Thailand and broke my ankle. I did not realize it was broken. We had three more days left of our vacation and I thought it was just a sprain. We flew from Chiant Mai to Phuket. And from there we took a boat out to James Bond Island. So I waded in from the boat to the shores of the island limping a little and hobbling a lot. I was the old man holding up the rest of the tourists on this excursion. But I was determined.

I think that if my parents and grandmother were still alive they would be shocked at the places I have visited. I know my husband Mark's parents would get upset with us traveling a lot. His father told us we were tempting fate. You can only fly so many times before something happens. And I am sure my parents would have had similar fears. My mother never flew an air plane. My father drove to New York City with a tractor and trailer for his job and said he would never drive in that city again. And to my knowledge that was his only time to ever see New York. But one of my biggest fantasies was yet to come.

Mark and I returned to Switzerland for our third visit, my fourth, in April 2023. We had a wonderful vacation, one of my favorite adventures of many we have shared. And finally the Eiger mountain awaited me. The mountain that Clint Eastwood challenged in The Eiger Sanction. Another movie fantasy for me.

We traveled by train from Zurich to Grindelwald. The Swiss trains are wonderful to use. They are extremely punctual. They are comfortable even in second class. And they allow you to see almost any location you want to see in Switzerland. The town of Grindelwald was beautiful.

We took a twenty five minute cable car ride up to First Mountain which faces the Eiger.

And then we did the cliff walk. A metal bridge attached to the side of the mountain 6,500 feet in elevation. This is not my photo. It's from a web site about the cliff walk. But it shows the walk better than my photos.

This was a thrill. Unlike Clint Eastwood (who did his own stunts) in The Eiger Sanction were were not hanging on the side of the Eiger. But we were facing it and looking directly at it.

And how did we end out visit?

With a well sanctioned Eiger glass of wine. I count my blessings. I am very fortunate. At age seventy still living out my fantasies. I think my parents and my grandmother would be shocked but yet thrilled if they were here. When I travel I often thing how much I would love to share the experiences with them. And I often wish I could tell them all about it when I return home.