Page 52 - Bulletin_Vol.82 No.3_December 2023
P. 52

possible to create links through these             Council, perhaps more Swiss will in the
            Carrefour International round tables?              future  be  more  interested  in  what  the
                                                               various UN organizations do.  Carrefour
            From my contacts and experience in the             International  may  provide  a  means  for
            past  50  years,  I  found  that  few  Swiss       the retired Swiss to learn more about the
            took  any  interest  in  international             UN.  We  need  to  attract  a  younger
            organizations.  Now that Switzerland is a          audience.
            member  of  the  UN  and  the  Security







                                    THE CIRCLE IS COMPLETE


                                                                                   By Eugénia SANTOS


            In the last issue of the magazine, I read          a  great  day  as  I  had  never  climbed  to
            an  article  that  I  found  very  interesting,    such an altitude before.   I had seen the
            about  a    trip  to  the  Aletsch  glacier  (a    snow  in  Portugal,  at  Serra  da  Estrela
            region I know very well).                          (Star  Mountain),  which  isn't  even  2,000
                                                               meters  high.    My  body  did  not
            I had once written an account of a trip to         appreciate    climbing  so  high  and  I
            the  Mürren-Schilthorn,  that  I  thought          suddenly, became very ill, with thoughts
            might  be  interesting  reading  to  publish.      of dying.  I couldn't enjoy it. In a nutshell,
            I'm sending it to you here, along with a           a day to be forgotten.
            photo of me up there!
                                                               When  I  started  to  get  to  know
                               ******
                                                               Switzerland better, I finally realised that
            I arrived (with my husband) in Geneva in           our  friends'  idea  was  an  excellent  one,
            November 1976.  The following summer,              as it had been in s the Jungfrau region,
            a  couple  of  friends  wanted  to  show  us       perhaps  the  most  beautiful  part  of  the
            the real Switzerland: the mountains.  So,          Swiss  Alps.    So  I  decided  to  go  there
            one    Sunday,     we     travelled   many         myself, at least once.
            kilometres,  as  far  as  cars  were               I  often  spend  a  few  days  in  the
            permitted, before taking a cable car.  We          mountains.  I love the natural beauty of
            travelled there and back in a single day,          the  Alps,  the  silence,  and  the  typical
            climbing to an altitude of 3,000 meters,           charm  of  remote  villages.  However,
            seeing  the  extraordinary  mountain               during the two years of the pandemic, I
            peaks  of  this  country  and  eating  in  a       didn't  go  to  the  mountains  at  all.    I
            revolving     restaurant    (that   took45         missed it.  Especially as winter is a time
            minutes  to    go  all  the  way  around)
            whilst we  eat seeing different peaks all          of  year  when  the  fog  and  grey  days
                                                               make Geneva inhospitable; it's too cold
            the time.
                                                               and  going  out  sometimes  even  makes
            Incredible things that   I had never seen          my  body  ache,  whereas  it's  often  less
            before. However, for me it wasn't really           cold  in  the  mountains,  the  cold  is  drier

            AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 82 No.3, 2023-12                                                50

             <<< TDM/TOC
   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57