Mont Blanc

Today we travelled to Mont Blanc, also called Monte Bianco, which both mean white mountain. It is the highest point in Europe, and serves as the border between Italy and France. One one side of the mountain sits the Italian town of Courmayeur, and on the other side is the French town of Chamonix. In fact, there is a cable car that connects these two cities by going over the mountain range, and is supposed to offer a beautiful view of the scenery. However, by the time we got there, the cable car was closed because they deemed it unsafe due to high winds. We thought that there might be a chance that they open the cable car again after the winds die down, so we sat down and had lunch, closely watching the trees bending, and hoping that they would sit still for a while. We thought it had calmed down enough, but the people who run the cable car disagreed.

In order to get to the other side, then, we had to drive. It so happens that there is a tunnel that cuts right through the mountain for 11 thousand kilometers. Because of terrible accidents that have happened in the past, there are strict speed limits, and requirements to maintain 150 meters of distance between you and the car in front of you. The drive takes about ten minutes, so it is not so bad. Although I am not claustrophobic, the idea of being in a tunnel like caused a little anxiety, until I considered that on a typical commute in New York, I am in a tunnel for about an hour.

The town of Chamonix was very charming, and even though there were many modern stores and shops, there were enough old style buildings to remind one that he was in a French mountain town. Not being acquainted with this sort of environment, I even caught myself thinking that this place looked like Disneyland; but it is Disneyland that looks like Chamonix.

After checking the cable car on the French end and learning that they wouldn't allow people to ride because of winds either (we thought that maybe the French might be more liberal than the Italians in their evaluation of the winds), we decided to take a train up to see the Mer de Glace glacier. The pictures at the bottom made it look as though it was an amazing site with a glacier that really did look like a sea of glass, but when we arrived, the glacier was very underwhelming. Perhaps it was due to the summer, or even global warming, but most of the ice of the glacier simply looked like dirt, with a small ice floe. The location where the train dropped us off was high above the glacier, and was surrounded by amazing peaks, which made up for the small glacier.

I was inclined to go down to the glacier, and do some exciting mountain hiking, but when we actually saw the people who were already down there, they looked like ants, so it was not as close as I had thought. Plus, I was with people who did not seem so interested to go on a hiking excursion. Next time I will remember to bring my hiking boots and tent.