Bad Bruck

My memory has always been weak, to say the least. I am not very sentimental but I do enjoy revisiting moments from the past. In 1974, right after college classes ended, I went to Switzerland to stay with my girlfriend and work at a place called Movenpick. It was this enormous structure outside of Zurich that stretched across the highway. The lower level had shops and the upper level restaurants. I worked even below that in an area where the food was stored and the garbage was collected. I worked with a tiny Italian man - who seemed elderly to me at the time - named Napoliano. He spoke no English but we got along famously.

I lived in an employee dormitory filled with young folks from all over the place.

Our closest buddies were from Scotland and Spain.

The plan was for my girlfriend and I to work until mid-July and then go off on our travels. Life interrupted, however, and I became upset and disenchanted enough with her to take off on my own. I was all of 19.

One of my sojourns took me to a tiny Austrian town named Bad Bruck, nestled in a valley filled with fog at the time. I had no idea where I was. At at lunch in a local inn, I asked about a place to stay. I was directed down a small road to a lovely little house run by an older woman and her husband. Their grandson was staying with them for a bit. The woman reminded me of my great-grandmother. She smiled and led me to a cozy room upstairs. The windows looked out on a little balcony, the surrounding hills, and a rushing mountain stream. The tops of the hills were hidden by the fog. The room had a sweet bed with a fluffy, thick comforter. In the mornings this woman would knock and enter with a tray that held a pot of strong coffee, toast, and a poached egg, all contained in white porcelain.  

As I explored the local terrain and the fog lifted, I found a path up the hills through a pine forest. At the top was a resort called Grunerbaum. Farther on and through the end of the pine forest, an enormous triangular mountain marked the beginning of the Swiss Alps. I felt as if I had come home.