Twirling on a Mountain

“Do you think we’ve become closer since coming to Europe together?” I asked Sophie a few days ago.

She tossed her little head and hit me across the face with her ponytail. “Maybe,” she replied.

Sophie in the cable car

In such circumstances, a shared adventure was needed, just to cement the new, closer relationship. It wasn’t enough that I had fed and clothed her and catered to her every whim for nearly three months on our trip. I realized that I would have to do more.

Which is why, this morning, on our last day in Salzburg, when she said, with a sorrowful look, “I just wanted to go up the Untersberg,” I said to her, “There’s still time. We could go today.”

It was hot and muggy in Salzburg, but up on the Untersberg the air was cool and fresh. Snow still lay in the shady hollows, allowing Sophie to frolic for a while and make a snowball. Our cameras were unable to capture the beauty of the views, but we walked around companionably and snapped pictures of the mountains, the snow, the blue distance and the miniature world below us. No harm in trying.

The blue distance

Sophie was a bit worried that I might trip and fall headlong over the steep edges. “You’re more unco than I am,” she explained. I think this showed that, despite her earlier offhand remark about our mother-daughter relationship, she really does care.

She even let me eat some of her Konfekt ice cream after we’d returned to the valley. If that doesn’t show an improved relationship, what does?

Love from Ros

Pockets of snow despite the sunlight

The splendour of the mountains

Sun and snow

The miniature world below and some very strong cables