Читать книгу The Swiss Alps онлайн

7 страница из 176

With their rich variety of massifs, their snowpeaks and immense rock faces, their glaciers, lakes and waterfalls, their forests, flower meadows and pastures, the Swiss Alps may justifiably claim to be the quintessential Alps, a love of which is not confined simply to those who walk, climb or ski among them, but also shared by the frail and elderly and those content simply to sit and gaze in wonder. Yet thanks to its mountains, more than a century after Leslie Stephen coined the phrase, Switzerland remains for many the playground of Europe.

The Alps are without question the best known of all the world’s mountains, and those that tower over the valleys of Switzerland count among the most easily recognised by both connoisseur and layman alike. The Matterhorn instantly comes to mind, but it is not the only one, for Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are symbolic of the Oberland, and the graceful buttresses of Piz Palü in the Bernina range, for example, are depicted on calendar and chocolate box with as much frequency as the proverbial edelweiss and flower-hung chalet. Yet familiarity with such mountains should not breed contempt, for the beauty of the Swiss Alps remains a perennial gift for all to admire.