23rd July 2022
The day I had been dreading finally arrived. Fortunately (?) the weather had changed from damp to bright and sunny. We went to buy our tickets soon after 10:30, only to discover the earliest slot available was 13:30. We used the intervening time to explore the meadows at the bottom of the cliff, watching cable cars crammed with people passing overhead and climbing a seemingly impossible cliff before disappearing into the cable car station.
Out time arrived, and we joined the 13:30 queue (this really confused the Germans, who didn’t understand how you could book a time and still have to queue). All too soon, we were squeezing into small glass coffin suspended from a cable with 18 other people (fortunately, masked). As we ascended, I focused on trying to take photographs through the small gaps between bodies. By the time we reached the top my heart rate was around 100, the vertigo only marginally beating the claustrophobia.
On top of the mountain the views were amazing. You can look straight down the cliff to the hotel and cable car station, and out across the surrounding mountains and valleys. We were also able to look down on both Egyptian and Griffon vultures and see them rise past us and over our heads.
After a couple of hours we joined the queue for the descent, baking in 30 degrees of heat and direct sunshine. After an hour or so, we squeezed back into the coffin, this time with 18 other bodies that smelt like they had been standing in a hot queue. The masks offered little protection against that! The answer to the question “which is worst” is that ascending is probably marginally worse, but the baking heat more than compensated for this!
Released after 4 minutes of descent (not a second too soon, fortunately), we headed to the cafe for some ice cold drinks, then back to the hotel for dinner.
