Alumni Spotlight

In September 2010, eight former Glisson campers, counselors, and Summer Program Directors, joined by two spouses and a friend, spent two glorious weeks sharing another “mountain top experience”, this time in the Swiss Alps.  And that first shared experience at Camp Glisson that brought us together in the first place didn’t happen just yesterday – it happened over 50 years ago in the 1950s and 1960s!!  How could this happen?

 

Bill Cole, North Georgia Conference Director of Youth Work from 1954 to 1961, is a train fanatic – in fact he has a one track fixation on all things “train”, and is actually known in North Carolina where he lives as “Mr. Amtrak”.   Somehow Bill’s life-long dream of seeing Switzerland by train got conveyed to me, a Californian and his immediate successor as Conference Director of Youth Work (1961-63), through a mutual friend, Robert Thomason, who lives in Florida and is very much a part of this Glisson Gang, having served as Conference MYF President and subsequently as Associate Director of Youth Work with me.

 

The deal Bill and I struck was this: Bill would see if he could put together a group of 10 or so travelers and I, who had some experience in Switzerland, would work on an itinerary involving as many trains as possible. So it was that on September 8, 2010, this group of Glissonites, including Bill McKoy, a third former Conference Director of Youth Work  (1963-67), landed in Zurich, Switzerland.  We headed immediately for a chalet on the shore of Lake Brienz just outside of Interlaken.  In our front yard was a small Bahnhoff (train station) from which the cleanest, most modern trains you could imagine glided silently off in both directions every hour – always on time!

 

Over 10 days we trained to the beautiful old capital city of Bern, visited the Ballenberg Open Air Museum featuring home and farm buildings (and animals) from all over Switzerland, boated on a classic paddle wheeler to a concert at the GrandHotel at the spectacular multi-level Giessbach Falls, traveled on the Golden Pass panoramic train to Montreux with its lovely lakefront promenade and renowned Chateau de Chillon of Lord Byron fame, took little cog railways through the Eiger and Monch to the Jungfraujoch, the highest train point in all of Europe, as well as to the Rothorn above Brienz on the little steam train that “never ran out of puff”, climbed with the help of cable cars to the top of the Schilthorn (of James Bond fame) with its stunning views of the High Alps and had lunch in Rick Steves’ favorite little village of Gimmelwald perched on the top of a cliff, enjoyed a full-day train excursion to Luzern with its famous Chapel Bridge, Transportation Museum, and Weeping Lion, and even braved the foggy, socked-in Justistal (Justis Valley) via postal bus to soak up the unique culture of a “Chasteilet”, where the cheese that has been produced during the cows’ summer in the high country is divided up and shared with their owners.  All very, very Swiss!

 

From the chalet in Niederried, we traveled over (and through) the Alps – by train of course – to two nights in the auto-free village of Zermatt nestled at the foot of the iconic Matterhorn, which was nowhere to be seen due to the rainy/cloudy conditions. Striking out in faith the next morning, we boarded the cog railway to the Gornergrat, and before long broke out of the low-lying cloud blanket into the clearest, bluest sky you could possibly imagine – dominated by, you guessed it, the MATTERHORN!   The day, spent figuratively in its shadow, was capped off with vespers at St. Peter’s English Church, celebrating its 140^th  year, where our little group more than doubled the attendance, and a delightful dinner together featuring, for some of us, another Swiss icon – cheese fondue.

 

The Glacier Express, billed as “the slowest express train in existence”, and certainly one of the most scenic, “whisked” us the next day (all day!) over 291 bridges and through 91 tunnels to the resort town of St. Moritz where we stayed in the 100+ year old Bellaval Hotel right at the Bahnhoff. Not having yet had enough of trains (an impossibility for Bill Cole!), we boarded the Bernina Express the next morning for a luncheon excursion to Italy (Tirano) – and some of the most spectacular scenery yet on this only train route that goes over the spine of the Alps rather than burrowing under it. That evening a delicious dinner together overlooking Lake St. Moritz, celebrating lots of great memories and renewed friendships, brought this exceptional journey and time together to a close.

 

And all because of that first mountain top experience at Camp Glisson over 50 years ago!