Only one week to go before my Alpine adventure in Saas-Fee is done and my first year of master's training is complete. The pace is very demanding but certainly has its rewards.
Yesterday we had our second excursion day to the top of Spielboden (which, loosely translated means "playground". In the winter it is a haven for the snow puppies and in summer it allows an intimate look at the turquoise depths of the glacier's crevaces. As I chose not to hike this 700 metre very vertical ascent and ride the gondola instead, I felt the insistence of a limerica coming on:

'There once was a miss from Toronto
That said "Hike? I really don't want to.
So she slid up the slope
In a glass full of hope
To the top of the mountain, quite pronto!'
Most of the others did the hike and regreted the decision. It was not a hike for older people who are not in top form or used to the rigours of mountain hikes and thinner air.
The views were heart-stopping (pardon the pun) and the little marmots quite prepared to take bits of almonds or apple from your hand.
We were regaled with legends of the mountian folk while we basked in the sun and the 360 degree views. Seems that the "poor souls" were doomed to be frozen into the glaciers for their penance, rather than roast in the fires of hell. Depending upon your earthly transgressions, you could be buried up to your shoulders or just have body parts entombed. The march of the dead is a time to be feared (after October 21st) and no one would dare to stay high in the Alps past that time unless they wanted to risk being absorbed by the dead seeking life. The figures next to the stones in the picture are ceramic interpretations of the "poor souls".
The glacier is the dark blue-gray shape oozing down the mountain side, and the picture above that is a close-up of the crevaces in its body.
The view from the gondola is a bit fuzzy but gives you an idea of the lay of the land and how high up we are going.
At the top, I perched on a rock at the edge of the world, although it doesn't look that high. The tiny dots on the path down below are hikers. The lake you can see is the one I hiked to the other day.
There are crosses in front of a number of dwellings in the valley. The whole crucifixion story is there - the hammer, the flailing balls, the nails, etc. This is a very Catholic area. Yes, it's fish on Fridays for the lot of us!
However, as this picture proves, the mainstay of the Sass-Fee diet is chocolate! One entire aisle from top to bottom of chocolate!