Day Off

Well I was in an appalling mood yesterday and the wife recommended that I take a day off. I protested, but she was right. Went on the pass first thing - looked at one cyclist - and decided to take the day off. Just could not be bothered to take another photo. Still kills me that I only worked 6 days straight.

So I took the day off and wandered up to some old fortifications from the First and maybe Second World War.

Rather sad to see these. From the turn of the century, Stelvio was an active battle ground, trenches and fortifications all over the place if you know where to look.

But 100 years on these fortifications are turning into ruins which is a massive shame. Proud men fought here - more should be done to preserve these things. This pass has just huge history yet this bit is being slowly forgotten. It doesn't matter which side the men who fought here were on either, more really should be done to remember them and their history here.

I think what most got up my nose was on last week's walk I found what was a fenced in nature preserve thing. Lets get a little perspective - there are no fences in the high Alps - probably because the snow crushes them. Lots and lots of snow is heavy. But EU money had been used to make a small fenced in enclosure.

That enclosure has been been crushed and is now just a massive pile of trash on the side of a mountain. There is even an abandoned modern type iron bathtub in the trash. Disgraceful.

How sad that a short-term-ism project like that got money - when it could have been used to put some of these trenches back together, maybe find some old photos and show what this building used to be, maybe tidy up this side of the mountain a little.