(c)  A  Mixed Bag 2013

It hadn’t helped that the beds in the Waterfront Guest House had mattresses as hard as stone. A lack of sleep put me in the wrong frame of mind to be scaling the heights. But I was caught between a rock and a hard place.

The mountain, known locally as ‘Mike Dropz’, is named after the unfortunate Michael Shay Love. On his maiden flight, Mike had suffered an unexpected wardrobe malfunction with his wingsuit and hit the water at terminal velocity. The local Lake News headlines splashed ‘Shay, Hell No!’ and ‘Wave Goodbye’.

Mike’s body was dredged from the lake and entombed on the peak. It was a tasteful ceremony, with a Bavarian Oompah band playing ‘Love on a Mountain Top’. It brought a tear to many an eye, although that could have been the biting wind.

At the halfway point between ground and peak, I briefly lowered my head in tribute to Mike. I had made his suit, after all.

Clipping my safety harness to the overhead fixture, I sat down on the plush leather seats for my mid-morning Kaffee und Kuchen. Riding a luxury cable car in the Bavarian Alps is definitely the better way to travel.

This story is inspired by the photo supplied by Al Forbes of Sunday Photo Fiction, 3rd December 2017.  For more details click the logo.

To view other stories written for this challenge, please click here.