I’ve seen the Alps and they are magnificent.

When I flew from London Gatwick to Dubrovnik last September, the flight took us over the Alps. The weather was perfectly clear which allowed for some amazing views of these young, tough looking mountains and some of the Alpine valleys. The easyJet planes are bare bones affairs which means, among other things, no in-flight map to see the plane’s location at any given time. The pilot also wasn’t offering any commentary. Apparently, easyJet thinks Alps is Alps.

Still, I know these were the Alps and not, say, the Pyrenees or the Urals. Most likely,  we flew over Austria and possibly part of Italy or even Switzerland. The Julian Alps of Slovenia very likely showed up as well.

I find such views stunning; maybe other folks don’t. Like night-time urban panoramas, with all the lights sparkling in the dark, there’s something magical about these aerial spectacles. The distance hides whatever nastiness humans have wrought and these huge expanses of natural wonder give the feeling that Mother Nature and Planet Earth are more powerful than we are and have the upper hand, at least for now.

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