I had the whole road to myself all the way to the 2,700 meter summit and beyond. It had only recently been plowed and the snowbanks on either side sometimes towered five meters high. I was again attempting to outpace an afternoon thunderstorm and barely succeeded…

One day I was parked at a secluded place beside the road and had just taken I bite from my bread with butter and jam when I felt something brush forcefully against the side of my head. I looked down at my hand, still in the bread-holding position, and the slice had disappeared!

I irritably pedaled around the sleepy town with that strange but memorable unease that all experience when they first set foot in a foreign land.