Pamplona in Spain is where they stage the Running of the Bulls and you can expend as much testosterone as you wish in the run while you risk being trampled by them. You can get a big rush of Hemingway without ever writing a word ... and then you can get back to drinking.
There's a different tradition in the Alps called Alpabtreib and it runs just a wee bit deeper than providing a thrill for drunken nitwits with too much testosterone in-play. Every season herds of cattle are walked up to the mountain pastures in the Alps and every season they are walked back down again in September before the snow comes.
The passage is a time of great joy with the spirituality of the moving seasons ... and flowers. It's dangerous work in the high mountains and sometimes a cow is lost. The herds which are most covered in flowers are the ones in which the shepherd did not lose any cows.
Horses like flowers too.
Sometimes a cow will just become an Italian ... and then it is also lost. The border with Italy is quite close and a cow may go wandering away. If it crosses the border into Italy then it's very unlikely to find its way back. While it's good that the cow might learn something about opera, it's bad for the shepherd as the insurance company will not pay if he cannot produce the animal. The shepherd must be able to show the cow is dead through injury or some such or the insurance claim will be denied.
So it's with great happiness that the shepherds bring their herds back into town all covered in flowers. They show that all the cattle that went up the mountain came back down again.
I would dearly love to visit Spain but if I were choosing between Pamplona and Alpabtreib, I'd be heading for Germany.
There's a different tradition in the Alps called Alpabtreib and it runs just a wee bit deeper than providing a thrill for drunken nitwits with too much testosterone in-play. Every season herds of cattle are walked up to the mountain pastures in the Alps and every season they are walked back down again in September before the snow comes.
The passage is a time of great joy with the spirituality of the moving seasons ... and flowers. It's dangerous work in the high mountains and sometimes a cow is lost. The herds which are most covered in flowers are the ones in which the shepherd did not lose any cows.
Horses like flowers too.
Sometimes a cow will just become an Italian ... and then it is also lost. The border with Italy is quite close and a cow may go wandering away. If it crosses the border into Italy then it's very unlikely to find its way back. While it's good that the cow might learn something about opera, it's bad for the shepherd as the insurance company will not pay if he cannot produce the animal. The shepherd must be able to show the cow is dead through injury or some such or the insurance claim will be denied.
So it's with great happiness that the shepherds bring their herds back into town all covered in flowers. They show that all the cattle that went up the mountain came back down again.
I would dearly love to visit Spain but if I were choosing between Pamplona and Alpabtreib, I'd be heading for Germany.
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