“The pretty little Swiss town of Mayenfeld lies at the foot of a mountain range, whose grim rugged peaks tower high above the valley below. Behind the town a footpath winds gently up to the heights and the air is fragrant with the scent of mountain flowers from the rich pastureland higher up. One sunny June morning, a tall sturdy young woman was climbing up the path. She had a bundle in one hand and held a little girl about five years old by the other.”
So starts the story of Heidi by Johanna Spyri, the multimillion best-selling children’s book that’s been translated into 55 languages and spawned a multitude of TV and film spin-offs. And one sunny June morning, 141 years after its first publication, I’m climbing that same path, from the town of Maienfeld in Switzerland’s Rhine Valley to Heididorf – Heidi’s village in the Alps. The road is steep, but the sun is bright on the jagged mountain peaks rising ahead of me.
