Saas Fee the Beautiful

Saas Fee is just where and as I left it 33 years ago. Actually, some things have changed. The hour long bus ride from Brig seems much longer, I never saw the Swiss girls herding their cattle through the village back and forth from the grazing lands;  but gas vehicles are still not allowed in so you have to walk from the Postauto station.  My visit in the 80's featured a room with a huge tub and French doors out to a balcony from which it looked you could  scoop snow off the flanks of The Dom, the tallest of the Alps surrounding the village. I was looking for that magic again when we settled on Hotel Bristol. The hotel violated one of my cardinal rules: don't stay in any establishment where cats roam freely unless they are also on the menu.
Saas fee is still one of the most special places on the planet if you are a skier, hiker or romantic. If you are looking to buy groceries or a box of q-tips, it is a bit more challenging. There was not a single grocery, bakery, cheese shop or fruit market open before 2pm and they all were closee again a short time later. I walked past the darkened cheese shop and looked through the glass at lighted deli cases full of cheese so many times, I was beginning to think I was parading by displays of precious cheeses - perhaps the Star of Jarlsberg. If you are not too hungry, you can enjoy the cable car rides to the tops of some of the mountains where I saw my first marmot (not a bucket list item), the incredible cascades of flowers everywhere and the live music. dinner at a sidewalk cafe was serenaded by two accordians and a stand up bas being played with a bow. later in the evening, there was a concert in the town square by what I think was the Saas Valley Yodeling Club. They were quite good, really. Leslie was disappointed that they didn't feature the big, long horns that every school child identifies with Switzerland, but, on balance, a quality evening.
Speaking of flowers, which by the way were stunning and ubiquitous, several businesses in Saas Fee had gardens full of a particularly stunning bloom that was a purplish blue color. It looked a little like a coneflower but the petals were sharply pointed at the end. The German name sounds a lot like "plough distal". If anyone knows German, I'd sure like to know what that flower is.