The summer storm threatened to fall all day. But Franz and I were in luck. As the evening came the skies lightened and we were thrilled because we had tickets to the Bregenzer Festspiele. This years lavish opera was Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot on our own Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria.

Neanderthals have gotten a bad rap in the popular press. The hairy and stupid early man clad in pelts while lugging a club and dragging his woman by her hair is an image people still conjure up. But Neanderthals are only beginning to get the respect that they deserve.

As we closed the doors of our car at the end of the narrow valley near San Vigilio di Marebbe in South Tyrol we entered a landscape seemingly out of the minds of fantasy movies like Lord of the Rings. Sahara sand had left yellow patches everywhere which gave the scenery an even more bizarre look.