I placed the menu to the right on on 2columns-right.phtml. But I can not figure out how to move it to above the shopping cart.
In catalog.xml I added this to get the menu inserted:
<block type="catalog/navigation" name="catalog.vertnav" template="catalog/navigation/vert_nav.phtml" />
Now I just need to move it to the top.
I found one solution. Not very intuitive but that is probably like most other Magento questions.
I had to add a before="-" to the custom vertical navigation block above (from question). Then edit the before="-" in the cart block to after="catalog.vertnav" so that no longer is forced to be displayed at the top.
It works now
Magento is packed with features. No doubt about it. But it is not easy to customize at all (for a beginner). I may be "php and mysql" but code is like something generated by aliens. I have never seen code like this before.