Travel Guides: All Countries / Europe / Switzerland
 |  | Travel Reviews : Switzerland |
|
| | | | How to make a snowman in the summer
Although I've never had any particular desire to be Jimmy Saville - and have certainly never worn any chunky gold rings - we have a little game at home that the children like to play.
It's called Giles'll Fix It and the rules go something like this: they suggest a ridiculous idea of what they would most like to do, and I try to make it happen.
It is not the easiest of games, but I knew I was on to a winner when they suggested building a snowman in the middle of summer. For once, this was something I could definitely fix.
It helped, of course, that we were on holiday in Switzerland. Although our chalet was set amid green meadows strewn with summer flowers, the surrounding mountain tops were dolloped with generous helpings of snow.
Building a snowman was going to be my easiest assignment yet.
We were staying in one of the most picturesque spots in Switzerland. The Valais region stretches from the eastern end of Lake Geneva to the source of the mighty Rhone. It's an area of grandiose mountains and cloud-piercing crags; fractured glaciers and awesome rock-faces.
But there's also a softer, gentler landscape. In Switzerland, the Valais is famous for its alpage - high summer meadows - where the cows munch wild flowers (and produce the most fragrant milk) during the sunny months of July and August.
We'd come to savour the scenery and hike through this untouched Garden of Eden. The Valais boasts some truly spectacular trails and is a particularly good place to bring young children.
You can rent cottages that nestle in the meadows, where the paths are flat but the scenery is spectacular.
The view from our chalet was so impressive that I had to keep popping outside to check it was for real. Set in a meadow high above the town of Visp, we had an in-your-face panorama of quite staggering proportions.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Travel by train
With all the recent bad press that our railways have been getting, I'd like to say that absolutely the best way to get around Switzerland is by train.
The views are incredible, it's not very expensive and the trains are really comfortable. And they run precisely on time, which makes a nice change.
I've been to Switzerland fairly recently on business and we've been a few times as a family and a train has yet to show up late.
Also, if the trains happen not to cover a particular destination, there will be a bus that links up to the train service and will take you on to your final destination. These also arrive when expected, even during the middle of winter when you'd imagine that heavy snow might make delays inevitable.
The only downfall is that the food is not always particularly good, even in the stations. It's not that it's bad; it's just that a buttery cheese and smoked-meat sandwich is not always to British tastes. Pack a picnic if you like salads and fruit.
Travel guide: Switzerland
A room on the roof of the world
When Queen Victoria took on assorted dragons and the tormented spirit of Pontius Pilate she made sure she was well supported. She brought eight staff, including her cook, plus a mule.
According to contemporary accounts, her ascent in 1868 of Mount Pilatus in Switzerland - a peak rich in local legend - was a great success. She was 'captivated by the beauty of the mountain and the sunsets'.
For my own ascent 134 summers later, I scaled the mountain via a cog railway. The final stretch is a giddying creep up a sheer cliff. Built in 1889, it is still the steepest cog railway in the world. I slept at the summit in a comfy Edwardian hotel.
Both Victoria and I were indulging in a passion that the Swiss pioneered - climbing to the top of mountains to see the fiery Alpine sunsets and sunrises. It didn't take the Swiss long to come up with the idea of building grand hotels at the summits to accommodate their foreign guests.
Not so long ago, locals wouldn't dream of scaling the peaks. Many reported seeing flame-breathing dragons around the summit. Others thought that the body of Pontius Pilate came to rest in a lake near the mountain-top, hence its name. They believed that every Good Friday, his tormented spirit would float to the surface in a vain attempt to wash his hands of Jesus's blood.
I saw neither dragons nor Pilate, but the views were sensational. At about 6am, as the eastern sky appeared to catch fire, the lakes around the mountain - more than a vertical mile below - took on a silvery sheen.
In the distance, the snow-covered peaks of the Eiger and Jungfrau glowed a vivid pink.
Many of these hotels are rather old-fashioned - often built at the same time as the pioneering mountain railways - so rooms often have a sink, but showers and bathrooms are shared.
As a result they are often good value. These mountain-top hotels all have a railway, cable car or gondola to the summit, so you don't have to be super-fit to enjoy them, though they are also the starting point for superb hikes.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Throw away the skis
Ever since I read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina as a teenager, I have had this fantasy about being seduced in the back of a horsedrawn sleigh.
Chance would be a fine thing at my age. But in St Moritz a fraction of my fantasy came true as I snuggled (alone, alas) under sheepskin rugs and was pulled in an open carriage across the snow by two huge, snorting horses.
It was absolutely magical. The driver whistled and clicked directions at the horses who trotted along, scarlet plumes nodding, harness bells jingling, as I sat gazing at the landscape, with snowflakes in my hair - and the 'exhaust fumes' of flatulent horse in my nostrils.
This was even more pungent when I sat up front beside the driver. Tolstoy never mentioned the down wind downside in his famous novel.
But not to worry. Snug under rugs, I passed people skating on frozen lakes or striding along in snow shoes, mountains crisscrossed with colourful skiers, snow sliding off branches with muffled thumps and the sun throwing blue-tinged shadows through the trees.
At night these carriages are fitted with lanterns and candles, and as the horses jingle along, passengers sip schnapps and stare, enraptured, at the stars. Romantic or what?
This was certainly my idea of winter sports. So, too, was being deliciously pummelled by jets of hot water in a steaming outdoor Jacuzzi (the world's highest).
And crunching through snow to St Moritz's exclusive boutiques. And slurping frothy chocolate with hordes of rich Russians in Hansemann's Inn overlooking the frozen lake. And going round and round in a chair-lift above the ski slopes. You get the picture?
Forget skiing. Forget snowboarding. For non-sporty types like me, there is never a dull moment in St Moritz.
Simply sitting about is a treat in itself, gazing at the sensational unrestricted mountain views which remind you of those ubiquitous Alpine backdrop posters so popular in British dental surgeries.
Or else you can laze on south-facing terraces, wrapped in blankets, admiring the craggy snow-topped silhouettes of the Piz Noir mountain range.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Spellbound in Switzerland
Three hours from Zurich, 1,300 metres up in the heart of Switzerland's Jungfrau region, sits a little resort that is one of Europe's prettiest.
Car-free Wengen has a tiny train station, one street of shops and bars, a handful of typically Swiss chalets with carved shutters, and 27 hotels, many of them tucked into sleepy lanes.
Right now the snow record is excellent. In the sun, Wengen is a skier's dream.
Conveniently, the cable car to its slopes is in the centre of the village.
In 15 minutes you reach Mannlichen, flatter than Wengen's other main skiing area, Kleine Sheidegg. Looming above is Switzerland's famous trio of mountains, the majestic Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.
With sparkling champagne powder as far as the eye can see and crisp Alpine air to breathe, you appreciate why skiers have wintered in Wengen since 1909.
At lunch Mannlichen's few restaurants fill fast, but the amiable atmosphere means sharing tables is easy to do.
Even on the pistes, bonhomie is just as evident. You scarcely pass someone who doesn't say hello or at least nod.
Higher up at Kleine Sheidegg it's like one big love-in. Young couples kiss and hug in open view, people chatter over drinks in the Tipi Area tent, all against a backbeat of pumping music.
Expert skiers may niggle that Wengen is unchallenging, as red pistes far outnumber black. Beginners and intermediates certainly have enough to get their teeth into. Unless you can parallel ski comfortably, some red slopes may seem too steep for comfort.
Travel guide: Switzerland
I joined this mile high club
From the Mail on Sunday
The most reassuring sight on a Swiss mountainside is a large St Bernard padding towards you through the snow, a cask of brandy swinging from its neck.
The second most reassuring sight, and the one you are far more likely to see, is the famous Swiss footpath signpost. Just as I began to think: 'This time I really am lost; so silly not to bring a map,' one would suddenly appear, deep in a wood, or in the middle of a pasture surrounded by cows knee high in meadow flowers.
The canary yellow signs tell you how far it is to the next village, railway station, lake steamer jetty, bus stop. They give times in hours and minutes at the average walker's pace. And even if they can't match the St Bernard by offering you a drink, they bring the promise of one. I found an arrow pointing to, simply, 'Inn'.
I was on the Rigi, which rises almost sheer above Lake Lucerne like a 4,400ft geological tower block, to sample Switzerland's awesome system of public footpaths, linked to its equally splendid transport system. And, while I was about it, to retrace the route of Mark Twain.
Like Twain, I started down on the lake. Unlike Twain, I took the train to the top. He spent three days on the climb, which he hilariously wrote up in A Tramp Abroad, a sort of Two Men On A Mountain written in the style of Three Men In A Boat. I managed it in 35 minutes on the Rigi Railway.
The railway, two lines running on opposite sides of the mountain, is both tourist attraction and social service on this car-free peak. Trains descend pushing milk churns on a flat truck. And at every station a post festooned with yellow signs fires off walking opportunities in all directions.
Travel guide: Switzerland
An inspirational location for artistic greats
From the Daily Mail
Waiting in Montreux for the regular service to Geneva, I was dangling my toes in crystal clear lake water while gazing at serene views of Mont Blanc's snowy peak. It certainly wasn't like standing at the bus stop back at home. This was no graffiti-covered shelter for a No 63 double-decker - I was relaxing under a willow on the shore of Lake Geneva, awaiting the arrival of an elegant Edwardian steam paddleship.
The Simplon steamer isn't the only public transport available in Montreux - but it has the best views. The four-hour boat trip up the lake via Lausanne is more a cruise than a commute. At £20 return, I suppose it should be.
The lake trip is a treat that travellers have been enjoying for at least 100 years. Whole mountain sides, from their perpetually snowy peaks down through steep woods and terraced vineyards to a pretty shoreline, are reflected in shimmering sunny water. So you get double the view.
Chugging away from the jetty by steamer, it seems as if Montreux hasn't changed since the 'belle epoque' hotels, glamorous casino and gentle Mediterranean climate made it a favourite with wealthy Victorians. Grand hotels, tea shops and gardens attracted writers such as Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein there; the classical composer Stravinski, who wrote The Rite Of Spring; and Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov, who was famously photographed playing chess with his elderly wife on the balcony of Montreux's Palace Hotel.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Fit for a B.B. King
Every July the town of Montreux, on the shores of Lake Geneva, hosts a jazz festival.
Had you happened through this normally sleepy spot last year, as I did, you could have heard some of the hottest jazz, soul, gospel and rock you are ever going to hear in one place at one time.
You could have listened to rock giants like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Van Morrison, the blues god B.B. King, and jazz legends such as Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea.
And all performing on one of two modest, intimate stages, the Stravinsky Auditorium and the Miles Davis Hall, both named after two very different musicians with strong links to the town.
We found our way to the Montreux Jazz Festival out of necessity. Son Tom, a keen jazz fan and musician himself, deserved a live gig fix after tackling his GCSEs.
A quick perusal of the American and European jazz scenes soon revealed the obvious: if we wanted to fit in as many big names as possible into the four days open to us there really was nowhere else to be.
Some 220,000 people pack into this laid-back, lakeside location for those two weeks.
Fringe bands from around the world play for free in the well-manicured parks.
Hopeful amateurs pop up everywhere from local cafes to the prestigious solo piano competition that takes place in the refined surroundings of the lavish Montreux Palace Hotel.
For the active musician there are other delights, too; master classes and workshops, many of them free, in which you can listen to the likes of B.B. King talking about the music they love.
The night before we had watched, stunned, as the American jazz bassist Marcus Miller and his band played a set of astonishing power and virtuosity in the Stravinsky auditorium.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Uncover the Swiss Riviera's mysteries
From the Daily Mail
What do Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy, Dickens and Chaplin have in common? No, it's not a joke. Like Audrey Hepburn, Richard Burton, David Bowie, Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost - they fell in love with the Swiss Riviera.
Fringing Lake Geneva, it's a riviera which extends a ribbon of wealth and fame along 50 miles of the world's most desirable property. Far enough south for the sun to shine, far enough north for the plumbing to work, far enough east for mystery, far enough west for intelligible history - the Swiss Riviera is at the hub of Europe.
Its charms are praised by residents, such as Sir Peter Ustinov: 'When you've seen the Sahara or Grand Canyon once - stupendous. But never varying. Here, everything changes, there's always something new - an unexplored trail through the vineyards or a cosy restaurant where a young chef is starting to make his mark. That's why I regard it as paradise.'
If you want to take a train to the homes of the rich and famous, the railway guides and Debrett's People Of Today both come up with the same answer: the waterfront between Geneva, Lausanne and Montreux.
From the station in Lausanne, you can walk up the steep Rue du Petit-Chene to the Cathedral - the finest church in Switzerland. It symbolises the place. Half is sumptuous Catholic, half austere Protestant, and it stands on a site once dedicated to the Sun God. The view is magnificent. The memorials in the church will remind you that this riviera is not merely a tax haven, but a place where Europe's outcasts have been given refuge from kings to regicides, anarchists to monarchists.
The most picturesque place of all is the Castle of Chillon on its tiny islet, pretty from every angle, with the snow-capped Dents du Midi in the background. Here, Bonivard, a Swiss friar, was imprisoned for ten years, inspiring Byron's poem, The Prisoner Of Chillon.
As Therese, our guide, explained: 'Not everyone had as much fun as today's travellers. In 1898, Austro-Hungary's Empress Elisabeth was fatally stabbed by an anarchist while on a lake excursion. And, at Le Bouveret, diarist John Evelyn insisted an inn landlord turf his sick daughter out of the best bed, and as a result he caught her smallpox.' Every yard of the way seems to have a similar story, upbeat or downbeat.
Taking the Eurostar out of London, it is easy to link with the TGV expresses for the three-and-a-half-hour run from Paris to Lausanne on the north shore of Lake Geneva (your map may show as Lac Leman). The lake is at the heart of the trans-Europe rail system. Whether you take a westbound train to Geneva, or an eastbound train to Montreux, there are plenty of places to see.
The towns and chalets have the air of perfection that only generations of peace and wealth can produce. And the menu in this French-speaking corner of Switzerland is superb, especially if eating in a mountain restaurant. If you're skiing in the Alps this season, consider a day trip. It'll be worth the detour.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Whiff of scandal among the mountaintops
Some people get more from mini-breaks than others. Take Lord Byron and the Shelleys for instance.
They went to Geneva, as I did, Byron in his house above the lake at Cologny, Percy and his teenage mistress, Mary, in their menage a trois with Mary's young aunt, renting a villa on the road below.
But after a little youthful debauchery, Mary came home with the start of the most famous gothic horror novel, Frankenstein, while Byron wrote a chunk of Childe Harold.
All I have to show for my few days by Lake Geneva is this article.
I can only imagine the ambience of Geneva must have changed a bit since Byron and friends were there in 1816. Modern-day Geneva seems more Gap than gothic, more materialistic than romantic.
You never saw so many sparkling, gem-encrusted watches in shop windows. And you won't often see such a tonnage of well-turned-out women up and down the Rue du Rhone shopping.
I found Geneva's eccentric side, too - listening to the Blue Danube playing among the BMWs in the spotlessly kept underground Mont Blanc car park, or the young, punk accordion player outside the Cathedral St-Pierre, or seeing the child-sized chess pieces in the Parc des Bastions.
It's a city of small contradictions, one being that it regularly punches above its weight.
One of the most famous cities in the world, in one of the most beautiful locations, Geneva is actually very small, not much more than a medium-sized town, its fame being largely based on the organisations based here.
Most famous is the Red Cross, begun by a Swiss saint of a business man called Henri-Dunant in 1864.
There's a disquieting Red Cross museum on the Avenue de la Paix which illustrates why the world needs the Red Cross, and its creation, the Geneva Convention, with its rules on modern warfare.
Visually, Geneva is in a stunning setting, between two alpine mountain ranges, where a 450ft water jet has been mesmerising watchers for more than 100 years.
Virtually surrounded by France, it's a triangle of a town in a sort of Helvetian appendix at the western end of Lake Geneva, where it overflows into the Rhone.
The lake makes Geneva extra special, giving it a sense of a bygone seaside resort.
The little yachting port of Corsier on the south side is a working waterway for day trip excursions to Lausanne and Montreux, 25 and 35 miles respectively down the lake.
The old town of Geneva is a quiet place of grey walls, cobbles and antique shops - befitting a Protestant fundamentalist like Jean Calvin who arrived in 1536 and helped make the city a refuge for Huguenots. John Knox came, too.
The cathedral where they both preached sits at the top of the hill. However, the almost 2,000-year-old archaeological explorations below the cathedral might be more exciting.
Carouge, an Italianate suburb purpose-built in the 18th century as a galleried town of gardens and small houses is an example of town planning that still works.
We hired a car and drove up into the hills and mountains with the snowcapped views of Mont Blanc and vineyards.
It's all here, in this corner of Switzerland. For a weekend break, even if theirs lasted several weeks, Byron and Mary Shelley chose well.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
Both British Airways and EasyJet fly to Geneva, but the cheapest flight we found is Flybe from Southampton Airport.
Hotel Bristol, 10 Rue de Mont Blanc (tel: 00 41 22 716 5700). Hotel Tiffany, 11 Rue de Marbrieres (tel: 00 41 22 708 1616).
Travel guide: Switzerland
An Alpine heaven
The first thing I noticed as I made my way out of Finsbury Park tube station was the traffic and the pollution.
Nothing unusual about that you may think, but it honestly left me, a London-dweller of some eight years, reeling. You see, I'd just returned from a place where you find neither.
Saas Fee, in Switzerland, is nestled in the mountains on the border with Italy. It has all the pure Alpine air you'd expect, but you could say that the atmosphere's even cleaner up there, as it's the only car-free resort in the Alps.
Everyone trundles through the lanes between the picture-perfect chalets and cottages in dinky little electric cars, giving it the air, almost, of a toy town.
But what a toy town. Set in a high valley beneath the Saas glacier, known as the Pearl of the Alps, and Dom, the highest mountain in Switzerland, the village is the epitome of Alpine charm.
It's a short walk (or electric bus-ride if you've got your skis) to the nursery slopes and this is where my wife and I headed on our first day.
Changeover day in the resort is Saturday and ski school lessons don't begin until Monday, so if you're a complete novice you may find yourself wondering what to do on the Sunday.
Luckily for me, I had the encouraging words of my dad ringing in my ears. He had told me that I was an excellent skier. So what if he was talking about when I was 10 years old, the only, and last time I had been skiing? How hard could it be to pick it up again?
And so I set about trying to instil the basics of skiing into my novice wife (novice skier, not novice wife). It was a frustrating day for both of us, let's just leave it at that.
The following morning we returned to the now bustling base of the nursery slopes for some proper tuition. The ski school comprises of six skill levels and three groups within each level - you have to position yourself in a group accordingly.
I cannot recommend the ski school highly enough. Whatever your level of expertise, there's always something you can learn from the fantastic, red-jacketed instructors, whether, as in my case, it's progressing from snow plough to parallel turns, or, if you're a bit of a pro already, learning how to cope with the moguls on the most difficult black runs.
Our initial group of six skiers dwindled over the course of the week and by day four there was just two of us left, so we had two days of almost private tuition. Over the course of five days I found myself skiing backwards one day and skiing with no poles and my hands tied behind my back the next - all in an effort to build confidence and control.
It certainly worked as I went from wobbly wide turns on blue runs at the start of the week to sleek, super-sharp turns (in my mind anyway) on a couple of black runs on Friday. I was most definitely hooked.
The slopes in Saas Fee stretch from the village at 1800m, to Allalin, one of the highest ski areas in Europe, at 3500m. The altitude means that snow is virtually guaranteed throughout the winter, but it also means that late in the day, when the sun sets behind the mountain, the snow can quickly turn to ice.
At village level, there are a couple of blue runs (there are no green runs in Saas Fee), but the majority of the slopes are higher up the mountains, and reached via various combinations of cable car and the Metro Alpin underground funicular. At the highest level, you'll still find nice blue runs, but also plenty of more challenging reds and blacks.
From the Morenia area at 2550m, you can ski all the way down to the village via black and red runs and there's also a long and winding blue run for those with less confidence.
A word of warning though - the blue is very, very narrow in places, and despite an instructor telling my wife she'd be fine to ski down, it was just too narrow for someone who's only just learning to put their turns together.
If your confidence does take a little knock, or if you simply need a break from skiing, there's also a huge toboggan run in the resort.
Grabbing one of the old-fashioned wooden sledges on offer, we hopped on the cable car to the top of the run and conjured up images in our minds of sliding gracefully through a winter wonderland, waving at passers by and spotting the odd curious mountain goat.
Our Alpine dream soon evaporated however as we desperately clung to our sledges as they hurtled down the 5km run. A gentle descent it certainly isn't, but a fun and adrenalin-fuelled experience it definitely is. I hadn't fallen over on my skis all week, but I came off the sledge about five times in 15 minutes.
If you're holidaying with kids, there's a small children's area on the slopes, a tiny walk from the village, where they can hone their skiing skills on miniature hills, or try their luck descending in a rubber ring. The ski school take children from the age of four, so you could just as easily start them off on the road to being the next Franz Klammer, or Bodie Miller, to get more up-to-date.
Other non-skiing diversions come in the form of the Ice Pavilion, where you can learn all about glaciers while actually standing inside one, and the world's highest revolving restaurant, both at Allalin.
If apres-ski is important to you, while Saas Fee is no Zermatt, there is a good range of bars, clubs and live music venues. By 5.30pm every evening, the Black Bull bar (one of the nearest to the slopes) was absolutely buzzing and no-one seemed to mind the fact that they played the same, unbearable Euro-pop songs every single day. Perhaps it's because they were drunk.
Popcorn and Happy Bar are reputedly two of the coolest and most popular snowboard bars in Switzerland and there's a wide selection of restaurants to choose from too.
You can't visit Switzerland without trying a fondue and you'll find lots of good restaurants serving up both the meat and the cheese variety - just be prepared to completely forget about the diet.
Many visitors to the village go for the full board option and are treated to five course meals every night, but we wanted to enjoy a few different eateries during the week, so we went for the self-catering option and stayed in one of the three-star Allalin apartments, about a 10-minute walk from the slopes.
Although the decor was a bit 1970s, the apartment was huge and airy, comprising a couple of bedrooms, a bathroom and a large lounge/dining area. The kitchen was also well-equipped to meet our fairly basic needs.
In places like Saas Fee, you don't want to spend too much time inside though. The view of the surrounding mountains which greeted us every morning as we opened the curtains was absolutely magical and acted as a magnet, drawing us out of our apartment and onto the slopes.
It's this, and the general charm of the village, which would definitely draw me back to Saas Fee again and again. I'm no expert skier, so while I'm sure that many purpose-built resorts around Europe may offer more variety and challenges in the way of slopes, I'm confident that few can beat Saas Fee for sheer beauty.
* Crystal Ski (tel: 0870 160 6040 and www.crystalski.co.uk) offers a week's holiday to Saas Fee from £306 per person, staying in the Atlantic Apartments and including return flights from Gatwick and transfers. Regional departures from 11 UK airports are available at a supplement starting from £10.
*Feeling inspired? Then book a holiday.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Seeking snow
It is hard to decide which is more disappointing - going on a beach holiday when there is no sunshine or going skiing when there is no snow.
Switzerland's Crans-Montana is generally a surefire bet - even in mid-December, after all the glacier pistes are at 3,000 metres.
But early last week just the top runs were open. So what can you do when you get to your resort and there's no snow?
Global warming is scarcely out of the headlines but being in a ski resort in December when there are still leaves on the trees certainly brings it home.
About three hours by train from Geneva, Crans-Montana has 160km of slopes - 20 easy, 28 intermediate and two hard.
The resort is actually two villages - Crans and Montana. Crans is fairly upmarket with designer-label shops while Montana is more family friendly.
Happily for the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, given the recent lack of snow, it offers more than just skiing.
Paragliding is one of the more exciting activities available for adrenaline junkies unable to hit the pistes.
A tandem flight, which lasts 30 minutes costs £50. It is a surreal experience - floating 100ft up, in relative comfort over fields and chalets, supported by a huge sail and several bits of string.
You can learn to curl - a sort of bowls-on-ice - at Crans-Montana. Even if you don't get the hang of sliding the stones accurately, the frenzied brushing of the roughed-up ice to speed up said stones will keep you warm.
If your ski resort has little or no snow you may be able to transfer to an alternative area.
Across the valley from Crans-Montana, north-facing Saas Fe had much more snow. Its glacier is at 3,500m, making early season skiing more likely.
Tour operator Thomson permits transfers when there is free accommodation and will bus skiers to snowier resorts within half an hour's radius.
Travel guide: Switzerland
Swiss toast to a mountaineer
As the sole carer for my frail, elderly parents, I have spent the last 30 years pushing wheelchairs and only taking holidays locally, writes Teletext viewer Anne Batchelor, of Leeds.
Then my parents died and I realised that I could now take a holiday anywhere in the world.
I decided on Austria, where we'd had lovely family holidays - but there were no vacancies. Coach operator Shearings helped me out though.
The company offered me a single room in a lakeside village called Hergiswil in Switzerland.
As I have been researching a diary found at an antiques fair, which described how a man called Augustus Frederick Manley climbed the Matterhorn in 1893, I thought I would visit Zermatt during my Swiss holiday and see the mountain.
Sadly, Hergiswil village was more than five hours by train from Zermatt.
Rather disappointed that I couldn't travel there, I sat on the bed of my hotel in the shadow of the mighty Mt Pilatus and re-read Manley's diary.
On August 17, 1885, he wrote: "Took the steamer from Lucern to Hergiswil and walked up Mount Pilatus in two hours 10 minutes".
I looked up from the diary. Through my window, I could see the mountain.
The next day, a Swiss woman told me of a tiny, pretty village called Weggis which I could reach by steamer.
When I looked at the diary again, Manley had written on July 9, 1885: "I took the steamer to Weggis and had tea at Hotel du Lac."
So I did the same. It was a magical moment. When no-one was looking, I raised my teacup and said under my breath: "Cheers Augustus Frederick!"
Travel guide: Switzerland
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | Snowy peaks gleamed
Look one way and you saw a wall of snow and ice, with the 13,500ft Dom rearing through the clouds.
Look the other direction and you had the fractured summits of the Bietschhorn and Breithorn. At dawn, the snowy peaks gleamed pale gold; by sunset, they were a deep, Campari red.
Switzerland may cultivate an image of gleaming efficiency and high-tech banking, but here in the Valais, life rumbles along in much the same way as it did a century ago.
Our first few days were spent sauntering through the meadows, pausing in traditional, wood-built villages that can only be reached by foot. They smelled of pine and cows and freshly mown hay.
The farming folk are friendly, although communication is not exactly easy. The people here speak SchweizerDeutsch - a rustic dialect of German. The standard greeting is 'Gruetzi', which means 'May God be with you'.
Our walks and picnics kept the children amused for a day or two, but they had set their hearts on building a snowman.
They begged; they pleaded; they pointed endlessly at the mountain tops. I realised it was time to dust off those 'Giles Fixed It' badges.
The cable car to Kreuzboden looked just the ticket. It went from the lively town of Saas Grund to a station just below the Trift Glacier, at 7,200ft.
From the valley floor, the top looked bleak and wild, with swirling clouds and a hint of winter. Surely here the children would be able to build a snowman.
But there was only disappointment at the top. They turned up their noses at the crystal mountain streams, glacial debris and ice-blue lake, and complained at the total lack of snow.
The temperature had shot up throughout the morning: in the blistering heat of midday, any last traces of winter had simply melted away.
Pilatus and Rigi
PILATUS
There is a choice of hotels at the summit - the 1900-built Kulm, plus the round, metal-clad, three-star Hotel Bellevue, built in 1963 (the Bellevue in which Victoria stayed burned down).
Rooms in Hotel Bellevue point in all directions of the compass. Each has TV and en-suite shower. The two-star Kulm has more character, with cast-iron pillars and large wood-panelled rooms, simply furnished. Showers are shared.
Several walks lead along the clifflike crest of peaks. Rare ibex graze close to the hotels.
Access is either by the old cog railway, or by a cable car and gondola on the other side of the mountain. The Bellevue (tel: 00 41 41 670 1255, http://www.pilatus.com).
RIGI
On the far side of Lake Lucerne is the peak that started the craze - the Rigi, site of the first summit hotel in the Alps built in 1816.
At 1,800 metres, views take in Alpine peaks and 13 lakes, and stretch to France and Germany.
Rooms have panelled floors and old furniture but comfy beds.
You arrive via Europe's first mountain railway, built in 1871, which runs steam trains in summer. Tel: 00 41 41 855 03 03, http://www.rigikulm.ch
Glittering greats of yesteryear
The train journey to St Moritz from Zurich Airport is a wonder in itself. It takes four hours to climb 1,856 metres through a landscape of frozen waterfalls, cuckoo clock stations dripping with icicles, deep gorges and winding, icesheet roads along which cars negotiate white- knuckle hairpin bends with no apparent problems.
In these parts it's always 'the right kind of snow', and the trains run on time. A vintage green and gold van met me at the station and whizzed me to Suvretta House Hotel, a 1910 fairy-tale turreted palace of a place.
Inside it is very belle epoque, with a fabulous main dining room almost the length of a football pitch, all oak-panelled walls, ornately carved ceiling and teardrop chandeliers.
In Suvretta's heyday, Hitchcock, the Aga Khan, Eva Peron and the Shah of Persia were regulars. King Farouk was greeted with a flower-strewn red carpet. The Maharajah of Haiderbad once arrived with 500 trunks and 300 items of hand luggage.
Me with my case on wheels might seem a bit of a comedown, but I was treated with no less kindness and respect than the glittering greats of yesteryear.
As you might expect, Suvretta's spa, pool, outdoor Jacuzzi, lounges and meals were perfect. As was the behaviour of the many small children staying there. They enjoyed a giant playhouse and slide made entirely of snow and ice in the grounds, and a special Teddy Club playgroup.
The hotel has its own snow sports school with instructors. At breakfast, the tots are kept in order by glamorous nannies, and they have their own nursery dining room for main meals.
Regulars store their bulky ski equipment at the hotel from season to season. When the snow melts, people go walking and picnic in the mountains: the plain is smothered in flowers and the lake is dotted with water sports enthusiasts.
A word of caution, however. St Moritz is a voguish resort. Stomp up and down its main drag wearing a padded anorak and a pair of C&A moonboots (circa 1980) as I did, and your image is in shreds. You certainly get some very funny looks from behind the Gucci sunglasses.
Charmingly twee
Charmingly twee Wengen has a reputation for emptying the wallets of all but the most well-heeled visitors.
The tag isn't quite fair. Meals and drinks equate roughly to London prices and if you stick to local specialities like steak, pork, rosti, goulash soup and fondue it's money well spent.
What the food loses in seasonings it makes up for in hearty portions and warm, fresh bread that arrives free.
Like the village's restaurants, not all its hotels will make a hole in your pocket, despite the resort's upmarket sophistication.
Three-star Hotel Brunner, for instance, is about 10 minutes from the village and among the cheapest options.
There's not a TV about and the toaster set out for the continental breakfasts has to be 30 years old, but it's a clean, warm and very welcoming place.
If skiing all day is too tiring or the weather's bad, curling is hilarious.
Wengen has three covered rinks in winter and is one of the few places in Europe, outside of Scotland, where the deceptively tricky sport can be tried.
Experts slide those stones as if they were pebbles but novices are lucky to get the things halfway down the ice and not fall over. With the brushing and slipping it's impossible not to laugh.
On a final note, Wengen's apres-ski scene is upbeat and all ages mingle.
The Underground bar, done up like a London club by exuberant owner Fredy, is particularly fun. His ethos is Wengen's - be relaxed, go home happy.
Swiss flies to Zurich daily from £70 return with taxes. Six days' half-board at Hotel Brunner starts at £459 with Thomson Ski and Snowboarding. A week's ski pass costs from £112, minus skis.
For further details, go to: www.wengen-muerren.ch or call 0870 606 1470 for a brochure.
Hotel in the sun
Finding the sun in Switzerland is simple: just climb a mountain. The higher you go, the more sun you get for your day. I stayed at the Rigi Kulm Hotel, 6,000ft above sea level. It must be one of Switzerland's sunniest hotels. Mark Twain was here too, in 1880, to greet the dawn sun rising over massed peaks like a gigantic bowl of whipped cream.
The hotel has solar panels fitted to the roof and generates enough power to keep four families of four in the comfortable Swiss way of living. A touch-screen display unit in the lobby told me in German and English how much power was generated today, yesterday and since the project started in 1997.
After breakfast I sauntered on to the terrace to observe the Rigi rush hour. As there are no cars, this consists of the 8.10am train from Arth Goldau. With the precision of a Swiss chronometer, it hauled up the last incline bang on 8.40. About three people got off.
I was at the start of one of Rigi's mile-high footpaths, leading down the opposite flank to the Zuger See. I peered over the southern precipice. Beneath my feet, in a separate geographical dimension, commercial Switzerland bustled on; major roads and main railways tangling and unravelling across a fertile plain. For Twain it was 'like inspecting the world on the wing'.
In Switzerland everything that eats grass comes with a bell around its neck. Each cow or goat or sheep seems to graze to a slightly different note. The path plunged down into the forest. The sun burst in occasionally in great slanting searchlights. Under foot there was a drift of pine cones the shape of fat Havana cigars.
Then, suddenly, there it was, in the middle of this wood, a yellow sign with a little engine motif.
'Fruttli station: 15 minutes.' I was on the platform in good time to dunk my head under a fountain of clear mountain water arcing out of a pipe concealed in a log. The tree stump left when it was cut had been sculpted into the shape of a toadstool.
The festival beside the lake
From Byron to Hemingway, Europe's artistic elite has been inspired by the pencil-box panoramas, the ultra-fresh air and the liberal atmosphere. There have been modern developments but nowadays, apart from three weeks in July when the festival takes place, it isn't overcrowded. Even in the height of the season you can find space to enjoy relaxed strolls along the lakeside promenade or more arduous hikes in the hills.
Maybe that's because despite its famous name, Montreux is still only a small town the size of Budleigh Salterton. Probably the only reason most of us have heard of it is through the efforts of one Swiss businessman. Entrepreneur Claude Nobs, who lives in luxury just above the town, organised his first music concert in Montreux in 1964 with the unlikely line-up of Petula Clark and the Rolling Stones. By 1967, Claude's three days of jazz were such a success that they became an annual event.
Today, the festival, which includes all types of music, is one of the most prestigious in the world. It has helped the sleepy lakeside town become chic. David Bowie and Phil Collins have moved in, and the late Freddie Mercury spent a lot of time there - his family later erecting a spectacular lakeside statue to show his affection for the town.
And if you thought the Swiss cared only about chocolate, banks and cuckoo clocks, you'll be surprised by the range of watersports, walking and culture along the eastern end of Lake Geneva. One particularly long walk, the four-hour trek up to the restaurants, Alpine gardens and viewing points at Rochers de Naye, is an unforgettable adventure - although most visitors prefer to take the train up and walk down.
The even more adventurous simply jump down from the 2,000-metre high plateau - with a hang-glider, of course.
Improvised jam sessions
The following day Tom sat in awe with a handful of fellow musicians listening to the artist spend a day talking about his technique.
The afternoon closed with everyone in the room taking their turn to play with Marcus in a series of improvised jam sessions.
We divided our time between music and some much-needed quiet relief in the astonishing scenery around Montreux.
Each evening you have a choice of two concerts - one rock, one loosely classified as jazz - and an array of free events running throughout the town and into neighbouring Vevey.
We soon learnt to conserve our energy.
In the Stravinsky, the larger of the two venues, the main act rarely comes on before midnight.
When old jazz names get together to jam a little on stage you could find yourself hanging around until well after 3am before the players on the stage succumb to exhaustion.
Free buses run throughout the neighbourhood until four in the morning.
No wonder our genial hosts at the Hotel Masson, a historic giant chalet on the hillside out of town, gave us a key to the place and said to let ourselves in at any time of the night we fancied.
There are, happily, plenty of ways to relax, too.
Pays to gamble
Going skiing early on in Europe is a gamble, but one that can pay off. Saas Fe in mid-December did pay off.
The slopes were a bit icy but artificial snowmaking and piste grooming meant they were ski-able.
There were no lift queues and even the the nicest restaurants had room at lunch. Plus it can be considerably cheaper skiing at the beginning or end of the season.
To reach the glacier at the top of Saas Fe takes about 40 minutes by gondola and the highest funicular railway in the world.
In fact Saas Fe is a resort of records - it also has the highest rotating restaurant - with breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding mountains - and the largest ice grotto.
There, you can walk inside the glacier and see crevasses and sculptures.
Saas Fe is one of four car-free resorts in Switzerland - dinky electric vehicles double up as trucks and taxis.
It is a picturesque resort with wooden chalets, rustic restaurants and cobbled streets - a million miles from many purpose-built concrete French resorts.
The downside is it can be quite a walk - laden with boots and skis - to the slopes but a mulled wine at the bottom takes the sting out of the return trip.
Crans-Montana and Saas Fe, Switzerland.
A week half-board with Thomson at the four-star Hotel Mirabeau, flights and transfers costs from £529.
A six-day lift pass is £106 and ski and boot hire is £72.
A week at a four-star hotel in Saas Fe costs from £525. A lift pass is £116 and ski and boot hire £66. Call Thomson on 0870 606 1470 for more.
Write to us
Have you got a holiday tale? Tell us about it and we could publish your story on Fridays on p174 and on our website.
The best story each month will get a £20 book voucher so remember to include your full address when you write.
Send your story to: Travel Desk, Teletext, Building 10, Chiswick Park, Chiswick High Road, London, W4 5TS.
Or e-mail: traveldesk@teletext.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | Landscape of operatic grandeur
The following day brought even less chance of snowman-building. We walked up to the high alpage of Moosalp which in winter is often blocked with snow. Now, it was so hot that even the cows looked as if they were about to melt.
After a short walk to Strand - the highest point for miles around - we followed the locals into one of Moosalp's two little restaurants.
Here we tucked into hearty platters of raclette (potatoes, local hams and melted mountain cheese) and listened to the rum-pum-pum of a traditional mountain band.
Then, with the quest for snow growing ever more urgent, we took drastic action and drove to the ski resort of Saas Fee.
The town, nestled at the foot of a mountain, is only 5,400ft above sea level. But the attraction here is the cable car that lifts you right above the cloud. Here - surely - there would be snow.
The cable car ride whisked us through a landscape of operatic grandeur.
The first stage took us to 7,000ft, providing an eagle-eye view of the cracked and creaking Fee Glacier.
From here, a second cable car took us up a further 2,000ft. As we stepped out, an icy blast whipped our ears. It was absolutely freezing and still we were nowhere near the top. A ratchet train climbs a further 1,500ft to 10,500ft.
It is so steep that your ears go pop; it's so high that you find yourself gasping for breath. When we climbed the flight of stairs that led to the station exit, our legs trembled like jelly.
We emerged, light-headed and blinking, into a winter paradise. The sky was deep blue, the sun was ferocious and the snow - yes, the snow - was deep and crisp (though not particularly even).
Mannlichen, Gornergrat and Monte Generoso
MANNLICHEN
The high ridge that separates Grindelwald and Wengen offers the best views of Switzerland's most famous peaks, which tower above the Jungfrau: Mönch and the Eiger.
At an invigorating 2,227 metres, stands the family-run Berghaus Männlichen, dating back to 1870, but fully renovated ten years ago.
Rooms are small, finished in wood, but without a TV. You arrive either by cable car from Wengen, or from Grindelwald on a 30-minute climb on Europe's longest gondola - almost four miles. Tel: 00 41 33 853 1068, http://www.maennlichen.ch
GORNERGRAT
The highest hotel in the Alps stands at 3,100 metres on the Gornergrat, a 45-minute climb by cog railway from Zermatt. Staggering views take in 29 peaks. The 1907 two-star hotel has renovated rooms but showers are shared. Tel: 00 41 27 966 6400, http://www.zermatt.ch/gornergrat.kulm
MONTE GENEROSO
Across the Alps in Italian-speaking Ticino, the Monte Generoso feels like a balcony overlooking Italy.
The views take in both the snowcapped Alpine massifs to the north, and the small foothills to the south. A cog railway climbs up from Lake Lugano.
This modern hotel has dormitories and bunk-beds, seven double rooms and shared showers. Tel: 00 41 91 649 77 22, http://www.montegeneroso.ch
Posh and conservative
This is a place where the cobbles ring with the clomp of people striding about in top-of-the-range ski boots, where women wear real fur coats and every time you step into an elevator you choke on the fumes of costly perfumes and aftershaves.
It's a place where the glittering boutiques of Armani, Versace, Cartier and Louis Vuitton all rub shoulders, and you're hard-pressed to find a cheapo chain store or, indeed, a souvenir Swiss army knife.
And don't, whatever you do, get involved in an argument about the 'men only' rule with the people in charge of the Cresta Run. At 130 kilometres an hour, this lethal ice slide is considered too risky for women, and to hell with the notion of equal opportunities.
Posh and conservative St Moritz may be, but eating out is terrific value. The Swiss are big on high-calorie portions of fondues, rosti potatoes, bacon dumplings, beef stews topped with fried eggs and cream-drenched puddings.
To work up an appetite I strolled across the Via Engadina, a sunny plateau between the pistes. But be warned, keep to the trodden paths. If you accidentally step into drifts, you sink up to your thighs and snow seeps over your boots.
With saturated socks I took the chair-lift down to the Trutz Inn. Sitting on the terrace enjoying Gorgonzola polenta, I watched a crocodile of enchanting toddlers (all wearing chic ski kits) snaking down the nursery slopes on miniature skis.
I felt on top of the world - which I was, of course. But I'd have felt a lot more so if I'd been wearing designer-clobber.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
Suvretta House Hotel in St Moritz telephone 0041 818 36 36 36 or http://www.suvrettahouse.ch. The hotel will be closed from mid-April and reopens in mid-June. British Airways flights from Heathrow to Zurich (08457 733377, or visit http://www.ba.com).
Where everything runs on clockwork time
The 12.27 whisked me 2,000ft back up to the hotel. I had lunch on the terrace. Apart from the sunrise, the other big thing up here is the mountain view. It includes the biggest names in the Alps - Eiger, Jungfrau, Monch.
I left the Rigi by the train down the steep side. Eagles wheeled off a sheer rock face. For most of the way the path down the mountain shadows the railway, through dense trees, over a chasm where a fearful Twain repented of his sins, alongside precipices.
Then a surprise. At one station a big crowd swarmed aboard. Swarthy Alpine types with drooping moustaches and hats decorated with the feathers of rare mountain birds plonked their rucksacks and Alpenstocks everywhere. OAPs on an outing from Lucerne babbled like mountain brooks in spate.
As I walked off the train at Vitznau, paddle steamer Uri glided majestically over Lake Lucerne into the quayside. Trailing from the stern was a flag as big as a tennis court. She announced her arrival with an imperious boom. The captain stood proudly on the bridge at a brass speaking tube, as an officer adroitly lassoed a bollard with the hawser to tie her up.
In a minute we were away, gliding along the waterfront past the Park Hotel. We know it as the setting for the film of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac. It was built in sumptuous Belle Epoque style in 1902. From here it took just 50 minutes over the mirror-flat lake to Lucerne. Then a five-minute walk to the station. Ten minutes later my train pulled out, direct to Zurich Airport. Just three hours from mountain top to check-in.
View left us speechless
One free morning we took off on a deserted walk by the lake, through vineyards that roll up the hill in terraces overlooked by fine old stately mansions.
The paddle-steamer east, to the classic chateau of Chillon, is a must.
And on the last day we simply could not resist the mountains.
A short funicular took us to the little mountain train line which, in the space of an hour, rattled up a steep hillside.
Finally, we pulled in close to the summit of the ski resort, Rochers-de-Naye, more than 6,500ft above sea level.
We staggered through a tunnel drilled through the mountain and found ourselves a table for lunch by the panoramic window.
The view left both of us speechless: the lake stretched on beyond Lausanne, towards Geneva, while the French Alps stood opposite us in a stately row, crowned with white.
The following morning found us at Montreux station at 6.30, waiting for the direct train back to Geneva airport.
Between the music and the mountains, a generation scarcely mattered, which was, perhaps, Montreux's greatest magic trick of all.
The Montreux Jazz Festival takes place from July 5 to 20 and tickets go on sale from April 25.
Visit http://www.montreuxjazz.com for details.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
Details from the Swiss Travel Service (http://www.bridgetravel.co.uk tel: 0870 191 7280).
The Switzerland Travel Centre (tel: 0207 292 1550) has passes that let you travel the length of the country by bus, train and boat. Prices start at £101 for four days. Buy a family card and children under 16 travel free.
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | Rolled the snowman's head
The Allalinhorn mountain - which poked its snowy head defiantly at the sun - is famous in the Valais; it's here that Switzerland's top skiers come to hone their skills during the warm summer months.
The mountain is also known for its 'ice pavilion' - a huge cavern inside the glacier. An ice staircase leads down a long and narrow tunnel until you are deep inside the freezing bowels of a glacier.
Carved into ice that is tens of thousands of years old is a tiny chapel where some folk like to get married.
Outside, the skiers were busily displaying their skills and the climbers were setting off with crampons and ice-picks.
Our task was more modest but no less difficult. Building a snowman at high altitude requires gloves, determination and a great deal of energy.
We soon discovered that it also takes fresh snow. We rolled the snowman's head and it immediately fell apart. We rolled the body but it collapsed into little shards.
As we looked forlornly at the small pile of snow and ice, we realised that we'd forgotten to bring a carrot and some buttons.
'We're freezing,' said the girls. 'Can you fix it for us to be warm?'
That was something I definitely could do. I bundled them back into the cable car, closed the windows, and enjoyed the lovely sensation of toes tingling as the blood began to recirculate.
It took just 20 minutes for winter to turn back into summer.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
Interhome offers a range of self catering properties in the Valais. Ferry crossings can also be arranged. Call 020 8891 1294 or visit www.interhome.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
| | Available rental properties in Switzerland |
|
|
|
|
