We started off by flying on Alitalia from New York to Milan, and then connecting to a flight to Geneva and then taking a train from the airport to the village of Gstaad. Although we were traveling business class (which was a treat that Jennifer had been saving her miles for years for) it took quite a while to get there. Alitalia, by the way, is a government owned airline, and things feel sort of faded and dated on it. We left on Sunday right after our wedding, and arrived Monday evening. I suppose things could have been faster if we'd chosen a prepacked tour, since they would have lined up direct flights and bus transfers. Gstaad as a ski destination tends not to be on the list of ready made packages because it has the unfortunate combination of beeing too costly and is not snow sure.
After almost 20 hours of travel, we arrived at the Berherhof in Gstaad. The hotel was perfectly situated, right by the train station and buses to the mountains, and in the middle of the beautiful pedestrian/car free village. In addition the hotel was of a very high standard in accomodations -- in particular the wood work and bathroom fixtures. The kitchen was closed on our arrival, so we went down the street and got a burger at a local cafe. We could sit on our balcony and look over the village, and up at the famous Gstaad Palace hotel sited above the town.
On our first full day in the village, we slept in late and then went exploring, foraging for lunch. We made our way through the village, marvelling at the curious bronze sculptures scattered about.
There was an iron cow by the watering hole, elves under the bridge, and more. Someone here has a touch of whimsy. We had savory crepes at a cafe after getting the lay of the land and figuring out where the ski bus shuttles were. The core pedestrian village is filled with expensive boutiques and luxury product stores, but they were interesting to window shop. One store was particularly fascinating -- Kitchen & Table is its name in English. We wandered around the 3 floors of this for almost an hour. The picture to the right is from their pottery department. We came back a few days later, and after a lot of deliberation, selected a fondue pot and burner as a useful memento of the visit. Afterwards we came back to the hotel and relaxed on the balcony for a while while we mulled over dinner options. One of the tour books I had acquired, Lonely Planet, suggested the Post Hotel Rossli as a good choice for classic Swiss fare, so we made our way there later that night. It was a good suggestion indeed, and I enjoyed my rosti and Swiss white wine.
The next morning we were pretty refreshed after the previous days relaxing and exploring, so we were ready to go skiing. We had breakfast downstairs and grabbed a bus from outside the hotel to one of our local village's ski areas -- Eggli. Gstaad is actually a "super ski region" of almost a half dozen villages connected by bus/train/ski trails going up and down the Saanenland valley. Gstaad is the most charming village and has the most local ski areas (3) but they are somewhat less natural fall line skiing than the other villages. I guess the American comparable would be Aspen and its local ski areas, although in the Gstaad Super Ski region, some of the areas are skiiable from each other. Once we got to the Eggli area we took a gondola to the peak and started to make our way down to the Chalberoni mid valley station. Some of the trails down this way were in poor condition due to lack snow, and too much sun on these south facing pistes. Once we got down to the Chalberoni lodge, Jenn stopped to rest and get some lunch, while I made my way up to the top of the the next ridge over and skiied that. There was hardly anyone up there and the conditions were much better, although as I got down to lower altitudes the soft snow became tiring to ski through. We schlepped back to Eggli and then took the gondola back down the village.
On Wednesday we planned a dinner at the haute cuisine restaurant, Chlosterli, which was a few miles out of town. While that was being set up by the concierge we set out to find electronic connectors that would let us hook our iPod up to the hotel room's stereo. Fortunately we found a Swiss equivalent of RadioShack down a side alley and we got everything sorted out swiftly. From there we took a little side tour of that edge of village. There was a fantastic amount of construction going on; we heard that most of the new chalets are being custom built for Russian oligarchs. Price tags seemed to be in the $5-8mm range, high even for a top end ski resort. When we came back I went down to the gym and tried the hot and cold saunas, followed by a few laps in the pool. After all this we were feeling refreshed and took a taxi to the Chlosterli. We had signed up for the full 9 course dinner which took three plus hours. The range of preparations and the creativity of the chef were extraordinary; it really was one of the greatest meals I have ever had. Everything was supremely fresh and flavorful, with just the right balance between traditional spices and creative ones. We had a delicious bottle of Leroy red burgundy to go with it, which made me want to try cellaring a few on my own, until I saw how costly they are in the US.On Thursday, Jennifer had a spa session set up for a hot rocks massage therapy while I went down to the gym/sauna in our building after breakfast. After a lazy day relaxing like this we then went to a guitar recital given in the local Roman Catholic church/kirch. Oddly enough, it was a Swiss man singing traditional American devotionals on a guitar; it was weird hearing Sweet Chariot with a thick German accent. The performance was heartfelt, but technically/muscially light years behind our own Holy Trinity. After that we went out for Italian food for dinner. The restaurant was called "Rialto" and was superb. We both had homemade tagliatele with a veal ragu sauce. It had carrots in it and the feel of having been simmered in wine and milk for hours like a good bolognese sauce should be. It was hard to have a bad meal in Gstaad since the standard of both hotels/dining is so high. We walked back to the hotel feeling a slight chill in the air. By midnight, a light snow would be coming down pretty consistently.
On Friday we got up early as it was looking like a powder day from the view from our balcony. We had a hurried breakfast and hopped on the "GoldenCar" , a special bubble shaped rail compartment, from Gstaad to the upvalley village of Schonried. The story we had heard at breakfast was that this area tended to get better snow, and its terrain was wide and forgiving, perfect for the two of us to enjoy skiing together. After a 20 minute scenic train ride, we hopped off at the Schonried baanhof and manhandled our gear toward the lifts. Unlike at typical American resorts, which have some kind of base area for changing and assorted sundries, the base stations in the Gstaad super ski area, tended not to have much beyond a lift area and a ticket booth. Most folks would rent equipment, if needed, in town and then get food up on the mid/top mountain restaurants and warming huts. The gist of all of this is that there was not any ski lockers at the mountain area, or at least any that we could locate, but we had a small inkling that may happen so I'd brought our gear in a daypack style bag. We just skiied with all of our stuff on ourselves, which would make it easy to leave from a different village.
When we got up to the top of the mountain, the snow was coming down thickly and the powder was mid calf. We happily skied down a few runs of this and then tacked down into a broad valley that spanned the way to another vilage. Here the runs were well sheltered from the blowing snow, and as the wind let up, we could lap the trio of runs here. The vertical on the upper runs was probably only 1500 ft or so, but this area seemed popular for families skiing with mixed abilities, so we saw lots of kids here. After a while Jenn went to the Hornberg mittelstation while I kept on doing fast cruises on this lift. It felt good to put force on my Achilles again after so many months of babying it. We were both getting hungry now, so I collected Jenn from the Hornberg area and we zipped down to a midmountain lodge hidden in a little side nook. We got some warm drinks and sandwiches at this place, called Lochstoffel. After that we skiied down to the next town over, called Saanenmoser. The bottom had gotten a little slushy and it was getting time to call it a day, so Jenn decided to have a gluwhein while she waited for me. I thought it might be end of this years ski season for me (I was wrong about that) so I decided to keep doing a few runs on this gondola serviced run. It was pretty nice and broad but slushy near the bottom. Still it was a great way to end the day, and since we had all our stuff with us, we could just stroll down to Saanenmoser's baanhof and catch the train home, exhausted and happy. We got to the station about 10 min before the next train home, so we didn't have to wait. It was a great day.On Saturday last day of relaxing. Olden. Hiking above town.
Sunday. Train back to Geneva. Dinner with Alain
Monday. Fly back to the USA.
Tuesday. R&R get pets.
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