Resort Luxury in Gstaad

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In late January I head off for a weeks snow holiday in Gstaad, Switzerland, resort town of the rich and famous.

I flew into Geneva and was treated to a spectacular view of the Alps, including Mt Blanc (the highest peak in Europe). From here the great scenery continued as I took a train alongside Lake Geneva and then the
Golden Pass train which climbed up into the snow capped Alps. As we moved away from the lake we gradually got deeper into the Alps and the snow inched its way closer to the train tracks.

I arrived into the resort town of Gstaad and was picked up by my flatmates, Mark and Em, who took me to our luxury accommodation for the week. It was an incredible wooden chalet, and I was very lucky to be able to stay there. It was a 5 star chalet with a swimming pool in the downstairs lounge (the floor we were staying on), a cinema room with 52 inch LCD screen and surround sound, all the gadgets you could ever want like play stations, wii's and stereo systems. There was also a sauna and every bedroom had
great big beds and ensuites. Word is that the chalet was rented out for £25,000/week in February.

My first evening was spent swimming in the 29°C pool and followed by watching District 9 in the cinema room which shook so much from the surround sound that when the ship takes off in the movie it felt like the cinema room was going to blast off to.

I got up early and eager on my first morning and was sitting waiting in my snowboarding gear sipping a coffee when the others emerged. We headed out to the slopes and I nervously took the first gondola up Eggli. It had been a full year since I last went boarding and the butterfly's were racing around inside my stomach. The sky was blue and the snow a crisp clean white. I did up the bindings on my board and tentatively stood up for the first time. My first run down the mountain was a great success, I remembered how to board and felt the exhilaration that keeps drawing me back each year.

Melissa (Mark's sister) and Orlando (her partner) lead me around the Mountain all day, along trails, down wide open pistes and down some very steep spots that I initially thought I wouldn't cope with but managed with only minor crashes. We stopped for lunch and drinks in a few of the cute restaurants all over the mountain and even had a 'punch' drink given to me by some friendly German tourists who spoke no English (as I speak no German), so there were some great laughs.

I had two more great days of boarding and by the third day really felt that I had made progress and the steep pistes no longer threatened me with major injury. So it was quite ironic that on the third afternoon I fell on a flat trail and sprained my shoulder, effectively ending the snowboarding part of my holiday. I limped back down the mountain, stopping at all of the bars on the way down for a rest and finally meeting Mark and Em at the bottom for a weis beer for Apres Ski.

Because I couldn't snowboard I spent one day wandering around the town of Gstaad, as it is the playground of the rich and famous the shops are all Prada, Gucci, Channel, Christian Dior etc. The shops are immaculately kept for a resort town and the goods have the price tag to reflect this.

For our last day in the mountains we headed down to the ice skating rink in the centre of town. Here we zoomed around the ice, looking like complete novices compared to the locals. I tried to master backwards skating, but really just looked foolish wiggling my legs and not really going anywhere.

In the afternoon we boarded the Golden Pass train and headed back out of the mountains, sad to say goodbye to Switzerland and our luxury chalet.

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