Blogs from Saanen, South-West, Switzerland, Europe

Now we're thoroughly aquainted with the area, it's nearly time to move on. Today was the last day in Saanenland and it's been a very good choice. Yes, we've passed this way before but only fleetingly. There is so much more to discover when you stay a while. Today we stayed in the valley and walked in the morning from Schonried (about 2kms away) to Saanenmoser. It is an easy walk through grassy paddocks behind houses and down in the valley. We had expected to have lunch at Saanenmoser but nothing was open. It does not pay to arrive anywhere after 12 midday as they shut and go home then reopen later. Back in Schonried we did find somewhere open but with ridiculous prices for lunch so we had a coffee and went back to the ... read more

Today dawned a beautiful clear day so it was going to be ideal for the high alps. Unfortunately, because we are early in the season many cable cars are not working until the end of the month. However, the Glacier 3000 is open. We headed off to Col du Pillon which is about 30kms away and where the seilbahn (cable car) leaves from. The road from Saanen is fairly narrow, winding up through a beautiful valley past Gsteig where we stayed on our Trans Alpine Walk a few years back. We remembered how we stayed at the Viktoria Hotel as the only guests where the manager went off to a party and left us to the 3 storey hotel by ourselves. I also remember that he was somewhat a bit overly friendly with me....... The Seilbahn ... read more

Our apartment owner's grandson turned up this morning to fix the internet. Yes, he did know what he was doing and yes the router was kaput. He took it away and added another network to the owners main network. What a nice young man he was too. He had spent time in NZ learning English and working on a property near Mt Maunganui. He and his girlfriend are coming to NZ in December for a few weeks so he's been invited to park his camper at our place if he wishes if passing through New Plymouth. After filling in the morning planning our next few days for hiking on not too difficult trails we drove down to Saanen and parked near the Bahnhof. It is a hot day with temperatures of 28 degrees so we figured ... read more