GstaadLife

 
We from GstaadLife.com wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year 2010!  

Due to a power cut last Sunday December 21, the ski season got off to an unfortunate start on the Eggli. The outage left 4 skiers stranded in one of the Eggli gondolas, of whom two rappelled to safety and two had to be rescued by the Air-Glacier helicopter service. 

Click here for the holiday opening hours for last minute food shoppers. 

Gstaad to Geneva has always evoked the question: the twists, turns and unpredictable weather of the Col du Pillon or Col des Mosses; or the easier alpine cruise but interminable rush hour traffic of Bulle.  Well the decision just got a bit easier with the opening of the new Bulle bypass. Connected by two shiny new tunnels, passing underground to the south and west of the town from the Migros "barcode" shopping center on the Gruyère side to the Coop gas station by the highway, the bypass takes just 4 minutes to travel, and in rush hour or Sunday evenings could see you shave as much as 15 minutes off your journey time. Seems like it took an age to build, but it was worth the wait.

Having just bumped into Oliver Preston at the Palace playroom we cannot resist reminding you about his exhibition on Saturday December 26 and Sunday December 27 from 17h00 to 21h00 at the Gstaad Palace. His cartoons are just too funny and as he spends some time of the year in Gstaad he takes quite some inspiration from what is going on in and around our region. So be careful if you find yourself sitting next to him at a dinner party! Enjoy! 

"Sometimes I think you love Gstaad more than me." (click to enlarge)

A picture of better times... The financial crisis seems to have also reached Bonhams and as a result they have canceled their annual Ferrari and Maserati auction event at the Gstaad Palace. A real shame if you ask us: we loved the way the winter season used to start every year - beautiful cars, beautiful people, at the most beautiful hotel in the world...

 
From Sunday December 13 on there will be a new train timetable in effect. One very good change is that from Monday to Friday the first train from Saanen in the direction of Zweisimmen leaves at 5h02 (Gstaad 5h07), which means that you can get to Zurich airport by 08h16 instead of 08h50. You will find the new timetable in your mailbox on Tuesday, or you can place ahead at www.rail.ch.

The first construction machines drove up the Alpinamatte in spring 2008 and as the picture above from this summer shows, much has happened since. The whole area is completely closed so it is now very hard to get a decent pictures (if you happen to have a good one one, do let us know). According to Marcel Bach, we will be allowed a sneak peak in the fall of 2010 when the shell of the unfinished hotel can be viewed.

Due to lack of demand, the health and welfare department has axed the public vaccination facilities against swine flu that have been available in local hospitals. You can still get the shots at the local doctors.

The Rotary Club of Gstaad-Saanenland recently honored the following local personalities with its Paul-Harris-Fellowship award: Klaus Burkhalter, Zweisimmen, Bill Lovell and Peter Hänni, Saanen, Herbert Messerli, Lenk and Ernst Niederhauser, Gstaad.

Pictured above: Herbert Messerli, Ernst Niederhauser, Klaus Burkhalter and club president Ruedi Minnig