GstaadLife

by Eva Sailer

Over the past few years, it's been great to write this blog and I do hope that you enjoyed reading it. Since we started this experiment in local English-language news for Saanenland, it has grown up to a following of over 3'000 regular readers from 108 countries around the world. From the Promenade of Gstaad to the desert sands of Mali, from the musings of Taki to the shores of the Arnensee, from the garages of Feutersoey to the cow processions of Etivaz, we've been there bringing you our unique take on news, views, and voices from and about our region.

But it has been decided to change Gstaadlife.com into something other than a blog, and therefore I will not be writing on these pages anymore. You will still be able to get local news and information from our sister publication, the Anzeiger von Saanen, the GstaadLife magazine, as well as the new incarnation of GstaadLife.com. I wish to thank all the people who made GL.com possible, but in particular you, dear Readers, for your loyalty, your comments, and most of all your humor. It's been fun. Good-bye.

This past Thursday October 20 2011 at around 17:30 two men robbed a jewelry shop in Gstaad. They threatened the shopkeeper with a knife and tied her up before they got away with watches worth tens of thousands of francs. The cantonal police of Bern are asking for help in finding the robbers. In a press release they are described as possibly Russian, both between 30 and 35 years old. One is about 1.8m tall, slim, with a pointy nose and dark, short hair. He wore a dark brown leather jacket and dark trousers. The second robber is about 1.65 m tall and also slim. He has a flat nose and dark, black hair. He wore a dark jacket and dark grey jeans. Please call the Bernese cantonal police on 033 227 61 11 if you saw anything. 

On October 22 2011 the Rialto will close for the season. This will also be the day that Piero Bigai retires after 40 years. He started in the 60's at the Gstaad Palace and for the past few years has been running the Restaurant Rialto. We wish him all the very best for his retirement. 

Mark the date in your calendar: October 27 to 30 2011. Local businesses present themselves, lots of interesting stuff, food, shows, kids activities etc. Here is the program.

The Hotel Arc-en-Ciel in Gstaad is celebrating its 50th anniversary this Saturday October 22 2011 from 11:00 till 17:00. You can have a look behind the scenes, there will be music, a lucky wheel, pony riding, face painting, a bouncy castle, the famous electric cars, and a special pizza oven for the kids.

BEMO (Bewegte Momente) is happening again - Sunday October 23 2011 from 10h00 to 13h00 at the school sports center between Saanen and Gstaad. They bring out every bit of sports equipment you can think of and the children can use everything for free. Parents are responsible for their little ones so you cannot just dump them there - but lots of fun is guaranteed and they will sleep soundly that night.

The Pure Snowboard Shop in Gstaad is organizing a fashion show at the Split Club on Saturday October 22 2011. The runway will feature the newest collections for the upcoming winter sports season. The fun kicks off around 22:00. 

The cranes are gone and the press office of The Alpina Gstaad is going into overdrive. So the news is that everything at the first newly-constructed 5-star hotel in Gstaad in the past 100 years seems to be going smoothly. And they have found their managing director, one Niklaus Leuenberger, a Swiss who has managed hotels over the last 30 years throughout Asia and the US. There'll be lots more on this story in the next months. The grand opening is slated for December 2012.

Gstaad Saanenland Tourism has confirmed that room nights in the region are down compared to previous years. The blame appears to lie squarely with the strong Swiss franc, which makes visiting Switzerland in general and Gstaad in particular even more expensive than it used to be. The saving grace, according to Gstaad's tourist director Martin Bachofner, was that at least the Swiss guests have stayed loyal to the region, even as Euro earners, Brits and Americans have stayed away. Andrea Scherz, the director of the Gstaad Palace, spoke at length a out this topic earlier in the season in an interview with the Tagesanzeiger, reflecting the concerns of many of the region's hoteliers. For those of you who read German click here for the interview. Or here for our previous comment on this.

Olden renovation update: above is one of the first pictures of the main building. As you can see, it stays basically the same from the outside with the exception of the rooftop extensions. There are extensive plans for the inside, but the good news is that the restaurant as well as the bar area will stay exactly the same, (kinda like when they "re-did" the GreenGo). In a recent interview with our sister publication, the Anzeiger von Saanen, hotel director Ermes Elsener referred to the apartments in the planned chalets behind the main building as "lukewarm beds", defending the assertion that hotel apartments are part of the region's problem because they remain largely empty most of the year, so-called cold beds. Don't get us wrong we understand the need to rennovate, go with the times, and finally make some money with the hotel side of the business. It's just that everyone loves the place as it is, so there is real hope that the promises of keeping the building, the bar and the restaurants will hold. Building is scheduled to start in March 2012 with a plan for completion in December 2012 for the main building. The all-new chalets out back will take at least two years.