This guy seemed to be hiding his shame after his shearing.
The bottom portion of the picture above is Lauterbrunnen, the top portion way in the distance is the resort town of Wengen. You are clicking on the pictures for detail aren't you?Just checking.
Now for The Alps stuff. We took a gondola, then a train, then our feet, then a gondola, then another gondola to the top of the Schilthorn and the Piz Gloria (also known as the rotating restaurant, viewpoint, James Bond museum, Blofeld's Lair).
Before we made it to the top we had a brief walk through Murren, in order to get to our second gondola. Murren is that Swiss mountain village you think of when someone mentions the Alps. Think dark stained, long roofed wooden houses with dark green painted shutters. Its a relatively quiet town out of ski season with no cars and only a few tourist hikers strolling about. In 1921 it was the spot of the first Slalom ski run, and in 1931 it was where the first world championship of Downhill and Slalom racing took place. So it has more than one claim to fame Mr. Double-O.
Here is another thick barrier between me and a singular stampede, they are all about safety here in Switzerland.
In October each year they have a livestock parade through town. The farmers decorate the cows with flowers and giant bells. The best /most prized cows get the largest bells. Some of the bells weigh upwards of 25lbs and can cost over 2000 dollars. I like to imagine a cow with a french bulldog (Nans in particular) strapped to its neck, I think its a pretty good crossover comparison. Obviously that particular cow would have to be the most prized if I was voting.
At the top:
The Piz Gloria in all its glory-a.
At this point we decided to head inside to check out the James Bond Museum and grab a bite to it since the clouds started to roll in.
The James Bond museum (which is really only focused on one film, lets be honest here, it should be called something else, but the movie title is so ridiculously long that it doesn't work well for a museum name, way to think ahead movie people.) Anyhow, at the ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE/JAMES BOND MUSEUM they had some nice details about the making of the film and decision to go with George Lazenby. There was a helicopter and bobsled simulator that were fun and a nicely put together short film that highlighted all the scenes from the movie that took place in the mountains and in Murren. For two months over 150 cast & crew filled the village of Murren and were shuttled between there and the Piz Gloria by a fleet of 13 helicopters (low budget movie obviously).
Brian pretending to be a windy kilt.
They were very well branded with the 007 theme, everything had a 007 on it, even Brian's burger bun. I will say for trying so hard to go with the 007 theme, they really failed big time in the souvenir shop. I'm a huge James Bond fan, and I was fully prepared to spend some money on some sweet 007 swag, unfortunately it was all pretty crappy stuff. Where is my George Lazenby action figure or even Blofeld's goggles from the Ski scene (google this, they are great), or a chocolate Walther PPK. I would have paid good money for a chocolate Walter PPK, they could wrap it in gold foil and it would be a Golden Gun, see clever, not the same movie, but come on folks get creative. I get it though the altitude is a brain killer.
We're off to Lake Como early tomorrow. Bring on the lake!
Fondue Update: We are pretty sure its not going to happen folks. Twice since our last FU (Fondue Update) we had our food in outdoor seating, surrounded by smokers I'll point out, because the smell in close quarters was too much for us. We will have one more shot in Zurich to try the bubbly pale yellow molten cheese concoction that smells of goat vomit or a bad foot infection, a really bad one, but if I were shaking a magic 8 ball right now the answer would land on "outlook not so good."
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