The hills are alive

Lucky for me then that Gstaad aims to enliven even the weariest of travellers.

Commonly known as the ski resort of choice for the international jet set, but lesser known for its amazing summer activities, Gstaad surprised me with the warmth of its welcome, enveloping me in its mountainous embrace for all of three action-packed days.

But despite the hefty itinerary, and my distinct lack of REM sleep, Gstaad proved invigorating; indeed, staying true to its slogan of “come up, slow down” (no, it doesn’t effortlessly trip off the tongue...), I felt completely refreshed when, 72 hours later, I boarded the flight home.

But that was in the future; for the present my first day was spent on an electric bike whizzing around Zweisimmen, known as the gateway to Gstaad and the region’s largest ski area.

Now anyone who knows me or my regular Tuesday column On Yer Bike – which runs fortnightly in the Oxford Mail – will know that I am a big advocate of electric bikes.

Gstaad has recognised the opportunity they present to mountainous terrain, and young and old alike over there, own and regularly travel on them.

Indeed, Switzerland allows you to make up your own mind about how fast you want to travel on them; over here the UK limits us to just 15mph when electrically assisted, but the lucky Swiss can licence their bikes to go considerably faster.

Better still, if you stay in any of the 11 certified bike hotels in Gstaad and the surrounding villages, you can actually switch your battery – handy since this saves you having to worry about hiring a charger.

My own set of wheels were rented from a shop called Sputnik Bike (more info at www.gstaad.ch and www.sputnik-bikeshop.ch with rentals starting from around €30).

They popped me on a Swiss made Flyer E Bike, which was impressive to say the least, but then, let’s be honest and reach for a stereotype here, most things Swiss-made are.

After a wonderful dinner at my hotel, the Hotel Sonnegg (and I mean truly wonderful for what is only a three-star hotel), I relaxed into bed with a few glasses of Swiss wine (yes, they make wonderful wine here as well, but trust me it was a mistake). You see, I’d plain forgotten that the following day we were hiking.

I’m a bike nut. There I’ve said it, and if I have to pop out to even the local shop, I ride there, so a day spent clambering around the mountains filled me, understandably, with dread.

However, I do think the Swiss have changed my opinion of hiking and hikers (and cheesemakers too...). Though only just.

Starting from Lake Arnen, we hiked for a good hour before arriving at the door of an Alpine cheese making factory. It’s like that in Switzerland.

Although ‘factory’ of course is not really the right description for where I spent the next hour.

After all, this is the land of little Heidis and Tyrolean cow girls swinging their buckets, which means you can’t just stick a corrugated warehouse where you want.

Which means, in fact it was a lovely wooden chalet, nestled away in breathtaking scenery like something out of a Hans Christian Andersen tale; somewhere in fact that Veli and Rosemarie Haldi decamped with their herd of Simmental cows to make the famous Berner Alpkase AOC cheese for the summer.

Now for those of you interested in this kind of thing, cheese-making takes place in the, wait for it, front room-cum-dairy-cum-dining room, where fresh milk is warmed gently in a large copper vat over a roaring wood fire. And as I can vouch, husbands and wives perform the magical process, working together in dairy tandem and truth be told, I never knew cheese making could be so masculine (who knows if it works so well with unmarried cheese producers?).

Still, after purchasing some cheese to take back home with me, I hiked down to Lake Retaud, passing other hikers and even some little old English ladies on an afternoon ‘jolly’.

Another wonderful dinner at my next hotel, the Hotel Gstaaderhof reinforced my opinion that the cuisine here is second to none.

In fact, Gstaad holds the Alpine record for Gault & Millau points, similar to Michelin stars but solely awarded for the quality of the food.

In total, 15 chefs here have been awarded a total of 219 points just this year alone, so I think a round of applause is in order.

As for my final day in Gstaad, well it was the pinnacle of the whole trip for me – the mountain biking tour.

There are more than 500 kilometres of tracks for mountain bikers in the surrounding mountains and valleys, and numerous places to hire if you don’t take your own bike with you.

Hire bikes I can reveal are all good quality with full suspension and should be just as comfortable as your own. However, on a health and safety issue, just remember the brakes are the other way round on the Continent.

For example, I had a few scary moments sliding round corners at full pelt, instinctively reaching for my front brake when it turned out to be the back.

Yet much to my surprise, I stayed on but ruined the track for everyone else.

Travelling up in a cable car with my bike I felt a rush of adrenaline that far outstripped any feeling mountain biking in the UK can deliver.

And descending down more than 1,000 meters certainly took its toll on my arms. But on the bright side I was able to pack in a much deserved sports massage straight afterwards.

Gstaad may be better known for its jet set locals and you can certainly see why (try a little window shopping with a currency converter – it’ll bring tears to your eyes), but personally I feel the luxury and exuberance Gstaad is famous for is just an illusion.

Why? Because it comes naturally to the people and the place, and at the end of the day it’s just a mountain village, but rather than let tourism and daily life develop with varying degrees of success, everything in Gstaad is simply done with excellence.

As Julie Andrews once famously said: “I hope you can understand how much I love Gstaad”, and after visiting this summer, I can honestly say “Yes, Julie I certainly do”.