Back to Saas-Fee: "McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken!"

It was Pepperdine's spring break, so we pulled Michael out of school (again) and returned to the slopes of Saas-Fee. Michael seems to be a natural athlete and show-off: skiiing between the poles as a stunt to impress me - which, it did:

We made the effort to reach the world's highest revolving restaurant, taking the funiculaire train which burrowed an uphill tunnel, coming down at roller coaster speed.
Here's a postcard. The next 007 is currently being shot in the Swiss Alps - a nostalgic gesture towards For Your Eyes Only - featuring a similar restaurant; the world of curves and spheres a la Cineramas, geodesic domes, and other 60s archtecture.

Restaurant view: I actually made it this far on skiis.Carolyn and Michael on their way to lessons. The kids' slope was right off the restaurant terrace! I couldn't make out the German, but the motivating warm-up songs for the kids were strictly American folklore: cowboys (lasso gestures, "Yippee" calls) & Indians (wasn't PC). There was one number with a junk food chorus: "McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken!" Can you imagine how weird it was to hear 150 plus kids and parents yelling that in unison to a clown-leader?

In family-friendly Saas Fee, America seemed to be the object of cultural fantasy; elsewhere in the world, of intense scorn; two-sides of the same coin?

The hotel deck. When the sun came out, it was really spectacular. I skied one day, but it was drinks and WIFI the rest of the time, although my laptop use seemed to make these 30-paid-days-of-mandatory-vacation-Europeans nervous.Parting shot.

This woman's father built the hotel when she was a girl. You'd have to visit to see for yourself, but we enjoyed experiencing hospitality as a way of life for this family; not just business. You can see why some of the world's leading hotel management schools are in Switzerland.