Oops, I did it again, punching the publish button in stead of the save button.
For the last 8 glouriously sunny days I have been skiing around in the Bettmeralp region. Villa Cassel is standing there in the midst of a ski slope at the edge of the UNESCO World Heritage site Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.
Currently Villa Cassel is the home of Pro Natura.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Villa Cassel was built to be the chic summer residence of the rich Englishman, Sir Ernest Cassel.
After Cassel’s death the house was run as a hotel from 1924 to 1969.
You can follow its history at the Pro Natura.
The 25 room mansion was built there at a hight of approximately 1700 m with all the building material and interior being transported merely by man craft and mules, Imagine the piano being transported that way.
Among the guests there used to stay many well known people. The young Winston Churchill stayed there at least four times. He used the time spent there writing, including the biography of his father.
A daughter of Cassel was the later lady Edwina Mountbatten.
After the exploitation as a hotel ceased in 1969, Villa Cassel hardly escaped demolition. The historic building was bought and rebuilt for more than three million Swiss Francs by Pro Natura, formerly called “Schweizer Bund für Naturschutz”, Switzerland’s nature conservation organization.
On July 10, 1976, it was re-opened and inaugurated as the conservation center for the Aletsch forest.
In the summer it has extensive opening times, but during the winter only one afternoon in the week. I’ll have to see whether I am able to visit it.
Last year I promised already to disclose this mystery home.
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Cultural Travel
We’ve arrived at our Holiday destination, Bettmeralp. Their slogan is aptly chosen: The Better Alp. We’re staying at a brand new apartment which we share it with long time friends. In the adjacent apartment another long time friend couple is staying. The photo shows the view from our south-east facing balconies.
I’ve brought my new Eee Asus Netbook to keep my readers informed and have already teased some twitter followers that I’m blogging in luxury and have started training sipping some beer for the anticipated UK – NL beer contest in Berlin half March during a travel blogger get together at ITB Berlin..
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With Spain we have a worthy European Football Champion now that it defeated Germany with 1-0.
In Basel the Dutch team lost from the Russians under a Dutch coach.
Yesterday The Swiss City of Basel thanked the Dutch Football fans in an ad of a whole page in a Dutch Newspaper for the good time they had in Basel and asks to send photos and stories to their Basel 2008 Football site under the Tag: “Basel, more than 90 minutes”. Those who do can win a stay in Basel in a 5 star hotel.
Now this is an exemplary way of marketing a city!
Update July 2, 2008:
And here is a link to a promotional video of the city of Basel which shows many weeping woman who would like to see the football fans back under the tag: “We would like to see you back! Discover the Swiss + (Plus)”. Alluding to the cross in the Swiss flag.
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According to Tjebbe, who initiated this media project to get Muslims united with the Dutch soccer team, and Dutch people with their neighbors, this will be the T-Shirt of choice for the Dutch Football Fans who will visit the 2008 EK Football (European Soccer Championship) that starts today in Switzerland and Austria.
The statement in it is that the usual war cry from the Dutch Football (or soccer for our American friends) is “Aanvallen” or more vernacular “Aanvalluh”. Tjebbe made the connection with Allah.
Lacking participating football teams from the UK, the Dutch have convinced the UK football fans to endorse the Dutch Team as the team to yell for according to a Guardian Poll. So they will have an orange lion on their shirts.
We will wait and see. It will be a hot summer.
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Dutch Design
Hilarious Quote on T-Shirt
Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs are Italian, the Mechanics German, the lovers French and it is all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the police are German, the chefs British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss and it is all organized by the Italians.
Unfortunately for the creator I forgot where I found this.
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Quote of the Day
Well not really under, but more on the rocks with a lot of snow:
We spent our annual holiday on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. Skiing away with nice fresh snow and gorgeous weather. I must admit I was on the verge of posting here. However, I chose to have some more quality time with the family. I even played some chess and started to remember some long forgotten openings and off course due to this rustiness lost a couple of games. I learned in the meantime of the sad early death of former World Champion Bobby Fisher who was a colorful chess player in his heydays.
The slopes were located in the vicinity of this old villa.
It has an interesting history. Was built in the beginning of last century. Served as hotel for over 45 years, but has now another destination after an extensive renovation in the seventies.
I dare my readers to guess what the name of the villa is. Next week year more.
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