• 100 Top Swiss Restaurants • Zürich's Kronenhalle • Europe Travel Briefs GEMüTLICHKEIT The Travel Letter for Germany, Austria, Switzerland & the New Europe INSIDE: • Wengen Hotels DEAR SUBSCRIBER WENGEN Though it's a town that exists solely on tourism, Wengen's storybook setting, traffic-free Going in Style streets and excellent accommodations make it one of Europe's great hideaways. Like the Pope and the Dalai Lama, my life is guided f ever there is a have the Lauterbrunnen there are a few vehicles by a few simple precepts. convention to Valley. Impossibly used for various mainte- One of them is never eat beef I pick the most beautiful is the best we nance chores around can do to describe it . in an airplane. I don’t care scenic place on town, but essentially the what they tell you on those earth, we volunteer to There are only three village is blessedly free microwave cooking shows, make the nominating ways to get to Wengen: by of auto traffic. radar can’t cook meat. But speech for Wengen. The helicopter, via train or Take advantage of there I was at 37,000 feet village sits on a ledge, you can walk from the Wengen in the off- tucking into a lovely, pink, about 1,500 feet above a town of Lauterbrunnen season (March to early thick, juicy filet served with most spectacular gouge in (about an hour and a June and late August to the earth, the Lauterbrun- wild rice and an amazingly half). By far the most November), hotel prices nental, a steep-sided, tasty morel mushroom sauce. popular method of are substantially lower. gloriously green valley. It was the best airline meal in transport is the 15-minute Looming above the town train ride from In winter, of course, recent memory. Who did it? is a 270-degree panorama Wengen is ski country, Swissair, of course. Los Lauterbrunnen, leaving of some of the world's your car in the multi-story mostly downhill. In Angeles to Geneva, Zürich to most famous peaks: the garage near the spring, summer and fall, Los Angeles, our high opinion Jungfrau, the Mönch, the Lauterbrunnen railway walking/hiking is the of this airline was bolstered and the Schilthorn, most station. major activity. every step of the way. From of which glitter with ice Within their price the fast, smooth check-in to By now you have and snow the year round. categories the hotels we speedy luggage retrieval — in deduced that Wengen is Arrange them nicely saw in Wengen were both directions — we have around Yosemite and you free of automobiles — oh, nary a complaint. People who Continued on page 3 tell me the Swiss are cold and unfriendly have never met ZÜRICH: A MINI-REPORT Swissair flight attendants. On On a short visit to Zürich we return to the Hotel Florhof, long a Gemütlichkeit favorite, find the endless return flight we interesting shopping on both sides of the Limmat and have a good meal at a Zürich institution. were shown three movies: Scent of a Woman, Chaplin ürich, we have In Gemütlichkeit's ing its way into con- and Consenting Adults. concluded, is an three countries the major sciousness for the past Naturally the transatlantic Z under-rated cities most visited by our couple of years: Zürich Legion of Decency had town. Its readers seem to be is a town worth a lot whacked out even the mildest reputation is as a cold- Munich, Vienna and more attention than swear words but it helped hearted banker's town Berlin. we've been giving it. catering only to the rich pass the time on an 11-hour Perhaps those three It offers some who come to deposit or plus flight. would be our favorites, excellent city walking, withdraw large sums too (though not in that window shopping and from numbered bank Good food? Flight order), but a brief Zürich people watching on both accounts and parade attendants that actually attend stopover earlier this sides of the river. If down Bahnhofstrasse in to passengers? I grant you month reinforced a notion Zürich is your final stop full-length fur coats. that's been slowly gnaw- Continued on page 2 Continued on page 6 Gemütlichkeit April, 1993 DEAR SUBSCRIBER 'Vickie Young' Scores Again together will have more trunk space and Continued from page 1 While we're on the subject of excel- more passenger space for less money in lence, earlier this month we were fortunate an Opel Omega, Ford Scorpio or VW these are definitely airline innovations of enough to again find ourselves at the Passat. the 1990s, but Swissair isn’t stopping Victoria Jungfrau in Interlaken. We used Car Rental Nightmare there. By the time this reaches you, it as a base to explore the Jungfrau region passengers in their first class cabins will of the Bernese Oberland. Two nights in Here's a story to give one pause. It be able to choose movies prior to their the hotel's La Terrasse Restaurant was told to me by a Gemütlichkeit flight and, once on board, swing their reaffirm its place among the best restau- subscriber who rented a car in Germany very own video screen out of the armrest rants we've reviewed (Gemütlichkeit, Feb. and drove it to Hungary. His first day in slot and view their very own film(s) in the '93) in the past 18 months. As you know, the country the car was stolen leaving privacy of their very own seat. This is an blue jeans are our preferred dinner attire, a him with the cars keys and nothing else. innovation most of us will never experi- predilection that winds us up in the bistros Our subscriber had taken the precaution ence, unless we rack up a ton of frequent and gasthausen of Germany, Austria and of purchasing Collision Damage Waiver flyer miles. But it is evidence of this Switzerland. But about once a week in the insurance so he owes the car rental airline's real commitment to being the course of the trip, a little candlelight, a company nothing. However, the trunk best. Frankly, I think they are. good bottle of wine and some haute was full of luggage and his estimated cuisine are in order. For this we have to loss of personal belongings is near Inexpensive Business Class dress up. I put on a tie, Liz wears nylons. $7,000, which is not covered by any One of the best travel deals around is As we were leaning back in our chairs at rental car insurance. Had he used a the "Relax Class" on Swissair's charter La Terrasse, after a particularly satisfying credit card to pay for his rental and cover subsidiary, Balair. I have spoken to engorgement, Liz gave the food the the CDW he still would not have been subscribers who fly Balair year after year. highest possible praise when she said it covered for the theft of his belongings. They get same big, comfortable seats and was worth the tie and the nylons. pampering in-flight service as aboard That set me to worrying about driving scheduled carriers. Balair flies the new What to Drive around Europe with cameras, camcorders and laptop computers in the Airbus 310/325 from Newark, Orlando, Over-priced and over-rated as rental trunk. I was relieved to learn that as part Miami, Bangor, San Francisco and cars in our view are the Mercedes Benz of my homeowners policy, my insurance Anchorage. High-season economy 190 and the BMW 316i or 318i. They are company, United Services Automobile roundtrip from Newark is $660, Relax typically more than double the price of an Association, does provide worldwide Class is $1,040. From San Francisco Opel Astra or VW Golf but don't come coverage for such losses. Whether that prices are $890 and $1,450; from Florida, close to delivering twice the value. In fact, is a standard feature of most such $840 and $1240; from Anchorage $996 they are only marginally more satisfactory. policies, I do not know, but my advice is and $1,440 and from Bangor there is no Trunk space in both categories of cars is to find out if you are covered, well in Relax Class service, only coach at $720. about the same (14 cubic feet), the MBZ advance of any European trips, particu- There are discounts for children and in and BMW do have more power, better larly those that include countries where some cases shoulder season prices are road handling and are heavier cars but not automobile theft is more common than it slightly lower. Service is weekly. Phone enough, in our opinion, to justify the extra is in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 800/322-5247. expense. Three or four persons traveling Rating Key - Hotel Vol. 7, No. 4 I Basic accommodationsRATING or a hotel KEY: that underachieves. Suitable only April, 1993 GEMüTLICHKEIT The Travel Letter for Germany, Austria, Switzerland & the New Europe for stays of one or two nights. II Good hotel, typical of its class. Suitable for a longer stay. III A cut above other hotels in its price category. Editor & Publisher: ....................... Robert H. Bestor, Jr. IV Excellent accommodations. Associate Editors: .......................... E. Schiller, L. Troop V A great hotel, world-class, could be a memorable experience. Contributing Editors: .............. C. Fischer, R. Holliday Restaurants Design & Composition: ................ Paul T. Merschdorf ❖ Acceptable meals, but only if the price is right. Consulting Editor: ............................. Thomas P. Bestor ❖❖ Good food but not good value, overpriced. Subscription Dept: ........... Andrew Bestor, K. Steffans ◆ Serves good, plain food, typical of the region.