Yesterday’s World

In a valley 2 1/2 hours from Zurich, time has taken a holiday. It is dawn, with the soothing sounds of a brook flowing past my window and the voice of a bird in a linden tree. Otherwise the world is as silent as a cloud that scuds across the morning horizon.

Cradled between Grindelwald and Gstaad, Kandersteg is a mountain village whose meadows stretch to infinity and whose Alpine peaks soar into heavens as blue as the lakes below.

The Waldhotel Doldenhorn backs up flush against a mountain, so that the sun rises over the Allmenalp and settles behind the Blumlisalp. Built originally for railroad workers, the little chalet-style hotel is an Alpine delight whose rooms are as snug as an eiderdown on a wintry night.

During summer, geraniums flow from planters and window boxes, and wrought-iron lamps surround the terrace where guests gather to sip espresso and Swiss wines while sunning themselves on warm summer days. Sofas are scattered across a salon near a chess set and an antique cart brimming over with books. In another corner stands a piano and a hutch filled with rare wines.

The lazy ticking of a grandfather clock sets the mood.

Just as Kandersteg is in an extraordinary valley, the Waldhotel Doldenhorn is a remarkable shelter whose restaurant is rated one of Switzerland’s best. Unpretentious, the Waldhotel Doldenhorn is barely a mile from the center of the village and a chairlift that delivers vacationers to a mountain station for a 20-minute hike through a forest and Alpine meadows framed by snowy peaks to the Oeschinensee, which is a lake with a couple of small hotels and decks for outdoor dining. Rooms in one of the dormitories are without grace, but the setting is stunning and the price figures out to barely $13 a night.

In the valley below, Kandersteg is one of those timeless Swiss villages with a tiny church dating from the 16th Century and farmhouses hundreds of years old, along with a number of fair to excellent hotels.

During summer one may skate on artificial ice, fish in the lakes and streams, attend classical concerts and hike over an endless network of trails for both beginners and serious Alpine adventurers.

Postal buses deliver hikers to peaks and valleys, or there are gondolas and chairlifts that deposit them on trails above the timberline.

A dozen miles southeast of Kandersteg, the Gasterntal Valley is barely touched by civilization. The narrow road between Kandersteg and the Gasterntal Valley is carved out of sheer rock. Cliffs fall away hundreds of feet, so that cars and postal buses move cautiously until they reach this pristine valley with its 11,000-foot mountains and magnificent waterfalls. Few places on earth offer the tranquillity and awesome silence of this valley with its jagged peaks and glacial rivers.

Only seven rooms are available at the modest Hotel Gasterntal, none with bath, although breakfast is included in the $16-a-night rate. It’s even more primitive at the four-room Hotel Waldhaus where candles and kerosene burn in place of electricity. What’s more, there is no hot water, no TV.

Scene of Snowy Peaks

The world outside its door is a scene of snowy peaks and a river along whose banks vacationers picnic on sunny days.

Summer visitors from Kandersteg hike to the Gasterntal Valley with its meadows filled with wildflowers and later return to their hotels on the postal bus.

Others ride a tram and a chairlift to Sunnbuhl and a warming hut for a splendid view of Kandersteg in the valley far below. After this, hikers follow a trail to the Gemmi Pass and a haunting view of the Matterhorn and a world that appears to have been created only a whisper ago.

Charles Dickens was overcome by what he saw:

Vast plains of snow range up the mountainsides, and tremendous waterfalls go thundering down from precipices into deep chasms, the blue water tearing through the white snow with an awful beauty that is most sublime. . . . Oh God! What a beautiful country it is!

Kandersteg lies at the north end of one of the longest tunnels in the Alps, the Loetschberg, and often when it is raining in Kandersteg the weather is clear on the other side of the mountain, so that hikers ride the train to Goppenstein at the opposite end of the tunnel and take the 10-minute bus ride to Kippel. That’s a village wedged in the Lotschenthal Valley, which holds the dubious distinction of being pummeled by the greatest number of avalanches of all the valleys of Switzerland.

Untouched by Time

With 400- and 500-year-old houses, Kippel, like the Gasterntal Valley, appears untouched by time. Roman coins have been discovered in its meadows and the village’s first church, which was founded by feudal lords, dates from AD 233.

Chalets appear on wooded hillsides and public water troughs are fed by streams that flow eternally from peaks surrounding Kippel.

Cattle, sheep and goats wander through the streets, and occasionally ice thunders off a mountain. It is a village caught in a time warp. Due to a declining death rate in the last century, the population has doubled, although still it figures out to less than 500 souls.

Kippel was without electricity until several years ago, and even today plumbing is a luxury.

One is considered a foreigner unless one is born in Kippel or is married to a local, and even after the marriage often it is years before villagers forget that one came as a stranger.

Arnold Niederer arrived a quarter of a century ago from Zurich “and I’m still considered a foreigner.”

Local Watering Hole

This isn’t to say that Kippel is unfriendly. Only cautious as well as jealous of its separation from a world that, to these gentle souls, seems to have gone mad with its crime and crowded cities and nuclear terror.

The only beer stube in town is operated by bus driver Hugo Rieder, his wife Hedwig and daughter Hildegard. Rough-hewn tables and chairs are sheltered by stone walls; lamps dangle from a beamed ceiling, casting yellow light on a crucifix above the bar.

When asked when the village was founded, Rieder shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps 900 years ago.”

His family has lived in Kippel for generations. “I am not really sure how long. Generations. Yes, we have just always been here.”

As we turned to go, his daughter waved from behind the bar. “Ciao, “ she said. “Come back.”

Visitors who get tipsy at Herr Rieder’s bierstube spend the night at the little 22-room Hotel Loetschberg where the scale for a room runs from $25 to about $65 a night, double.

Skiing and Curling

Back in Kandersteg, hotel operators feature cross-country skiing in winter along with curling and horse-drawn sleigh rides. Other thrill-seekers soar across the valley borne by kites that are launched off 2,000-foot ledges, a sport not to be confused with hang gliding.

Kite gliding, if you would believe the lithesome lady instructor, is safer than hang gliding, although the receptionist at a local hotel waved a broken arm she suffered as the result of an ungraceful landing. It takes 20 jumps to qualify and the tab figures out to around $325. After this the idea is to buy your own kite and go leap off mountains by yourself.

Vacationers weary from daytime activities take in concerts at the Congress Hall while others pack Kandersteg’s only disco, the High Moon.

In the old days Kandersteg attracted film stars and crowned heads. Then these celebrities discovered Gstaad. Now Gstaad gets the diamond-and-ermine bunch and Kandersteg corrals the casual crowd, along with serious hikers and cross-country skiers. The villagers, bless them, have preserved Kandersteg’s Swiss character. There’s not a single high-rise in sight, which unfortunately isn’t the case with such destinations as Gstaad and Grindelwald and places like Zermatt.

In predawn hours last fall I listened to a melody of cowbells as farmers herded their cattle from Alpine pastures to the safety of the valley, a ritual that is reversed each springtime as the cattle are returned to their Alpine retreats.

Until 1850 Kandersteg was virgin territory for purists seeking uncharted lakes and peaks. Only one five-bed inn existed. With the arrival of the Loetschberg railway the village developed until today a string of inns and small hotels is scattered across the valley.

An Ex-Cobbler’s Shop

Eight rooms are up for bid at the 233-year-old chalet-style Ruedihaus. At Hotel Alpenrose, an ex-cobbler’s shop that has been in the same family since 1914, guests fish from a narrow bridge over the Kander River. The Edelweiss is another eight-room hotel whose dining room features a beamed ceiling, hanging lamps and loads of Old World charm.

With 78 rooms, the Victoria & Ritter, which has been doing business since 1789, is Kandersteg’s largest hotel. A copper bin near the door is filled with canes for hikers; guests do laps in a heated pool and there’s a roomy lounge that’s perfect for snoozing on a rainy day.

Without question, Kandersteg’s slickest hotel is the 35-room Royal Bellevue with both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis, riding and a garden that’s like sunbathing in a park under the spell of the Blumlisalp. In addition, the hotel operates a yacht on Lake Thun.

Proprietor Albert Rikli insists that the Royal Bellevue is “the smallest hotel of the leading hotels of the world.” And he’s deadly serious. Persian carpets are scattered about the public rooms, chandeliers glitter in the dining room (gentlemen are required to wear jackets and ties in the evening), antique tapestries grace the walls and a fireplace glows in the Royal Bellevue’s bar-lounge. Rikli’s hotel features tiled baths with his and her sinks, gilt-edge mirrors, heated towel racks and Louis XVI appointments.

While it is impossible to fault the Royal Bellevue--a Rockefeller or perhaps Prince Charlie would relish it--my own preference is the less pretentious Waldhotel Doldenhorn with its brook that flows past the door, its grandfather clock and the cart that’s filled with good books.

Accommodations (high season with bed, breakfast, dinner):

--Waldhotel Doldenhorn, $56 single, $79 double.

--Ruedihaus Hotel, $34 single, $63 double.

--Hotel Alpenrose, $31 single, $66 double.

--Hotel Edelweiss, $30 single, $53 double.

--Victoria & Ritter, $62 single, $106 double.

--Royal Bellevue, $110 single, $163 double.

Note: These are minimum prices (subject to change due to the fluctuation of the dollar).

For other information about Switzerland, write to the Swiss National Tourist Office, 250 Stockton St., San Francisco 94108 or telephone (415) 362-2260.