Zermatt: 1984

When we arrived at this carless village, and I saw that the taxis were horse-drawn sleighs, I should have known. This wasn’t going to be a burger and brewski vacation. In those days the dollar was strong, and we were in the Mt. Cervin, a five-star hotel for $100 a day for both of us. The fee included two meals, afternoon tea, and all the resources of the hotel.

The first night I went to the dining room, the maître d said I needed a sport coat to enter. What? Well, I didn’t have one. He lent me a Tyrolean jacket with leather lapels for the night. Though I thought the regional jacket had character, it was expensive, so I bought a tweed coat in a local shop.

Was the food good? Take your best guess. It was outstanding with great service. One night a week the hotel served a grand buffet with guests coming in Black Tie. I wore my new sports jacket. Breakfasts featured every kind of egg, cold cut, cheese, cereal, and juice you could imagine.

The hotel had its own ski shop and storage place. In the evenings the Italian girls tuned down our beds and secretly left Swiss chocolates on our pillows. In the mornings you may wonder if we took the sleigh to the main lift, which was a distance from our hotel. What would you have done?