Hotel Bellevue des Alpes

For three summers in the 1930s, the terrace of the Bellevue des Alpes was the most macabre grandstand in Europe: the world's press gathered here with telescopes trained on the Eiger's north face, watching young men attempt — and frequently fail to survive — the last great problem of the Alps. The hotel itself has barely changed since. Perched at 2,061 metres on the Kleine Scheidegg pass and reachable only by rack railway, it has been run by the von Almen family since 1912, and its salons remain firmly, gloriously in the 1920s: no televisions, dinner at eight, the Eiger filling every window. Clint Eastwood filmed The Eiger Sanction here in 1975. 60 rooms, and the distinct sense that the twentieth century was merely a rumour from the valley.