Location
This revolving panoramic restaurant, Piz Gloria, was the setting for many of the scenes in the 1969 James Bond 007 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Piz Gloria is located on top of Schilthorn, a 2,970 metre high summit in the Bernese Oberland. In the film the building was Blofeld's clinical research institute, and Bond spends some time there, eventually destroying the whole place. In real life though, the Bond production team actually helped financing the completion of the unique revolving restaurant and the helicopter landing platform.
Piz Gloria is not only a major Bond location, but has the longest aerial cableway in the Alps providing stunning panoramic views over Switzerland. Over 200 mountain peaks are revealed as the world's first revolving mountaintop restaurant slowly turns.
The revolving restaurant offers 400 seats, arranged on two revolving solar-powered platforms. Here you can order the legendary private://Martini, shaken not stirredprivate:// or enjoy the special James Bond breakfast, served daily from 08.00 to 11.00 am. The Touristorama displays extracts from the Bond-movie. A famous black ski run featured in the film starts at the summit and leads down to the Engetal below Birg. During the Winter the Schilthorn is the start for the world longest traditional down hill ski race the private://Infernoprivate:// which started in 1928.
To get to the Schilthorn from the valley floor a series of cable cars must be taken. The cable cars begin in Stechelberg leaving to Gimmelwald and then onto Mürren. From Mürren another cable car is taken to Birg, which is the final change before the Schilthorn. This cable airway is the longest and was the most technically challenging airway to be built. The other way up is to take the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp and a train to Murren, from where the cable car must be taken. Between Birg and the summit, the cable car passes over Grauseeli, a small lake. It is also possible to hike to the peak, along the myriad of small, but well-marked paths to the top. The hike to the top takes roughly 5 hours from Gimmelwald for an experienced hiker.
