007 Filming location: Goldfinger gold factory / Goldfinger (1964)

GOLDFINGER GOLD FACTORY

Bond movie: "Goldfinger" (1964)
Place and location in the movie: Switzerland
Actual place and location: Pilatus Aircraft Factory, Stans, Switzerland
What happens here in the movie: Bond (Sean Connery) investigates what Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) is planning to do
Visited by 007 Travelers: July 2014


The night shots when Bond infiltrates to the gold factory, were filmed at Pinewood Studios, England.

Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC

Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC

See the whole 007 Travel story here


See more 007 FILMING LOCATIONS (by countries) here

See more 007 FILMING LOCATIONS (by films) here

007 Event: On the tracks of 007 presents: OHMSS 50 in Portugal and Switzerland (25-26 May & 1-2 June 2019) - tickets available now

What: OHMSS 50 in Portugal and Switzerland
Where: Portugal and Switzerland
When: 25-26 May 2019 (Portugal) and 1-2 June 2019 (Switzerland)

Amazing On the tracks of 007.com and Martijn Mulder present "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) starring George Lazenby as James Bond 50th Anniversary event.

This fan event will take place in two countries and in two consecutive weekends.
Both individual tickets and combination tickets are available.
Special VIP tickets will include 5-star lodging and cover the whole event period.

Visit the beautiful Hotel Palácio and Casino in Estoril - where Ian Fleming got his inspiration for his very first Bond novel - together with friends from around the world!

Or visit breathtaking Piz Gloria on top of the Schilthorn for dinner and a spectacular live show by none other than Q The Music - the number one James Bond tribute band!
See the introduction of 007 Travelers here

Switzerland tour also includes one night in Hotel Schweizerhof Bern. See the introduction of 007 Travelers here

Or join the VIP Tour and visit both countries!

Source and photos: Martijn Mulder / onthetracksof007.com

See more here

See the Event Brochure here


See the introduction of permanent BOND WORLD 007 exhibition in Piz Gloria, Switzerland by 007 Travelers here

See more 007 EVENTS here

Range Rover Sport - Inferno Downhill Challenge - Schilthorn, Switzerland (Including VIDEO)

When picturing the Swiss Alps, the word “inferno” isn’t something that usually springs to mind. For those that know it though, the Schilthorn range in Mürren, Switzerland has been home to the Inferno Challenge since it was born in 1928. The event is the oldest surviving downhill ski race in the world and at 15km on a 2km vertical descent, it’s one of the longest and most challenging. 

Each year it’s tackled by 1,800 sportsmen and women who, this year, found themselves joined by an unusual new challenger; enter Range Rover Sport, with the direct aim of setting a course record for the fastest descent of a downhill ski race in summer.

Known for its speed and optimum performance, both on and off-road, Range Rover Sport was the perfect vehicle to attempt the very same course during the snow-free summer. Of course, a performance SUV on a challenge like this needs a performance driver and that’s where Ben Collins ("Quantum of Solace", 2008, "Skyfall", 2012, "SPECTRE", 2015) comes in.

Read more here

Scroll down for VIDEO

Source, photos and video: Range Rover

VIDEO:

See more OTHER 007 RELATED NEWS here

James Bond stunt driver races his Subaru WRX STI down an infamous Olympic bobsled run as part of terrifying high speed dare (Including VIDEO)

Mark Higgins, who was a stunt double for Daniel Craig in some of the most insane James Bond driving scenes ("Quantum of Solace", 2008, "Skyfall", 2012, "SPECTRE", 2015) , is filmed speeding down the 113-year-old track in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Scroll down for VIDEO

Source and photos: The Sun / Caranddriver

VIDEO: Subaru

Read more here

Photo © The Sun

Photo © The Sun

Photo © The Sun

Photo © Caranddriver

Photo © Caranddriver

Photo © Caranddriver

VIDEO:

Aston Martin DB11 - The new car of James Bond?

Aston Martin DB11 appears at Geneva Motor Show in March 2017 alongside the announcement of expansions to the Q range. Is this the new car of James Bond?

Source: TopGear 
Photos: Aston Martin


Q hasn’t been this busy since "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997). Aston Martin’s customisation department – with a name to match James Bond’s gadget man, if you need reminding – has shown to Top Gear its second car of the week. Following the Red Bull edition Vantage comes this, the first Q-ified Aston Martin DB11. It is fairly blue. Zaffre Blue, to be precise. Q has only touched the aesthetic stuff, so the DB11’s ace 600bhp V12 and lovely GT car manners are untouched.

So as well as specials like this, you’ll be able to design your own one-off car thanks to ‘Q by Aston Martin – Commission’.

“The only limit is your imagination – every new commission starts with a blank sheet of paper,” says Q boss Dr Matthew Bennett. The idea is we’ll see a number of “ultra-limited run series with features and design elements that are distinct to their regions and customers”. Things like the rather wonderful Aston Martin CC100 roadster.

See more here  

and read more about Geneva Motor Show

See more OTHER 007 RELATED NEWS here

50 years of Schilthorn - Piz Gloria special stamps

50 years of Schilthorn - Piz Gloria special stamps available!

(Without or with Interlaken Schilthorn Piz Gloria stamp)

A James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969, starring George Lazenby) was filmed in and around the imposing building on the Schilthorn summit. 

The two special stamps marking the 50th anniversary show the revolving restaurant and the cable car, each in front of the “Swiss skyline” taking in the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. The two sheetlets depict the complete route from the Stechelberg base station via Gimmelwald, Mürren and Birg to the Schilthorn summit. 

Source: WOPA World Online Philatelic Agency

Technical details of the special stamps:

Issue Date: 23.02.2017
Printer: Joh. Enschedé, Haarlem, Netherlands
Process: Offset
Colours: 4
Size: Stamps: 33×28 mm, Sheetlet: 192×95 mm (2 rows of 4 stamps)
Values: CHF 1.00

Order here

007 Travelers has visited Schilthorn Piz Gloria a couple of times. We highly recommend that experience for everyone! See our report of 007 WALK OF FAME, VIP OPENING.

007 Item: Switzerland 007 James Bond Schilthorn Cap

007 Item: Switzerland 007 James Bond Schilthorn Cap

See more 007 ITEMS here

007 Hotel is "LUXURY HOTEL OF THE YEAR 2017"

007 Hotel HOTEL SCHWEIZERHOF BERN ***** WINS "LUXURY HOTEL OF THE YEAR 2017" AT THE EUROPEAN LUXURY TRAVEL GUIDE AWARDS!

Location: Bern, Switzerland
Address: Bahnhofplatz 11
007 movie appearance:  Bond film "On Her Majesty´s Secret Service" (1969), starring George Lazenby, was partly filmed here
Visited by 007 Travelers: July 2014


 

The European Luxury Travel Guide Awards presented its awards for the year 2017 to top performers in the travel and tourism sector. The Hotel Schweizerhof Bern was awarded the title "Luxury Hotel of the Year 2017". The five-star superior Hotel Schweizerhof Bern is pleased to announce that it has won a new accolade. Every year, experts from the prestigious Luxury Travel Guide travel to the best hotels in the world to test them and evaluate their performance in various categories. For the year 2017, their five-person jury recognised the Hotel Schweizerhof Bern as the Luxury Hotel of the Year 2017.

For over 150 years, the Hotel Schweizerhof Bern has been the leading hotel in Switzerland’s capital city, attracting a demanding clientele of business and event visitors, and guests from Bern itself. Located at Bern’s most central location near the train station, the hotel blends classical grand tradition with contemporary flair, elegant design and world-class service.

Today the Hotel Schweizerhof Bern comprises 99 stylish rooms and suites, the 800 m² Bel Etage including the Salon Trianon, a legendary ballroom appropriate for events of all kinds, Jack's Brasserie with its 14 Gault-Millau points, the modern Lobby Lounge Bar, a sophisticated Cigar Lounge, THE SPA with its 500 m² of luxurious wellness facilities, and the unique Sky Terrace.

Source and photo: Media release of Hotel Schweizerhof Bern

007 Travelers has also visited this 007 hotel, see more here


See also: 
007 Travelers reported earlier that HOTEL SCHWEIZERHOF BERN RECOGNISED AS "SWITZERLAND'S LEADING BUSINESS HOTEL 2016" AT WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS.

Bond hotel won: Hotel Schweizerhof Bern World Travel Awards

MEDIA RELEASE


HOTEL SCHWEIZERHOF BERN RECOGNISED AS "SWITZERLAND'S LEADING BUSINESS HOTEL 2016" AT WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS


Bern, 6th September 2016 - On Sunday, 4th


September 2016, a number of outstanding achievements in the travel and tourism industry were recognised at the World Travel Awards Europe Gala in Sardinia. The Hotel Schweizerhof Bern won top honours in the category "Switzerland's Leading Business Hotel".

The five-star superior Hotel Schweizerhof Bern is adding another award to its long list of
accolades. At the 23rd edition of the prestigious World Travel Awards, Bern’s legendary
hotel was nominated in two categories, "Switzerland's Leading Business Hotel" and "Switzerland's Leading Hotel Suite”, and in the first of these categories, the Schweizerhof won first place, besting five competing nominees. "We are very proud to have won this prestigious award as Switzerland's Leading Business Hotel," said General Manager Iris Flückiger. “It encourages us to keep on focusing on exceeding our guests' wishes.”


The Hotel Schweizerhof, located at Bern’s most central address, offers 11 rooms totaling
some 800 m2 in area that are ideal settings for a wide variety of occasions from meetings
and seminars to conferences and banquets. The centrepiece is the 350 m2 Salon Trianon,
a listed ballroom featuring impressive stucco ceilings, imposing marble columns and
chandeliers in the original Belle Epoque design. The three smaller salons, I to III, offer a
unique atmosphere as well for meetings and celebrations of all kinds. Featuring state-of-
the-art equipment, the hotel’s meeting rooms provide solutions tailored to meet all the
needs of a contemporary workplace. The hotel’s technology was completely upgraded in
2015 to guarantee that guests have access to infrastructure of the highest quality.


Since April 2015, some 150,000 honeybees have also been staying at the Hotel Schweizerhof Bern, housed in three "mini-hotels" on the roof terrace, where they produce the hotel’s own “Sky Deluxe” honey. The hotel is contributing toward the survival of
honeybees and promoting ecological balance.


For more information about the World Travel Awards ceremony, see
www.worldtravelawards.com.
Hotel Schweizerhof Bern
Daniel Huggenberger, PR & Communications Coordinator
Bahnhofplatz 11, 3001 Bern
T +41 31 313 70 94
F +41 31 326 80 83
E-Mail: daniel.huggenberger@schweizerhof-bern.ch

www.schweizerhof-bern.ch

007 Travelers congratulates!


Hotel Schweizerhof Bern is also a Bond hotel. Outside and inside shots were filmed there when George Lazenby starred as James Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1969. 007 Travelers was lucky enough to visit this hotel in 2014. See the introduction of this splendid hotel by 007 Travelers here. 

007 Hotel: Mirto au Lac

MIRTO AU LAC (CLOSED)

Location: Brissago, Switzerland
Address: Viale Lungolago 2
Bond book appearance: "Nobody Lives For Ever" (1986)
Visited by 007 Travelers: July 2015

"But when the red-brown roofs of the lakeside villages came in sight, Bond began to laugh. Suddenly his gloom lifted and he recognised his own pettiness.

Though his favourite part of the country lay around Geneva, Bond also loved this corner of Switzerland that rubbed shoulders with Italy. As a young man he had lazed around the shores of Lake Maggiore, eaten some of the best meals of his life in Locarno, and once, on a hot moonlit night, with the waters off Brissago alive with lamp-lit fishing boats, in the very ordinary little hotel by the pier, had made unforgettable love to an Italian countess.

It was to this hotel, the Mirto du Lac, that he now drove. It was a simple family place, below the church with its arcade of cypresses, and near the pier where the lake steamers put in every hour.

As Bond left his room to go down to the bar in the corner of the restaurant, a black Series 3 Porsche 911 crept quietly into the forecourt and parked with its nose thrust towards the lake. Its occupant climbed out, locked the car and walked with neat little steps back the way he had driven, up towards the church.

It was some ten minutes later that the people at the tables and in the hotel bar heard the repeated piercing screams. The steady murmur of conversation faded as it became obvious the screams were not part of some lighthearted game. These were shrieks of terror. Several people in the bar started towards the door. Some men outside were already on their feet, others were looking around to see where the noise was coming from. Bond was among those who hurried outside. The first thing he saw was the Porsche. Then a woman, her face white and her hair flying, her mouth stretched wide in a continuous scream, came running down the steps from the churchyard. Her hands kept going to her face, then wringing the air, then clutching her head. She was shouting, ‘Assassinio! Assassinio!’ – Murder – as she pointed back to the churchyard."

John Gardner: "Nobody Lives For Ever" (1986)









See the whole travel story here

See more 007 HOTELS (visited) here

007 Travel story: Lake Maggiore (ITALY & SWITZERLAND) 2015

In order to read our Italy 007 travel story from day one, click here. 

Saturday 1 August 2015

After breakfast in Mürren, we also visited Hotel Eiger to meet the staff. We have visited there before, see our hotel introduction here.


Then 007 Travelers (Pirita, Mika and Little Agent Traveler) continued from Switzerland back to Italy.


Traveling by car

From: Stechelberg, Switzerland
To: Maccagno, Italy
Toll charges: 0,00 EUR
Road tax: 40,00 EUR (Must be payed once while driving in Switzerland) 

We had lunch in Locarno´s Ristorante Lungolago, at Via Bramantino 1. In Locarno Bond has eaten the best meals of his life, according to John Gardner´s Bond book "Nobody Lives for Ever" (1986). All quotes in this travel story are from that book.

Good food!

Beautiful, isn´t it!

Then we continued towards Maccagno.



Maccagno

About:

Maccagno con Pino e Veddasca is a comune in the province of Varese, in Lombardy, that will be formed in 25 May 2014 from fusion of the communes of Maccagno, Pino sulla Sponda del Lago Maggiore and Veddasca. A referendum to create this comune was held on 1 December 2013. The referendum was passed with 77% yes and 33% no votes.












We reached our hotel, which was really nice!

Accommodation

Hotel: Albergo Paradiso ***
Address: Via Giuseppe Verdi 5, 21010 Maccagno Superiore, Italia
Booked: Via booking.com
Price: 98,33 EUR / 1 night
City tax: 0,00 EUR / person / night
Breakfast: Included
Wi-Fi: Free
Parking: Free, reservation needed
Check-in:11.00 - 22.00
Check-out: 06.00 - 10.00
Room type: Triple room, 16m2

We got room number 10, which was on first floor. 

The room had a big and great bathroom, which we really liked!

Little Agent Traveler tested hotel´s swimming pool and enjoyed a lot.

Later during the evening we drove between Italy and Switzerland. We drove to Brissago, which is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Brissago lies on the western shore of Lake Maggiore and includes the Brissago Islands.


There we took photos of Hotel Mirto au Lac where Bond stays in book "Nobody Lives For Ever" (1986) and has stayed earlier also. Hotel was closed when we visited there.
The hotel´s address is Viale Lungolago 2. 
.

Lake Maggiore (Italian: Lago Maggiore, lit. 'Greater Lake') is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest lake in Italy and the largest in southern Switzerland. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy and the Swiss canton of Ticino. Located halfway between Lake Orta and Lake Lugano, Lake Maggiore extends for about 65 kilometres (40 miles) between Locarno and Arona.

"But when the red-brown roofs of the lakeside villages came in sight, Bond began to laugh. Suddenly his gloom lifted and he recognised his own pettiness.

Though his favourite part of the country lay around Geneva, Bond also loved this corner of Switzerland that rubbed shoulders with Italy. As a young man he had lazed around the shores of Lake Maggiore, eaten some of the best meals of his life in Locarno, and once, on a hot moonlit night, with the waters off Brissago alive with lamp-lit fishing boats, in the very ordinary little hotel by the pier, had made unforgettable love to an Italian countess.

It was to this hotel, the Mirto du Lac, that he now drove. It was a simple family place, below the church with its arcade of cypresses, and near the pier where the lake steamers put in every hour.

As Bond left his room to go down to the bar in the corner of the restaurant, a black Series 3 Porsche 911 crept quietly into the forecourt and parked with its nose thrust towards the lake. Its occupant climbed out, locked the car and walked with neat little steps back the way he had driven, up towards the church.

It was some ten minutes later that the people at the tables and in the hotel bar heard the repeated piercing screams. The steady murmur of conversation faded as it became obvious the screams were not part of some lighthearted game. These were shrieks of terror. Several people in the bar started towards the door. Some men outside were already on their feet, others were looking around to see where the noise was coming from. Bond was among those who hurried outside. The first thing he saw was the Porsche. Then a woman, her face white and her hair flying, her mouth stretched wide in a continuous scream, came running down the steps from the churchyard. Her hands kept going to her face, then wringing the air, then clutching her head. She was shouting, ‘Assassinio! Assassinio!’ – Murder – as she pointed back to the churchyard."

Then we drove to Cannobio, which is is a town and comune on Lago Maggiore in Piedmont, Italy.  

There we walked on a square and had dinner in Restaurant Jello.

Of course we visited Bond places such as where Bond is supposed to pick up Bond girl Principessa Sukie Tempesta's friend Nannette "Nannie" Norrich in front of church Madonna della Pieta.

"Bond nodded, indicating that she should tell him her problem.

‘I’ve an old school friend in Cannobio, just along the coast . . .’

‘Yes, I know Cannobio, a one-horse Italian holiday resort. Picturesque in a touristy kind of way. Not far.’

‘I’m afraid I told her we’d pick her up on our way through. I was meant to meet her last night. She’s waiting at that rather lovely church on the lakeside – the Madonna della Pietà. She’ll be there from noon onwards.’

He had no wish to go into Italy at all, and from what he could recall of the centre of Cannobio, it was the perfect place for a set-up. The lakeside road and the front of the Madonna della Pietà were always busy, for Cannobio was a thriving industrial centre as well as holidaymakers’ paradise. The square in front of the church was ideal territory for one man, or a motorcycle team, to make a kill. Was Sukie, knowingly or not, putting him on the spot?

There was a lot of activity going on around the Madonna della Pietà when they arrived. Standing by a small suitcase, looking supremely elegant, was a very tall young woman with hair the colour of a moonless night, pulled back into a severe bun."

Then it was time to drive back to our hotel, and go to sleep after this wonderful and beautiful day.


The next morning we had breakfast and it was time to move on.

Our next 007 Travel story: Back to Milan! 


See more 007 TRAVEL STORIES here