Swiss Alps: Mountain views and hospitality in the illustrated book “Off to the Alps”

WHow big would Switzerland be if its surface could be smoothed out until it was reasonably as flat as the Netherlands, for example? There is an incredible amount of landscape in the folds of the Alps. When you drive on one of the pass roads in Switzerland or take one of the trains on routes that lead deep into and far up into the mountains, a new perspective opens up behind every bend and bend. An unexpected, surprising view of rock massifs or glaciers, in gorges or valleys, on villages and representative buildings. Each with their own special characteristics, lighting conditions and atmospheres.

Isabella and Mike Rabensteiner, she an author, he a photographer and both graphic designers, drove through the Alpine passes of Switzerland for their illustrated book “Off to the Alps – Switzerland”, their second book after the first “Off to the Alps” about Italy. The basis of these publications is their platform Montamont ATC, where the abbreviation stands for Alpine Travel Culture. Their concept of Alpine travel culture is a combination of the spectacular mountain topography with a comfort in the “urban spirit,” as it says in the foreword. “We are alpinists of a different kind,” is how Isabella Rabensteiner describes herself and all those for whom she and her husband curate hotels and restaurants that are characterized by a special charm – and often luxury.

Visiting these houses is of course always one of the hosts. These are encounters with people “who do not allow themselves to be deterred, even under impractical conditions, to maintain places that take us in, warm us and welcome us.” Later in the book it correctly says: “A hotel can become a home.” Switzerland in particular has a great grand hotel tradition in the Alps, which is still maintained. Partly by preserving the tried and tested, but again and again by redefining and interpreting hospitality in the mountains, where most people are exactly that: guests. In other words, connoisseurs traveling through the country, free from the hassles of an everyday Alpine existence.

But it’s not just the hotels and restaurants that make this trip worth it – even if it’s just by reading this book. But it is always the combination with the landscape. You rarely see individual buildings in the photographs – they are often ensembles or landscape panoramas of which the architecture has become a part. Mike Rabensteiner quite often takes photos out of the hotel windows to document what you see as a guest – that’s only the facade with the entrance for a very short time, upon arrival.

The tour goes from the east to the west of Switzerland, mountain pass by mountain pass, often by car and sometimes by train. And untouched nature is never actually visible in the photos. The Alps have long since largely been a cultural landscape and no longer a natural landscape; they are populated, opened up to traffic through numerous engineering feats, which often have their own inherent beauty.

In this book, the Alps are not an obstacle that makes traveling difficult. But an attraction. Which you can enjoy in very different ways: as a mountaineer on foot, on a racing bike, on skis, with a paraglider, as a passenger on a bus or train, by motorbike or car. Or simply, as it says at one point: “just with a good drink in your hand”.