The people of Saas Fee didn’t want their beautiful village to change too much
To get to Saastal, jump on a flight to Geneva. Take a train along Lake Geneva and admire the waters of deepest blue. When you disembark in Visp, you will be in the Saas region, with the guttural sounds of the Swiss-German dialect around you. Leave the station and hop aboard a bright yellow Post Auto (bus). Choose a window seat, or even better, sit just behind the driver so you can share the beautiful panorama through his windshield.
The bus route winds through the mountains. Hold on tight, but don’t worry. Your driver is used to this kind of road. You will see waterfalls cascading down them, and a fast-moving river below. Villages lie in the valleys, clusters of chalets with shutters and sloping roofs, sheltered by towering mountain ranges. The bus gives a long toot of its horn as it rounds the bends in small tunnels. Soon you will find yourself traveling through the charming villages of Saas Balen and Saas Grund. The bus fills up with hikers and continues upward to Saas Fee, the main village and the tourist capital of Saas Valley.
The Saastal, or Saas Valley, is surrounded by a ring of 18 mountains over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) in height. It used to be hard to get there, but in 1951, a road was built to the Saas villages. This brought many more guests. The first tourists were Alpinists (mountain climbers) who loved the challenge of climbing the high mountains. Then came the skiers. By now, all kinds of sports adventures are popular in the area.
Tourists brought money and new life into the region. But the people of Saas Fee didn’t want their beautiful village to change too much. So they decided that the new road could stop right there, at the entrance. Until today, you can drive down the mountain road, past Saas Balen and Saas Grund, but you will have to park your car at the entrance to Saas Fee. Leave it in the massive parking lot, and walk into a Swiss mountain village that seems to have been frozen in time. Little carts called “electros” appear every so often, riding slowly down the streets to deliver suitcases or crates of drinks. They can also be used as taxis, but pedestrians rule the streets, walking unhurriedly in the middle of the road.
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