European Tour - Lucerne / Zurich (Switzerland)

After leaving Piz Gloria and Murren we then travelled, using the highly efficient Swiss train system, to Lucerne...

... followed by Zurich.

As far as I'm aware there are no "OHMSS" film locations in either of these cities and my hunt for further James Bond books to add to my collection proved fruitless.

 

However I was fortunate as our hotel in Zurich was just a stone's throw from the brilliant MovieArt shop.

After only a few seconds of entering the store, the owner Marcel greeted us.  I explained I collected Bond memorabilia and in particular "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I asked him what Bond movie memorabilia he had and he began to lead me around his store showing me original film posters, repro posters, press release items and framed signed photographs covering the entire Bond series.  

He then sifted through a box near the front entrance before pulling out these two original Swiss lobby cards of "OHMSS" from 1969.  I was stoked and immediately grabbed them.  I couldn't believe my luck, especially as he had mentioned before-hand he couldn't remember if they'd already been sold.

Myself, my wife and Mona departed the store after about half an hour, but I quickly returned.   During our earlier conversation Marcel had mentioned he may have some items from the newspaper.  Curious, on my return I asked him about these and he swiftly produced a large thick folder from which I also purchased these two great items; one in French and the other in German.  He had me hook, line and sinker !

Below are photos of the the newspaper items.  Both are really nice pieces and as you can see the first ad has space in the top right hand corner where the names of the Swiss cinemas screening the film could be inserted.

And when I finally left the store there were still several other designs available for this film in his  thick folder so if you're interested I'd definitely get in contact with the MovieArt store.  Again here's a link to the website. (And no I'm not receiving any commission for this blatant promotion, just helping out other fellow Bond collectors !).

Since my return to Australia I have done some investigation on the web and surprisingly it appears these are the only two lobby cards released for the film in Switzerland (but please let me know if I'm wrong).

After purchasing these two items, and an unrelated press ad for "Never Say Never Again" I left the store again.  I was rapt with my purchases.

On a strange note, since leaving Murren (and Schilthorn) it started to feel like I was seeing Piz Gloria everywhere.  Here's a photo of a smoke detector in our hotel in Lucerne, and the mountain logo on the Toblerone chocolate boxes that were everywhere suddenly started to look very familiar.

After leaving beautiful Switzerland we spent two nights in Singapore before returning home to Oz.  I found no Bond novels there though, but I've since learnt I should have visited "Kinokuniya Bookstore". O'h well... there's always next time !

European Tour - Piz Gloria (Switzerland) - Part 2

After walking around the Piz Gloria surrounds (see Part 1) we next ventured back inside to "The Bond Shop" and what an exciting place it was.  Last time I saw this much Bond merchandise was in the gift shop at the conclusion of the "Designing 007 - 50 Years Of Bond Style" Exhibition in Melbourne 2013.  And Mr Lazenby was everywhere.

Many of the shop walls featured painted portraits inspired by the film.

I purchased a scarf, a magnet and a poster of "Bond World" similar to the plastic bag shown below.  I could have easily bought half the merchandise on sale.

After happily parting with my money at the shop we three then made our way to "Bond World 007" just around the corner.

"Bond World 007" opened in 2013 to celebrate Schilthorn and Piz Gloria being used as locations for the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".

The exhibition started with a corridor covered in Bond posters...

which led to a curtain with the gun barrel sequence being projected onto it on loop, accompanied by the Bond theme music.

We brushed through the curtain to discover a surprisingly large exhibition room.  It featured a theatrette, visual displays, wall displays, film props, a helicopter simulator and a bobsleigh photo booth (for the want of a better term).  Here's some snaps I took while in there.

There was even a kilt which when investigated from underneath hid a television screen showing an interview with Mr Lazenby about his recollections on making the film.

On one wall was the coat of arms belonging to the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and as a laugh I added a spare business card for my PizGloria.com website.  I'd like to think it still sits there unnoticed but the cleaners probably removed it that same night !

I also photographed another card on the hat stand from Miss Moneypenny's office.

All up I thought "Bond World 007" was great and well worth the visit.  Admittance is free as part of the cable car ride to Piz Gloria.  Both my wife and Mona enjoyed it too.

Here's a photo of the entire Piz Gloria building layout.

I also happened to snap this door with what looked like an old logo used at Piz Gloria.

And finally the cable car that took us back to Murren.