James Bond has always had a thing for the mountains.Roger Moore and his banana-yellow ski suit; George Lazenby and his white goggles and single ski; Pierce Brosnan and Sophie Marceau swooping around the Caucasus in furry hats. And then there’s Daniel Craig in assassin’s black, wrecking nice old wooden huts in the Alps.
Hardly an adventure goes by without a quick trip to the mountains. And who can blame him? Fresh air, invigorating exercise, a spot of light murder… Especially since, according to Ian Fleming in Octopussy, the closest Bond really got to a father figure was an Austrian ski guide called Hannes Oberhauser.
Understandably, the Austrians are keen to strengthen those ties. Das Central hotel owns Ice Q, in Otztal, West Austria, a most elegant and minimalist mountaintop restaurant – which did service as a swanky private clinic in Spectre – right next door to a new museum, 007 Elements, dedicated to all things Bond.