A view to a thrill from Piz Gloria

A kilt was unnecessary. I didn't expect a beautiful woman to write her room number in lipstick on the inside of my thigh - writes Kevin Pilley in the Sunday Mail.

There were no nymphomaniacs with chicken allergies being brainwashed into the bacteriological sabotage of the world's food supply. Dwarfish, mannish henchwomen with cyanide-tipped toes were very short on the ground, too.

As were bald counts minus earlobes. And Telly Savalas was nowhere to be seen...

There was only a Croatian waiter called Georges, an expansive view of the Bernese Oberland and a group of Dutchmen engaged in some serious male-Bonding.

In 1969, Piz Gloria, a short cable-car journey from Murren, was used as Ernst Stavros Blofeld's Swiss alpine lair in the sixth Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, starring George Lazenby.

At 3000m, it is now Europe's highest restaurant. And a magnet for 007 fans many of whom travel the world seeking out the exotic locations touched by the famous spy.

Switzerland has provided other locations.

The Verzasca Dam was used for the bungee jump in Goldeneye.

The Dutchmen told me that they had been to all the major Bond locations such as Las Vegas, Fort Knox, Cairo, New Orleans, Udaipur (Monsoon Palace in Octopussy) the Oh Cult Voodoo Shop in Manhattan, and Scaramanga's Island in Thailand.

I rather bashfully informed them that I had been to the Eden Project in Cornwall in Britain. And up the Eiffel Tower.

"If you visited all the locations seen in Moonraker you would have to travel 27,000 miles," said one of the Low countrymen helpfully.

A game of Bond-oneupmanship began.

"Name the location of Drax's Californian mansion?"

I shook my head.

"Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte in Maincy.

"And Spectre's HQ in Thunderball?"

I shook my head again.

"16 Avenue d'Eylan, Paris."

It quickly became very rhetorical.

"Tiger Tanaka's Ninja Training School?

"Himeji Castle in Japan.

"And the underwater battle in Thunderball?"

I was clearly out of my depth and was put out of my misery by one of the experts.

"Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, The Bahamas."

Despite the massive fan base there are no real organised Bond locations tours.

Piz Gloria is on every Bond buff's wish list, as is Baffin Island where they shot the jump in The Spy Who Loved Me; Loch Craignish, Argyll, where they filmed the closing chase in From Russia With Love; Stoke Poges golf club, scene of the golf game in Goldfinger, and Jokulsarlon in Iceland used as the ice palace in Die Another Day.

The list will get even longer with the release of Casino Royale which was shot in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The cricket pavilion at Eton college was used, as was Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Five Bond films have been shot there.

You can visit Stuart Cove where Sean Connery learnt to dive, or you can swim around the Tears of Allah shipwreck where he grappled with a shark and see Rock Point House on West Providence Island, evil Emilio Largo's Palmyra estate in Thunderball, as well as Love Beach where Bond famously sucked a poisonous spine out of Domino's foot.

Jamaica, where Ian Fleming wrote the books – his home "Goldeneye" is now a bijou hotel – has James Bond Beach (Laughing Waters) where Ursula Andress famously came out of the sea to give Sir Sean the horn.

Ocho Rios was Dr No's bauxite pier.

You can also play golf where Sir Roger Moore was arrested for smoking dope.

Captain Swaby's Safari Camp is where he ran across the crocodiles.

But not all locations are glamorous. There are some mundane ones at which any self-respecting fan should pay his respects.

Buckinghamshire has been used as Asian paddy fields. Epsom Downs was once St Petersburg airport. The Church of Our Lady of Smolensk is found in Bayswater, London.

Air bases such as RAF Marston, RAF Lakenheath and RAF Northolt have all been used. The exploding pipeline in The World Is Not Enough is Hankley Common in Surrey.

Swindon's Motorola plant has passed as an oil refinery.

North London's Brent Cross Shopping Centre has also starred.

Church Crookham in Hampshire was The South-North Korean Demilitarisation Zone.

Millbrook Vehicle Proving Ground in Bedfordshire was used in Casino Royale.

But Piz Gloria at the top of the Shilthorn, is one of the must-see shrines.

Over lunch in the revolving restaurant you will see more than 200 peaks. And maybe be interrogated.

"Who is your favourite Bond girl?" one of the Dutchmen asked.

"Natalya Simonova," I said.

I didn't know the actress's name. They shrugged their shoulders in that "What-about-Elektra-King-or-Holly Goodhead-and-Honor Blackman-or-Barbara Bach" way.

"It's funny," another of the Dutch Bond bores said.

"Bond could have had any woman in the world but proposed to one – Tracy. Comtessa Teresa di Vicenzo. aka, Dame Diana Rigg."

"Bond is someone all men want to be," said another of the Dutchmen.

"Globally, he is the most instantly recognisable male icon.

"He drives fast cars, travels the world and has a sex life. He'll always be our hero."

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