Sorry about the title folks, but I was trying to come up with something catchy. And, I have been to Zermatt before 🙂

I also had to point out that our fine weather run has met its end. Its not terrible but my tan is fading already. Noooooooooo.

Jason had a wee bit of a sleep in, I think maybe all this travel nonsense is catching up with him. So eventually I made some noise, I mean I accidentally closed the door a little loudly and he woke up.

Once we were organised, had breakfast, packed a bag it was time to hit the road.

We asked Miss GPS if she would kindly guide us to Zermatt and off we set. It is around 250kms from where we were staying at Château Streijffert (apologies to Carlos for the incorrect spelling in our previous edition – nice way to show appreciation Jo!).

The time to destination however was showing as over three hours, but we had to take into account the twisty turning road to get to Tasch and then the train from Tasch to Zermatt.

Zermatt, is in southern Switzerland’s Valais canton. Valais is often argued to be the wine and meat capital, but I have never been fussy enough to turn down any Swiss wine 🙂

Back to Zermatt, it is a mountain resort renowned for skiing, climbing, hiking, and fondue (yeah baby). The town, which is about 1,600 meters above sea level, stares up at the beautiful (and shy) pyramid-shaped Matterhorn peak. More about that later.

The city’s main street, Bahnhofstrasse (dear god!), is so damn cute you wait to hear the yodelling and cow bells – we heard the bells but luckily it was not yodelling season – Jason gave it a crack though.

For a wee town there are loads of boutique (read expensive) shops, hotels, and restaurants.

Another cool thing about Zermatt, other than the nature, quiet, wine, food, hiking, scenery, is the fact it is a car free town. So the only vehicles allowed there are these beefed up golf cart, electrical vehicles, and electric buses. Its awesome, all you get is Zermatt natural air, no noise or air pollution.

However, those suckers are quiet and sneak up on you!

I have been to Zermatt a couple of times for hiking and knew, just KNEW, Jason would love it.

Our journey was pretty incident free. I had made us a packed lunch (am I an amazing domestic goddess or WHAT) and we had snacks and water for the car.

The weather driving to Zermatt was a bit wet, but I was hopeful we would drive through it and the forecasted “mostly sunny” for Zermatt would hold true.

We found Tasch, parked in the train terminal, and made it to the next train with 5 minutes to spare. They run every 20 minutes so you never have to wait long.

The train is very comfortable with big windows so you can stare, open mouthed, and your surroundings. Which are, of course, stunning.

The train ride takes around 12 minutes, so quite short and only costs 8 francs. Deal!

Arriving in Zermatt the weather wasn’t perfect but not raining either. We dragged our suitcase the 900 meters to our hotel. Hotel Bristol, set right next to the river – a milky kind of colour due to the water and the melted snow from the mountain (brrr).

Our room was ready and we had been upgraded to a Matterhorn view. Awesome. To be realistic though, I kind of had to stand on a chair on the balcony to see the summit, but the thought counted. If we had been up a few floors it would have been amazing.

Something weird about the hotel was the bed. They were two single beds squished together, not that strange you think, but there was a wooden divider between the mattresses and you get individual duvets – I guess they know we are married now, separate beds it is.

As the weather forecast was a bit dodgy for the next few days we decided to squeeze in as much as we could that afternoon. We popped down to the Matterhorn railway ticket station and purchased a return ticket. Holy Mother of God, 188 Swiss francs return – 271NZD. There had better be a damn view I tell you.

The idea had initially been to catch the train up and walk down from the top. But the top track was closed, unless you had the equipment, due to snow. Damn it, so we decided to walk down from one of the lower stations, this should take us around 3 hours.

By the time we caught the train it was 300pm.

The train takes 33 minutes to get to the top, stopping at cute little stations along the way.

We arrived at the top station Gornergrat and the weather was moving and moving fast so we started our exploring whilst the view was still there.

The Matterhorn was mostly visible and we saw the peaks of many surrounding mountains, but Lady Matterhorn herself was playing hard to get, dance of the 7 clouds. Just when we thought she would break through another cloud set it.

On Gornergrat we got up to 3135 meters again experiencing the thin air and difficulty to breath. Nothing on the Chamonix experience but you could definitely feel it.

We jumped back on the Matterhorn railway and got off at Riffelberg at 2583 meters. From here we will walk down towards Riffelalp 2211 meters, then through to Zermatt itself. The maps showed around 3 hours in total.

The walk down was very different to the track I remember, initially it was like a logging road and very sparse. Quite boring if it wasn’t for the game of spot the Marmot. Jason was very excited to see one of the local cute and furries out and about.

Once one had been spotted it turned into a game. I wonder if they used to be eaten by the locals, they look kind of plump, and the fur looks super warm. Just a thought… Marmot gloves J

The walk was quite easy but hard on the knees, Jason was going to pay the next day (but not if you asked him, of course).

When we arrived at Rifflealp we were so sure Lady Matterhorn was going to reveal herself, saucy minx, so we sat down and watched for 10 minutes. But nope, she was really playing this up. Back on our feet we followed the next track down, this was much nicer, through the pine ridden track.

The sign posting in Zermatt is not what I would have expected from the Swiss Germans. They were sporadic and only had timings listed occasionally. The numbers on the sign posts did not align to the numbers on the map so often you were left wondering if you had taken the right turn off.

We figured keep walking down and you will end up in the right place.

Nearing the bottom Jason spotted a deer! That’s right folks, he finds them in Zermatt too. The creature in question obviously had not heard about him as it simple stood, ate, and stayed. But that made his day, happy man. The last wildlife creature he found was a very affectionate ginger tom cat, hanging around on one of the viewing benches placed along the track.

By this time we were only 10 minutes from the centre of town, constantly looking over our shoulder to see if Lady Matterhorn and exposed herself. And sure enough she did. Wahoo, so we stayed and watched as the clouds parted and swirled around! YES, we got it.

Back to the hotel to rest, have a drink on the deck, feed the very friendly sparrows (they are everywhere!!!) and go for dinner.

We arrived in Zermatt on Sunday and it was a long weekend for Switzerland with Monday being a public holiday. This mean the town was busy, some shops were closed, and the restaurants were full. We tried one that Google had recommended but they were full so we booked for the next night.

We ended up at another local favourite and were lucky to get the last table. Jason had the bratwurst (he just had to) I had the chicken, we both were lovely and full and waddled our way back to the hotel.

Day number one in Zermatt was a success! Well done!

Day 2 – Here Comes the Sun – NOT

We woke up and there was no kidding ourselves the weather was crap. Overcast, rain, wind (nothing on Wellington). So we slept in and lazed about.

Went down for breakfast and thought we would walk around town and do some shopping. Eventually we left the hotel all rugged up, we actually had to put on a few layers.

Not all shops were open, due to the long weekend, but there were enough boutique shops open to occupy us for a couple of hours. And Jason finally got this whole thing about shoes and shopping abroad and finally bought himself some shoes, ok boots, ok hiking/hunting boots!

But he was very pleased with his purchase.

There is only so much shopping one can do in Zermatt so it was time to figure out other options. We went to the Visitors Centre and the wonderful young lady behind the counter helped us decide what we could do on a day such as this.

There were two recommendations – a hike down to the town of Tasch, hiking down on such a cloudy day sounded awesome, and going to the Gorner Gorge, we figured, we may as well do both.

We bought lunch at a little bakery, packed our backpacks with a few extra layers, our food and treats, then off we went.

The hike was lovely and followed the train tracks down the hill towards Tasch. Unfortunately the more we walked the lower the cloud got, so we really didn’t see anything. It was still great though, and we took a couple of diversions just for the views, and made it safe and sound to Tasch.

The walk itself was very easy, it only took it 90 minutes. Not a lot of climbing. Which was a bit of a relief. Ha, ha.

We ate our packed lunch in the train station – it was quite yummy, probably helped that we were really hungry. Then we got back on the train and headed to Zermatt, neither of us felt the desire to walk back.

There was still Gorner Gorge! So prep yourself, get out google maps, and start walking.

We were unsure exactly what the Gorner Gorge was, so we did a little bit of googling to prepare ourselves.

Apparently “The Gorner gorge is a place of exceptional natural beauty. The wooden walkways leading between the towering cliffs provide a dramatic insight into the power of nature.” Well, that was a pretty apt description, but first we had to find the damn place, we definitely took the scenic route, but got there!

Essentially two brothers were gifted the land to build an access through the gorge, which they did using natural materials, for the love of God I have no idea what they were thinking or why they thought it was a good idea.

It was quite scary. No where near as high as some of the mountains we had hiked up, and walked around, and looked down, but there was a simple wooden pathway hovering 50 meters above the torrential waters below. Waters that, if you fell into, would drag you under and drown you in minutes.

But beautiful all the same, the photos do not do it justice. It was staggering to think how, in the early 18 hundreds, two blokes built this pathway in the first place. The remnants of which still hang below the more modern, sturdier pathway we used.

It cost 5 francs, because everything costs in this country (the expensive of it astounds me), but is really worth it. Scary, heart stopping, beautiful, and amazing.

The gorge crosses you to the other side, but you can walk back the same way if you choose. We didn’t, we opted to keep walking and find our way to the true “old town” of Zermatt. Another recommendation from the lovely information lady.

We wandered up and down the little pathways and saw some truly beautiful buildings, then we saw old town. Holy crap it must have been hard living, they are sparse little buildings, up on “stilts” of slate and wood, the size of most people’s sheds. Sadly the main old town road was closed to be revamped but we did see a few buildings. They were so cute, and small, and cramped together. Jason, standing next to the door of a normal building, would have had to kneel going in and out.

Weeeeellllllllll, it had been a long day and we had a dinner booking, wahoo, so we needed to get home, regroup, rest, change, and head to dinner.

This time we were eating at Whymper-Stube. And we were not disappointed! Google, I love technology, told us it was well liked, cute, cosy, tasty, and good service. I would like to point out that Google was right!

We were squeezed into our little table and ordered cheese fondue, bratwurst, and a steak salad. The food was amazing. As Jason’s first fondue he was truly spoilt. He dipped every damn thing into the cheese, whilst repeatedly saying it is “just a cheese sauce”, and finished the lot. I think we are on to a winner – a winner we won’t have too often though. We would have to carry around our own defib!

This time we TRULY waddled back to the hotel. Thank god my clothes are stretchy, that is all I have to say about that.

Bed time! Food coma. Sleep!

Day 3 Zermatt – Goodbye Matterhorn, it’s been fun!

When we woke, very early (sorry darling, I thought it was later – cough cough), the sky was clear and blue and we saw the mountains all around us. RIGHT, says I, early start, have breakfast, hit the mountain, there is sh*t to see!

We have another delightful breakfast, pack, and put our luggage in storage.

Already the clouds were moving. Before breakfast I could see the peak of Lady Matterhorn, by the time we had eaten and checked out, she had her 7 veils ready again.

Thanks to the information television station we knew which peaks had the best view. So we walked up the town and decided to take the gondola to Trockener Steg! This was slightly less expensive than the previous trips, but still not cheap.

We had decided not to go to the very top, Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, and we both realised when we arrived at Trockener Steg, that this was probably a mistake. The view was so clear and so beautiful you would have seen to Italy and beyond, too late.

So off we hopped to make the most of the view we had, as the cloud moved in, the views were outstanding! We spent the first 30 minutes walking around the terrace taking photos before venturing to the snow level below.

Jason saw a snow machine and was adamant he wanted a photo sitting on that. So in true Jason fashion, he’s so great, he walked up to the dude and asked if he could. So the guy says “just don’t drive away on it” and they chat, get photos, done and done.

Meanwhile I had found a dog that needed playing with. She was so gorgeous, playing fetch, eating, snow, going crazy. SO CUTE!

We were told we could not walk down from here (event though Jason wanted to regardless). The risk of avalanche was too high after the melting snow and the rain so we had to go back down the mountain to Furri and walk from there. Ah well, it was better than nothing and should only take a couple of hours.

Somehow we found ourselves on the fast track and made it back to Zermatt in record time.

When we got back to town the cloud had arrived, thick and fast! With the threat of rain not far behind.

We congratulated ourselves on getting our bag, walking to the train station, and getting on the train without getting wet! Well done and well timed!

Departing Zermatt was sad, we both enjoyed our time there hugely.

Back to Switzerland for dinner with our Swiss family.

We miss you Lady Matterhorn. Mwah.