Here are some outtakes from our October trip to Zermatt. If you only like travel stories and pictures presented in a timely fashion, you can just stop reading right now.
Our story picks up at the apartment we rented for the weekend. Zermatt is located in southern Switzerland right on the Italian border so there was a train ride involved here, but I can’t find a single picture from the train ride. This was a Friday and Chiz didn’t get the day off work so we had to book down there in the morning and she had to work all day long over dial-up. She was a total stress case and not much fun at all during this phase of the trip. Look at her working on vacation.
But you can see she once again came through huge on the accommodations. Nice two bedroom pad. One for us and one for CM and J who we were on their way. I left her alone to work and got some pictures of the area
There is the Matterhorn. I guess you have to get a bit closer to see the rollercoaster tracks that run around and through it. Still, it was pretty cool sitting right there daring you to mock it.
Condo-alley. Just an idea of the little streets and quaint nature of this little mountain town. They do not allow any cars here and all the local transportation are these little battery powered shuttles. We did see some gas vehicles though that were being used for construction. Cheaters.
Late October turned out to be a fantastic time to visit. The colors in the trees and hills were amazing.
Downtown Zermatt.
There was something about the village that was really strange and made our apartment pretty difficult to find without a map. I am pretty sure it was because the streets had no names. Or maybe that the buildings had no numbers. Whatever it was, we were hoping CM and J would roll into town before the tourist office closed that day so they could get a map and find us. But they are much smarter than us and somehow just homed in and found it without directions. We were pretty impressed. That evening we dove into some Tobblerone and fondue (not at the same time). Not knowing anything about Zermatt, me and Chiz bought all the fondue ingredients in Zurich the day before and packed them with. It turned out Zermatt was a real town with real supermarkets and stores so that was completely unnecessary. We brought one fondue set and the apartment had another so we got to double the cheesy goodness. I guess only J got pictures of this feast.
We went for another walk.
There were a bunch of people buried in Zermatt who had died rock climbing in the area, the headstones told us. Looked like mostly Brits among the unlucky bunch. This was not where they were at though. I think these were just local dead people. Again, another very well maintained cemetery. They all seem to be here.
If I see an American flag, I photograph it.
Zermatt is almost 100% surrounded by hills. Some rocky and steep, some treey.
Every Swiss citizen is required to know how to ice skate.
The next day we went up into the mountains by way of gondola. Ski season was just getting underway here and there were a handful of people getting after it. It was easy to visualize this place in the middle of winter. It wouldn’t be quite as crazy as Whistler, but it would be pretty impressive.
That is the entirety of Zermatt.
Well, well, well… what do we have here?
This was the intermediate stop on the way up. There were crazy little houses and sheep everywhere.
The next leg was made in these huge cable car things.
If you know Chizzy, you know she isn’t only acting nervous here.
Made it to the snow.
Here are some of those crazy knuckleheads. We could have went a bit higher if wanted, but it was unbearably cold with the wind that was whipping through.
We were as close to the Matterhorn as we were going to get, but the entire things was in the clouds. Unlucky. This was the type of stuff we had to resort to.
Chiz bailed on us at some point here to do some shopping, because the stores close early and she has somehow turned into a shopping fanatic over here. The three of us ended up walking back down to Zermatt on this really cool side road/trail. CM found the hotel her father stayed at back in the day when he was doing a bit of R&R in the service. That was a cool connection to make. That evening we went out for dinner. It was nice. Felt like TGIF in there and I had the spare ribs.
I guess we packed up the next morning. Chiz and I headed home and CM and J hopped the Glacier Express. It was a great weekend and a cool little village. The Matterhorn!
