Ambassador Zermatt

... control recently has broken down, this was the perfect sign to follow, where I planed to cross the border to Switzerland.<br><br>Just arrived in late afternoon to Aosta, I was not only already entered to the italian part of the alps but also to the point of good bye. Here I decided not to spend another night in Italy and crossed the border to my homecountry Switzerland a hour later at Calle del Gran San Bernardo. <br><br>BIENVENUE EN SUISSE - WELCOME TO SWITZERLAND

... used my final day of my eurrail pass for this trip only to find that the trip from Visp station to the Zermatt was not valid despite being told by two train operators that it was. I also couldn't get through to the girl at the station that my eurrail pass allows me discounts for the train but she kept telling me, 'no, no, you can't use anymore days it's full'. Today wasn't the first time I have been stuffed around by the Swiss. It's hard to believe that Einstein was educated here.<br><br><br>

... town of Zermatt and its Matterhorn views.<br><br>Zermatt is a very small town of only 5000 people with no petrol fueled vehicles at all. They have little electric taxis and horse drawn carriages to take people around. Very cute.<br><br>We made our way to our hotel which was unfortunately up a small hill. This would have been ok except for we took a couple of wrong turns and our backpacks were getting heavy!<br><br>The receptionist was a lovely guy and explained that the ...

... So I was keeping an eye open for a policeman, and spotted a whole police station( or should I say Carabinieri)!! There must be one in there, we thought. And it's definitely worth stopping. We got a place to park (probably not very legal, but we were following the Italian rules of the road by now), grabbed our Landy Rally T shirts, and went on the hunt for points. It lookead bit locked up, but as we poked around the gate, a couple of people came ...

We woke "late" (8am) and were the last to leave our bunk. Skipping breakfast, we began our 5 hour journey back to Zermatt. We chose a route that would give us a different view of the valley, but involved 1800m of decent. We paid for it for the next few days. We arrived at our apartment and ...

... on the snow with a lovely view from Mont Blanc on one side and the Italian plains on the other. In between there were dozens of skiers and snowboarders enjoying some summer runs. After our snow hike, we took a Tram down to do a 10K hike to Hornlihut, starting at 2500m. Tom was suitably freaked out by the ...

... to the announcement for Zurich and get off. The station sign says Zurich. Something catches my attention immediately, and this is the fact that train stations usually are above ground, and we were not. Oh well, there is an escalator so we go up. Well, in the short span of time it takes an escalator to go up about 100 feet, my IQ went from that of a fairly intelligent person to one with an IQ of about ZERO. <br><br>When I got off the ...

... you travel, the place you are is a very small world. I went to the main drag to check out the town and sat down to have a beer at the Post Hotel with stools right on the main pedestrian street. A couple from the UK living in Luxembourg sat next to me and we chatted about Zermatt. Their first time also but they arrived a day before me. They hike up high in the mountains, so I got some insight from them. The highlight was when a very high ...

... houses and all set to a back drop of the Swiss Alps with rolling green fields and the constant clink of cow bells as they wander through the fields. We found a spot along the river and had dinner and slept to the sound of rushing water and clinking cow bells. Aaahhhh a sound sleep for all. Day 206 - Thursday 21st September - Switzerland to Liechtenstein to St Moritz We set of for St Moritz and over the pass with its absolutely jaw dropping scenery. Think marvelous mountains ...

www.elodie50a.com<br><br>Here is a video (sorry for the very bad quality)<br>http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=R5_9hODsqgs<br><br><br>