Best Western Hotel Butterfly Zermatt

... the casualties of the Matterhorn.
Zermatt itself is tiny, with only electric taxis. It is much colder than Lauterbrunnen even though it's on the border of Italy.
Switzerland is strange. It has no language of its own. In Bern, Lauterbrunnen and Zermatt they speak German but in Montreux they speak French, even the train announcements change languages. It gets confusing, so I just stick to greeting people in English most of the time. When I had arrived here I was fuming a bit because I ...

... out the signs and found that none of pointed to the place we were trying to get to, so we must have been going the wrong way. Very disappointing! But on the bright side (isn’t there always one?!) we had a gorgeous view from up there and the Matterhorn was peeking through the clouds at just the right time. It was the perfect moment to take a breather and some good piccies before our trek back down!

The trek down took about 20 minutes, it wasn’t as ...

... br>We had decided to travel via Aosta, so as to get as close to the roadbook outlined route as possible. About midday, we got our first views of Mont Blanc, or Monte Bianco, as the Italians know it. As we turned off the motorway, we could still see it, until the narrow winding roads took us across the other side of another mountain.

Now we realised this was our last chance to get the police photo, as soon we
wouldn't be in Italy any more ...

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 ...

... to climb the Matterhorn the next day. If we had said yes, we would have been awoken at 4:30 for breakfast and began the 7+ hour ascent at 5am. Needlessly to say, we declined. 

Instead, we took the Gondola/Tram/Tram route to the top of the Klein Matterhorn (little Matterhorn) at 3800m for a short ...

On Friday, we continued to "get the most" from our unlimited passes by taking the kids up to 3100m and the top of the Rothorn. Our journey took us up a Cog Railway (entirely inside a tunnel) to a Gondola. From ...

... This meant free travel on the train and busses within the city. We had it made. The hotel shuttle takes us to the airport and the busses and trains leave from there. It is our gateway to the Geneva explorations to commence.

The train didn't have a dining car, so we were ready for dinner. Someone in the lobby suggested a walk up the street to a couple of restaurants. However, it was only 5:00 and European restaurants aren't ...

... the hiking and the quaint swiss alpine village feel of Zermatt. The kids (and Steve) did a zip line/ high level balancing obstacle course on logs, ropes...crossing between trees at 40 feet above the ground. I was a nervous wreck watching them but they felt a great sense of accomplishment after completing the course. It made Outward Bound look easy!!

... drains. We took a million pictures of the old buildings, the gondolas and had a great time watching people and watching how everything in this place is operated on the water... water police, water taxis, water ambulance, water DHL boats....We had a great time easting gelato, drinking the best coffee ever (Wayne is getting wired !) and exploring the markets shops (Gem well and truly killed this weeks budget buying jewelry and a few masks) We headed back to Misty for a few hours to have ...