Hotel Albana-Real Zermatt

... another according to the train website the day before, but apparently not everything you see online is true. I had to make a transfer, but luckily, it turned out well. The ride into Brescia was stressful, the ticket man (I don't know his official title) was coming around to check our tickets but the man in the seat next to me didn't have his. A little argument commenced, then some all out shouting, and fingers being pointed and scary looks in angry eyes. I was a ...

... 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 ...

... to them. The father and daughter had just completed a 200km trek through the mountains so our little effort that day seemed very insignificant!

We sat and watched the sun go down and the lights of the town come on as it got darker and colder. The town and the Matterhorn looked beautiful as the sun set and the moon came up. We really didn't want to go inside, but when it did get too cold we eventually climbed down to bed, and every muscle in our bodies said ‘thank you!’

... took a different route, which took us through another tiny place and then to the Gorner Gorge.... an amazing walk, so beautiful... and the Gorge itself was absolutely stunning, if a bit nerve wracking (well, for me). Very steep stairs and a board walk that was suspended over the gorge .. somehow!! It was really cool though and an amazing part of Zermatt. We finally made it back to town in time to catch our train to the Gornergrat.

Monday night / Tuesday
What an ...

... 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 out ...

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 ...

It is a sunny morning. We have decided to move on to the Zermatt area and have a look at the Matterhorn Mountain. It isn't a long drive but it is through and up and down mountains.

We come to a toll booth and pay the ticket and then we drive onto a ferry, a train ferry! Something we have never done before! Everyone drives on single file and then you stop and put your break on. Len was taking some picture out of ...

... ten minute jaunt from the hotel. We skid a couple of runs down the Sunnegga pistes then up to Rothorn Paradise- very nice temperature and snow was a bit crispy but very skiiable. There is a nice little ...

... had a Mexican standoff with a DHL van driver who did not want to move (the cars were about 1 cm apart)... he started carrying on so Gem gave it back to him and he shut up !! When we finally arrived in Bellagio we were even more stressed out when we got stuck in a car park and people started going off because we had to move Misty for a bus to park and could not go anywhere (as they all park like wankas as well with no system) so our back end was blocking the road ... Wayne got out to try ...