Hotel Chesa Valese Zermatt

Destination 405<br><br>km197'555<br><br>Not entirely shure, if I spend my last day in a foreign country, I head towards north. A stopover at Novi Ligure provides me finally the opportunity to send a notification to all family and friends about my remaining itinerary before return back home. The date has been fixed to the 29.<br>The ride up to Vercelly in the low lands was not that exciting like the sighting of the mountain of Mont Blanc in the far. Since my ...

... the casualties of the Matterhorn.<br>Zermatt itself is tiny, with only electric taxis. It is much colder than Lauterbrunnen even though it's on the border of Italy.<br>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 ...

... over his chair and almost fell over backwards himself! It was quite comical! He did eventually pay and walked out in quite a huff, we saw him further down the street still examining his receipt and shaking his head!<br><br>The first part of our journey took us to Visp where we boarded the &#8216;Glacier Express&#8217;. This train takes you through the mountain region below Zermatt and the Matterhorn and shows off some beautiful Swiss scenery before finishing in the ...

... one of which was obviously our target. With lots of sign language, some French mixed with German, we got the idea over, and landed the photo. But we couldn't persuade him to do the handcuffs, so we didn't push our luck.<br><br>We crossed the border into France shortly afterwards and travelled along the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard (which, for some reason, google maps won't recognise as a road, although it shows it as a walking route!), and found ...

... took Evie back up via the Tram to the top of the Klein Matterhorn just before the last ride at 4:30p. Along the way, they watched a parade of swiss dancers with typical accordian players as they paraded down main street as part of an annual traditional festival.<br> <br>                  <br>

... train to 3,200 meters and hiking some of the way back down. The glaciers were impressive, however the views were muted as the weather was a bit cloudy.<br><br>                 <br>

... could see was snow. Unfortunately, I now have a pretty bad sunburned face as when I was up there the sun was reflecting off the snow, and I didn't feel it at all until it was too late. I want to say I look like a Panda but I guess an inverted Panda is more specific as I'm completely white where my sunglasses were. I guess it's a sort of metaphor for the bad point about travelling by yourself - no-one's necessarily going to be around to tell you when ...

... the series tune ;) My family never lets me forget how I loved this program and they could bribe me using Heidi as an incentive. I couldn't wait to get to Switzerland to see if it was all true. I did some preparation work so that I would know where I needed to disembark and then said goodbye to Italy for a while. Just as a bit of information regarding train travel - in France and Italy I was required to pay a reservation fee for every ticket that I ...

... that it was so high but I should have figured with glaciers and all. Sometimes I just don;t put 2 and 2 together. The temperatures are mild- no winds, no storms just gorgeous blue skies. I better wear a bit more sunscreen tomorrow or my face may end up looking suspiciously raccoon-like by the end of the week. I've attached some photos from today. We're having a great time and I feel extremely relaxed (and exhausted!) Lots of love, Serena

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>