Hotel Metropol Zermatt

... control recently has broken down, this was the perfect sign to follow, where I planed to cross the border to Switzerland.

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.

BIENVENUE EN SUISSE - WELCOME TO SWITZERLAND

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... saying that this was the World Downhill Mountainbike Championship trail. I can tell you that they are a brave bunch! Some of those hills are STEEP!!

The rest of the walk was quite pleasant and importantly, all downhill! We found a sign at the bottom that said that people walk up the same trail for training to climb the Matterhorn. It took us about 80 minutes to walk down and the sign said that the climbers that are fit enough to conquer the Matterhorn should be ...

... and this is one of them....

Kids pooped, so we go to room to stare at the Matterhorn!!

Parker just walked into computer room to show me that his Swiss Army knife even has a toothpick...cute...

Best Memory-horse drawn carriage with man eating weed in mouth. Horse's name, of course, Madame Bovary, go figure...Alex calculated that he makes about $700 per day, not bad...

... t even work, so we got our money back there - all in all not a great campsite, but best located for the shuttle which was really the most important thing for us! So, our intentions in coming to Zermatt, was to go skiing on the Matterhorn Glacier, which is Europe's highest Glacier, along with seeing the Ice Caves that are up at the top also! So, the first day we decided to go up to the Glacier to visit the Ice Caves & suss out how easy it ...

... la pensée des adieus qui arrivaient trop vites. Les filles sont parties poursuivre leur aventure de leur côté, nous saluant par la fenêtre du train jusqu'à ce qu'il soit trop loin, comme dans un film. Je saluai Jerry et parti à mon tour, seul... Moments magiques chargés en émotions! J'ai oublié le nom de cette montagne, j'oublierai probablement ce monument, ce chateau ou ce paysage mais je me souviendrai toujours de ces gens, de cette magie! Merci!

After I'd eaten the worst pasta that sixty-seven-year-old Mario has ever cooked, I couldn't get a ride, so I walked the remaining six miles to Switzerland. I camped there, at 2700 feet altitude. I watched up from my cold tent, past the four Alp mountains that walled me in like a golf ball in a hole, to a nice night of stars. The next person to offer me a ride was Italian trucker Maurizo. He was forty-eight, with tanned aged skin and thin ...

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