Swiss Quality Hotel Darioli Zermatt

I am only stayin the night just to see the Matterhorn. The sun is out and I took a hike up nearby hill. It was about an hour and a half uphill walk with regular short stops to catch my breath. I think I have had enough of hiking now, I did 4 hours of it at Montreux as well, I must have the best **** at the moment. Spectacular view of the mountain at the hilltop though. It's less of a mountain and more of a giant pinnacle of rock. It looks menacing, to prove it there is a nearby graveyard full ...

... but our legs struggled to keep us upright on the steep slope. I know uphill is harder but my legs were shaking 10 minutes in!

At the bottom we saw that there were two signs pointing to the spot we needed to be, obviously one was right and one was wrong! The right one had a very level path that we welcomed with relief!

We walked for about 2 hours before lunch, viewing the Matterhorn from different angles and stopping at lakes and streams to fill our water ...

... Menge. Als wir diese Bergewelt zum ersten Mal sahen, war wir einfachnur sprachlos. Wir standen auf dem Gornergrat, 3000 müM und waren umringt von noch deutlich höhren Bergen.

Auf den Gornergrat gelangt man mit der ältesten Zahnradbahn der Schweiz. Im Winter tummeln sich hier tausende von Skifahrern, genauso wie am Rothorn und am Klein Matterhorn. Überhaupt ist skifahren in Zermatt 365 Tage im Jahr m ...

We had packed up the Landy by about 8 a.m., and were ready to plan the route to Val d'Isere. With no roadbook to follow, the GPS was put into use, and a quick check against the maps verified that the best route was probably down towards Milan to join the motorway, and take motorways towards Aosta.

So, not much in the way of navigating to be done, except to check the road signs now and again, so the hunt for bingo photos was driven hard today ...

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 ...

... way up to meet Evie and Sue at the playground (after a 5 euro hot chocolate) and we all walked down through some delightful traditional Swiss towns.

                                                 

... I had to buy a pair of sunglasses on board so that it was possible to look out the windows without my retinas sizzling. After Oberalppass we descended to the main rail hubs of Brig and Visp. From here we started up again towards our final destination of Zermatt. There were many small postcard worthy villages on this portion although pictures were difficult due to the glare from the large panoramic ...

... The landscape is breathtaking. Picture postcard perfect is only way to really summarise it. The horizon of Zermatt is dominated by Matterhorn and the town is used as base for all the alpine activities. This includes skiing and mountain climbing. I spent the afternoon walking around the town and staring with my mouth agape at the beauty that surrounded me.I concluded my fist evening in Zermatt with a gastronomic masterpiece of grilled fish - simple ...

... the most incredible flavor and the salami was also gorgeous. I can't wait for lunch! I'm off to the slopes now- I'll write more at the end of the day but I just wanted to say "hi" and that we made it here just fine. Let me also say that I'm just happy top be away from Stanford for a little while. I hope Lynn doesn't figure out where my goggle tan comes from ;) Serena