Waldhaus Hotel Leukerbad

... ANYWAY. Our train got into Arona and we were picked up by the family's son. Let me quickly explain the family- one of the daughters (there are 2) went to Montana for study abroad, and that's how she and Meghan know each other, she stayed with her family. So now everytime Meghan comes to Italy she stays with this family. The parents know a little English, the daughters are both gone right now and the son is going to Kansas next year for study abroad. Kansas ...

... used my final day of my eurrail pass for this trip only to find that the trip from Visp station to the Zermatt was not valid despite being told by two train operators that it was. I also couldn't get through to the girl at the station that my eurrail pass allows me discounts for the train but she kept telling me, 'no, no, you can't use anymore days it's full'. Today wasn't the first time I have been stuffed around by the Swiss. It's hard to believe that Einstein was educated here.

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

Farmor agreed to watch Evie and Tyler for 2 days while Sue and Tom hiked to Hornlihut, the refugio at the base of the Matterhorn. Hornlihut is at 3200m directly below the Matterhorn (4400m) and serves as the base camp for those ascending the Matterhorn. When we called for reservations, they asked if we were ...

... Gondola, we took a Tram to the top. Each stage of our journey had its own playground! The zipline at 2600 took the cake for the most over-the-top experience. Tom took Tyler home for his nap and returned 1/3rd of ...

Sue and Tom decided late in the afternoon to take advantage of the Tram/Gondola/Train infrastructure of Zermatt and spring for a 4 day "unlimited rides" pass. We took advantage by taking the ...

... and then to take a rather large amount into our mouths and slurp it through our mouths for at least ten seconds. For me, the system works and I really get red wines for the first time: the taste of Chianti explodes in my mouth! We taste a Chianti classico-different from the Chianti because of the soil that supports the grapes, a super Tuscan and a brunello. He explains some of the rigidity of the rules of Italian winemaking: the government closely regulates the amount of grapes ...

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