We left the lovely Le Faucigny Hotel and made our way to Zermatt, via Tasch, where we left our car and took the train to Zermatt.
Zermatt, Switzerland is a "car free" town. Which means there are no private cars for regular people or tourists to drive, but the business owners and city workers have electric cars and small buses that are quiet and quite quick.
The drive to Zermatt was less than three hours. Roundabouts seem to be the way in that part of the world. We went through so many roundabouts it's surprising we found our way with nary a wrong turn (Noah was driving, good thing). Roundabouts through the mountain towns was especially interesting.
The train ride from Tasch was about 30 minutes.
We were let off the train in a bustle of people, luggage in tow. We found our hotel using the handy dandy GPS on Noah's phone. It really wasn't far but there were a lot of people and so many shops that caught our eye.
We stayed at the Hotel Beau Rivage, owned by a former olympic ski champion. We had a delicious lunch in the hotel restaurant and got our first taste of OH MY GOSH SWITZERLAND IS EVER MORE EXPENSIVE THAN FRANCE!!!!!!
The day before, in Chamonix, Noah had gone biking up and down the mountain and was worn out. I, on the other hand, had gone shopping, and was ready to climb something.
We started hiking on this paved trail through the town that went up and up through the neighborhood until the neighborhood ended as well as the pavement and we were on a foot trail. We looked up and saw this funny little building WAAAY up on the bluff. We couldn't imagine what it was, and didn't think we would ever really know.
Until 45 minutes (ish) later we reached it. It was a restaurant called "Edelweiss" way up there on the bluff. Quaint. Quite quaint.
And not the top of the climb.
We walked through a beautiful mountain forest. Always going ... up.
The trail kept going up and up and the scenery through the mountain forest was beautiful. I was hoping to see The Matterhorn, pictures of which abound on the Internet, but didn't yet know where it was perched.
Evidently there are natural Artesian wells in Switzerland, and they've created these natural spigots out of hollow trees to draw the water up. They just run naturally all day long.
Zermatt, Switzerland is a "car free" town. Which means there are no private cars for regular people or tourists to drive, but the business owners and city workers have electric cars and small buses that are quiet and quite quick.
While I admire the idea of a "car free" town, I cannot say the current practice of driving silent electric cars through throngs of tourists very quickly is a safe practice. We did not see or cause any accidents, but they sure snuck up on us a couple times.
The drive to Zermatt was less than three hours. Roundabouts seem to be the way in that part of the world. We went through so many roundabouts it's surprising we found our way with nary a wrong turn (Noah was driving, good thing). Roundabouts through the mountain towns was especially interesting.
The train ride from Tasch was about 30 minutes.
And thus, we landed in Zermatt, home of The Matterhorn.
We were let off the train in a bustle of people, luggage in tow. We found our hotel using the handy dandy GPS on Noah's phone. It really wasn't far but there were a lot of people and so many shops that caught our eye.
We stayed at the Hotel Beau Rivage, owned by a former olympic ski champion. We had a delicious lunch in the hotel restaurant and got our first taste of OH MY GOSH SWITZERLAND IS EVER MORE EXPENSIVE THAN FRANCE!!!!!!
The day before, in Chamonix, Noah had gone biking up and down the mountain and was worn out. I, on the other hand, had gone shopping, and was ready to climb something.
I talked Noah into a "short" hike (according to the hotel concierge) up a tiny bluff. Man, were we out of shape.
Until 45 minutes (ish) later we reached it. It was a restaurant called "Edelweiss" way up there on the bluff. Quaint. Quite quaint.
And not the top of the climb.
We walked through a beautiful mountain forest. Always going ... up.
The trail kept going up and up and the scenery through the mountain forest was beautiful. I was hoping to see The Matterhorn, pictures of which abound on the Internet, but didn't yet know where it was perched. 
We kept walking the trail and slowly came around a bend.
Finally we cleared the wood and were in an open area, at the top of the rocky bluff.
Yeah, we walked along the top of that. It looks really high up but it's just a baby mountain, really.
Noah was grumpy because he was tired.
I was happy.
And voila! There it was! OMG, so close!
We slowly made our way down the mountain and saw some very interesting things.
Evidently there are natural Artesian wells in Switzerland, and they've created these natural spigots out of hollow trees to draw the water up. They just run naturally all day long.
Back at our hotel and discovered that right next to it was a river and on the bridge that went over the river was a perfect view of The Matterhorn.
Later that night, when we were trying to sleep, we discovered that the bridge lookout was a very popular place for late night party goers.
Next installment, the Klein Matterhorn - the highest mountain lookout in the Alps at 12,800 something feet. It was very cool. Literally.
No comments:
Post a Comment