Zermatt, Switzerland, Stop 6

Looks like we will have to come back to Zermatt some day when the Matterhorn is feeling a bit more cooperative.

June 28

Wake up, pack up, walk to the train station. We are getting very good at the whole routine. We board and have a little train picnic for breakfast. On the trip to Zermatt today we will have to change trains twice. We ride from Lucerne to Bern and then we DASH for our next train and make it with maybe a minute or two to spare. Bern to Visp is the next segment. Visp sneaked up on us and we had to jump off quickly. But all is good and we make it to the Visp to Zermatt train with plenty of time to spare. The train ride up to Zermatt is stunning. We pass cute villages and I lose count of how many waterfalls we pass. There is rain in the forecast but the sky is clear. At one stop an old lady gets off the train with a pick axe. Swiss people are pretty bad-ass. Tasch is the last stop before Zermatt. This is where you need to leave your car if you want to go to Zermatt, as it is a carless village. They have a few electric taxis to move people and their gear around the town. Hikers with poles get on at this stop.

Zermatt is absolutely charming. Still no rain and it’s only a little overcast. Unfortunately the Matterhorn is socked in. We love, love, love our hotel. It’s called the Backstage Hotel and we

are in the Family Cube Loft. https://www.backstagehotel.ch/de/backstage-hotel/hotel/ We decide that this could be the coolest place we have ever stayed. It’s really a toss up between this place and the glass igloos we stayed in at Kakslauttanen in Finland. https://www.kakslauttanen.fi/

We walk around and fall in love with this incredible alpine village. Sadly, they are only at about 5% capacity and when Mia and Dmitri go out for fondue later, they discover that many of the restaurants are closed or empty.

This afternoon, Dmitri, Mia and I indulge in this 7 spa room rotation thing. It ties into the bible and the different days as there are 7 stages. The first for light is this weird dark room with a pulsing light. We like the second room much more!! We tie down on these warm pebbles and watch scenes of clouds on the ceiling above while listening to the sounds of wind. It is VERY relaxing. Some day I want a pebble/cloud room in my house!

We also really like the sensory deprivation tank where we just float calmly. For the 7th day, rest, we basically lie around on an oversized waterbed. We have a great deal of fun!

***Dmitri: Mia and I stepped out for fondue because #tourists. We got to talking with the restaurant owner and she confessed that no one there eats fondue, except at rare occasions at home when it’s cold. So, we’re paying a lot for tourist cheese. Oh well, it’s pretty good. My mom had a thing for fondue so it brings back good memories and I get to share that a little with Mia. The down side is that it’s stupid expensive and we only eat one portion but we’re still super hungry. What do you do when you’ve been traveling and need cheap food and everything is closed? Yeah, you buckle and hit the McDonald’s. Don’t judge. You’d have done it, too. And it was good. I don’t care.***

June 29

We wake up and have a truly fabulous breakfast. After breakfast, we decide to take the Gornergrat train up to the summit to see if we will have any decent views of the Matterhorn. It’s pretty cloudy, but it’s our best shot. We head up and are charmed by the views from the train. At the top, it’s pretty socked in. We walk around the (two!) shops and the restaurant and hope that the clouds will lift.

There is an outside area we roam around and it starts to spit snow at us. Crazy. End of July and we are in snow.

Finally we decide the clouds are not going to lift so we take the train down a few stops and go for what we think will be a 45 minute walk from stop to stop, where we will pick up the train to continue back down the mountain.

A little peak of the top!!! We think!!

The sun comes out, we see marmots, and despite rain in the forecast, we don’t get wet. We manage to get a few different views of the Matterhorn when the clouds shift. We walk and walk and walk and it’s so pretty, but 45 minutes have come and gone. It seems we have missed our stop and now have to walk a great deal more. Not fantastic for Dmitri’s knees, but he’s holding up. We run into another couple and the same thing has happened to them. We walk. And walk. And finally meet up with the train and make our way back to Zermatt. We celebrate with prosecco and get a little tipsy. Dmitri and Cindy decide to go shopping and that’s always fun when tipsy. All in all, it’s a great day.

***Dmitri: God damn, that hurt my knees. Well, the scenery was spectacular. Cindy twirled in a high meadow as I played the intro track to “The Sound of Music” on my iPhone. It was glorious. Mia tells me that we can’t include it on video because the copyright police are flagging Julie Andrews. Haters. And yeah, we know it’s Austria in the movie. Whatever.***

Switzerland is NOT ugly!