Last night Mike asked “what does Rick Steves suggest we do in Zermatt?” I’m pretty sure he suggested not to come here. I’m glad we ignored his advice this time. Our answer to “what do you do in Zermatt?” would be one word. MATTERHORN.
Yesterday was overcast and rainy. So no Matterhorn siting.
After a long jet laggy night we woke up at 6am to check the sky. Thick fog and clouds on the mountains, so we went back to bed. We headed down to breakfast at around 8am. Delicious breakfast buffet. We kind of stuffed ourselves. The whole time I watched the clouds move across the mountain hoping they’d clear so we’d get a glimpse of the Matterhorn.
After breakfast we walked over to the grocery store to grab some snacks then headed back to the room to wait for the clouds to clear. I napped. I woke up and Mike told me the sky was clearing so we headed out to see if we could see the famous mountain.
Spoiler alert:
We headed up the main drag to find a good view. When we glimpsed the peak for the first time Mike’s exclamation was something like. “Oh my god! OH MY GOD!!” I had to smile when I heard that. I tend to put a ton of pressure on myself to create a nice vacation for us and I’m always worried Mike won’t enjoy himself or think that it’s worth it. When I heard “Oh my God! OH MY GOD!!” I think I let out a small sigh of relief. This was worth it.
We kept moving closer and closer getting better and better pictures. We ended up at a little shaded spot just taking pictures and staring at this spectacular mountain peak. I took so many pictures I could fill this blog. Here’s a photo montage. Watch as much or as little as you’d like.
Rick Steves says Zermatt is hard to get to and extremely touristy compared to, say, the alps of the Lauterbrunnen Valley (one of my favorite places on the planet) and I’d agree. Plus, during the day there is non-stop construction noises and construction helicopters flying around making it not particularly peaceful. But seeing the Matterhorn was worth the crowds, travel and noise.
After 30-45 minutes of mountain gazing we strolled back through town in Matterhorn afterglow and headed to the train station. We had to figure out our long journey to our next stops tomorrow, Pisa and Lucca. The train attendant was very helpful in finding us a route and booking our tickets. Fortunately, Mike was checking out routes and things were looking tricky and crowded, thus our walk to the train station to get expert help.
Tickets in hand, we grabbed a couple of Bratwursts on the way back to the hotel.
The hotel staff (all charming and very helpful) suggested we eat in the breakfast room which had this view.
We headed up to the room and napped for a while and then I headed out to see the Matterhorn again while Mike worked on his blog. I found a little cemetery behind the church where mountain climbers who died while climbing the Matterhorn were buried and then strolled through a little park.
I wanted to get Mike out of the room one more time to see the mountain in different lighting so we headed back out and grabbed a few more pictures before grabbing dinner. (Burgers, nothing worth writing about.)
When we got back to the hotel we asked if we could go down into the lower dining room of the restaurant at the hotel. We wanted to see this.
It’s an old electric railcar that they placed here and then built the hotel around it. Neat! The restaurant is only open Wednesday through Sunday but the hotel clerk turned on the lights for us and let us get pictures.
On Zermatt
I think I would have been a little disappointed if we hadn’t seen the Matterhorn due to clouds but I would probably have thought, “No big deal. It’s just a mountain peak.” But now I know what a phenomenal beauty it is in person and I’m so grateful for this experience. I understand why Walt Disney wanted to bring this giant back home.
We wrapped the evening with some Swiss made chocolate from Laderach.
Thanks for following along!
Art’s Travel Adventures 