Zermatt

Friday, May 9

After exploring Lauterbrunnen, we left the Bernese Oberland and hopped on the cog train and went to Interlaken, where we transferred a couple of times to make it to Zermatt. We had a little layover time in a town called Spiez, so we went and looked at the beautiful Interlaken lakes and got some food. We ran across the street from the train station and got a schnitzel from a bakery there. I had no idea what it was but I knew that it was very German and Swiss so we should try it. That's how a lot of things on this trip have gone :) Later I looked it up and a schnitzel is some kind of meat coated in bread crumbs and then fried. Ours was chicken and was on a sandwich with some sort of sauce that kind of tasted like deviled eggs filling. Haha that's the best way to describe it, but it was lighter than that and tested really good with the sandwich. After the little bakery where we got the schnitzel we went to a grocery store and I noticed that there were a bunch of paprika chips so we decided to try them... I was nervous because yesterday we bought some chips in Lauterbrunnen and they were so gross! I refused to eat them and didn't even want Rusty to eat them because they made his breath so bad haha. :) But we decided to try these new ones! We also noticed the HUGE selection of cheese and sausages in the store. Holy cow. Here we bought something I couldn't pronounce but it was like a hot ham and cheese taquito. We added some orange juice and made it a great meal!

So we rode the train through really pretty canyons and saw the landscape start to get a little drier. It reminded us a lot of Colorado and made us feel at home. When we got to Zermatt we walked down the main street until we found our hotel, checked in, dropped our bags off, and then went to explore. I was really surprised because I thought with the Matterhorn being such a big deal you would be able to see it from the town, but you had to walk for a while to catch a view. We got to a little grassy hill and saw the Matterhorn but the top was covered with clouds. It's really tricky to be able to see the entire mountain, especially during May. So we decided to just chill on the grass and wait. It was really warm and sunny so it was really relaxing and a lot of fun! We waited and waited but it never came out!! Tomorrow is supposed to be clear in the morning but rainy in the afternoon, so we decided that we would just wake up early and check it again. On our way out we meet a guy that told us that usually the Matterhorn will clear up in the evenings. So we decided to go and get some dinner and come back later.

Our train!

 

My handsome travel partner :) Love this man!

Our first glimpse of the Matterhorn!

Almost clear!

We had checked the night before for restaurants and specific food we wanted to try. Switzerland has a dish called rösti that is really popular and common, a lot of different kinds of fondue, bratwursts, and of course apple strudel. The restaurant we had chosen was closed for the off season so we just wandered around checking menus all written in German for any of the items on our list  (we decided to only eat at places where the menus on the street were written in the native language of the country we were in, no English. It was an excellent decision!). We found one that had seating outside and decided to try it. It was empty, which is usually a bad sign, but the menu looked so good we did it anyway. Later we found out that the restaurant also continues on the inside where it was really busy, so that fixed our concerns. :) Oh, also everything in Zermatt is SUPER expensive because it is a resort town. So we were trying to be reasonable, which this place was. We ordered a salad, herb fondue, and a ham and cheese and egg rösti. Rösti turns out to be really tasty and kind of like a breakfast for us. The bottom layer was crispy shredded potatoes, then it had cheese and ham, and an egg on top. It was so good! And the fondue was to die for. The herbs really made it burst with flavor, and although we were kind of getting tired of cheese it was so different that we were completely happy to eat that with our bread!

Delicious fondue and Rosti! Rusty tried to turn the burner down and ended up killing the flame... he told the waiter that the wind blew it out... It wasn't windy at all. He also did a very nice puppet show for me with the fondue forks just as two businessmen walked towards us behind him. :) And there were some comments about all of the people we've seen on this trip that was something like, "Is China empty?!" Haha great dinner!

And for dessert, we found some apple strudel!

After dinner we went back to the hotel for a while. Then I noticed that the sky seemed to be clear so we went out to check. There is one little spot by our hotel on the main street where you can see the Matterhorn. When we got there it was pretty much clear with only a few clouds! I got so excited and nervous that I would miss it that I ran the entire way to that park area. It was clear! We took some pictures there as it was getting dark and then just sat there and enjoyed it. We were so happy we finally got to see it! We knew that our time in Switzerland was a success no matter what the weather did tomorrow. We saw all of our mountains, which was way more than we had hoped for. :)

   

 

       

Saturday, May 10

Today we had the whole day to just explore. We had found a pretty trail yesterday called Matterhorn Way that we wanted to try. It took you all the way to a little town called Zmutt (not the most pleasant sounding name) and then to another one called Furi. The whole thing was going to take about three to four hours which was great. This hotel had breakfast included too, and it was very similar to the breakfast we had in Murren. Because this one was in a city and was more easily accessible it also had some fresh fruit which was nice. By now we were tired of the cheese and meats but we had cereal, fruit, and hot chocolate. Then we got all geared up and headed on our way!

It was a really beautiful hike and because it was a little drier it made us think of Colorado. We saw lots of different wildflowers and Rusty really liked these bright purple ones. We also saw the different pine trees they have here! They are really thin and have tiny pinecones and are a brighter green color, but they also have the same pines we have, like Douglas Fir and Lodgepole Pine (thanks to my handy Colorado husband for that). As we were hiking, the Matterhorn would get close to becoming clear but it never quite made it. It kept coming in and out of view from other mountains on our hike too which made it difficult. But because we saw it last night we really weren't that worried about being able to see it the entire time.

The Matterhorn!

Looking down at Zermatt

We got to Zmutt and it was really small, like maybe ten buildings in the whole town. They were mostly restaurants and hotels. It was just like a ghost town and we didn't see anyone which made it kind of creepy and eerie, especially because we saw these dusty footprints on the deck of one of the restaurants and then they just disappeared! Ahhhhh! So we got out of there fast; I didn't even take any pictures haha. Before that town there was a handful of little cabins. It was in a small valley and it made me think of The Hobbit. All of the house were raised above the ground and had large stones on top of poles underneath the house. I'm assuming these are a type of foundation because of the incredible amount of snow they get here. Another interesting thing is that we noticed in the canyon coming here yesterday that all of the houses had stones on their roofs. It was the same in Zermatt and on the little towns up on the mountain. Maybe the winds get really strong?

The little neighborhood!

Then we went across a bridge that was really high above a canyon. We kept hiking and eventually got to Furi which, if you can imagine, is even smaller than Zmutt. There were maybe five buildings in the whole town, but there was a ski lift that would take you to Zermatt or, get this, over the mountain range to Italy!! I got so excited when I saw this and if we aren't going to Italy tomorrow I probably would have done it. Also it only took you to a ski run so we didn't think it was worth it. But a lot of ski runs were still open; we saw skiers while we were hiking and the whole time we've been in Zermatt we've seen people walking with skis.

On top of the bridge looking down!

 

Ski lift to another country! :)

Inside the ski lift area was a vending machine with some crazy things. Like condoms and pregnancy tests. For your daily ski needs.

Furi was our final destination so after this we started our hike back down but we decided to go a different way that wrapped around the other side of the mountain. We found a little farm house that had a lot of sheep and when we got close we saw that there were little lambs! They were so cute! They looked really different from the sheep that I know because they had long tails, curly horns, and black on their faces and backs of their legs.

Cute little baby sheep! 

Look how long those horns are!

We crossed over another bridge over the same big canyon and then took a water break sitting on another little bridge over a creek. At the end, the trail dropped us down on the opposite side of Zermatt that we had never explored so we walked down and looked for somewhere to eat. We really didn't want any more meat and cheese or a sandwich, or Italian because we were leaving to Venice tomorrow, but that pretty much cut out all of our options. Luckily for us we found a little English pub that had nachos and a bratwurst so we went there. The nachos were good because we were missing some spice and they had jalapeños, but they also had the nastiest sweet pickles and picked onions on them. So gross! The bratwurst was actually pretty good, but those are never my favorite. As an unexpected bonus she brought us out a piece of delicious cake, that was Italian and so tasty! :) After dinner we went back to the hotel and took naps and then went for a walk. Rusty got a milkshake and then we found some souvenirs. We bought 10 Toblerone bars and some postcards and stamps to send to our families. Rusty also bought a cool cup that has a carabeener for a handle that he is stoked to use when we go camping. Zermatt is kind of a funny place because it is really expensive and a big ski town, but there are still little vacant houses that look like they are 150 years old sprinkled throughout the town.  We went home, did some stuff to get ready for our next stops and then went to bed! 

And the Matterhorn disappeared again.

Sunday, May 11

Today we got up early and got ready and all packed up to leave for yet another stop! We get to our fourth country today: Italy! I have been excited about visiting Italy for a really, really long time. And today we are going to Venice and I don't think I could be more excited! It's supposed to rain this afternoon when we get there but tomorrow should be better. We checked out of our hotel and then had some breakfast and made our way to the train! We caught everything just fine out of Zermatt and Brig, where I used my first pay toilet of my life. Then we said goodbye to Switzerland!