The M A T T E R H O R N

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Last night we had dinner at a pizza place up the hill from our hotel in the ski village and on the way home down a dark alleyway(that was a shortcut)we passed a house above the road where we could hear a spa pool bubbling away and some low voices talking.With our muscles from the climb up Mt Hochfluh still recovering we would have traded anything to have had 15 minutes in that spa pool to help the recuperation!!!Dreams are free!!!The spa pool at home we certainly miss from time to time when the bed and pillows of the previous night weren't too comfortable!!
The plan for today is to drive back up the valley we came down yesterday to Visp near Brig and then head up to Zermatt and the Matterhorn by the Gonergrat cog rail and spend an hour or two taking in the scenery which we expect will be spectacular.
The view from our bed through the french doors at Toko Lounge is just awesome out over the valley watching the sun rise from behind the mountains.And this morning the sky overhead is absolutely clear of cloud and there is no fog in the valley.A more perfect day for this trip we couldn't imagine.
We headed off down the hill after a buffet breakfast and turned up the valley on route #9 to Visp and the turn off to head through a 2.5km tunnel to emerge in the valley that winds its way up to Tasch where we have to park RR and take a short train ride to Zermatt.No cars are allowed in Zermatt without a special permit.
The valley was very narrow with towering mountains giving that closed in feeling.The road gained height by a series of hairpin turns through a number of small villages with houses and businesess right next to the roadway.
Not long before we reached Tasch a massive land slip from the mountain side that must have covered several football size pitches of land came into view.It looked like it had happened a number of years ago.The road had clearly had to be realigned as it took an uneven path up and over a small rise in the land.At the foot of the slip were huge boulders that were larger than a good size Swiss house.Goodness knows what would have happened had more rock come down when the slip occured.One can only speculate that more buildings would have been taken out by the slip.
At Tasch there are a number of places you can park your car and we chose the option of the parking building with direct access to the rail station and the shuttle train to Zermatt.
It wasn't going to be a cheap day out for the BBA at a cost of SwFr182 for the two of us for the day but we are sure it will be money well spent.!!
The very modern shuttle train to Zermatt leaves every 20 minutes so there is no hanging around and we were in Zermatt about 15 minutes later.The train ride up from Tasch travels through a couple of tunnels but where it rides out in the open you get a very good idea why cars are not welcome in Zermatt,the road up is extremely narrow.With many of the tourists arriving by coach we can imagine the road would be a nightmare to negoiate.
We didn't hang around at the station in Zermatt as there was a train ready to leave for the mountain so we climbed aboard.
The journey starts along a short piece of virtually flat track and then starts to climb leaving the town below us behind quite quickly.
The ride of the cog train is smooth compared to the one we rode up Mount Snowden in Wales and of course it travels to a higher altitude.Although unlike Mt Snowden this train is powered by an electric overhead whereas the one in Wales was steam.
It didn't take long before the track became very steep and the brochure we had stated that the train didn't travel at speeds faster than 15kph.
As we cleared the treeline, the views of the surrounding mountain basin came into view with the grand Matterhorn dominating with its iconic sharply rising peak with snow on one side and a sheer rock face on the other with just a scattering of snow apparent.
We cannot recall having seen such a dramatic mountain scene in all olf our travels and that includes the Southern Alps in NZ and the Rockies in the USA and Canada.
Quite simply the Matterhorn on a clear day such as we were enjoying today was just awesome!!!!
The train made a couple of stops and then we decided to get off at Riffelberg as there was just a little bit of cloud gathering to one side of the Matterhorn and we thought we should take this opportunity to get more and better photos that we could get from the train with other passengers moving about and in our vision of the mountain.
We spent about 45 minutes at the stop and took a walk out to a small chapel that overlooked Zermatt which was far below us in the valley.Unfortunately the chapel wasn't open but we were 150 metres or so away from the train station where there was the noise from the people awiting for either the next train up or down and all we had around us was perfect peace.When you clap your hands there was no echo as the noise is just absorbed by the atmosphere all around.
Gretchen had to stop herself from taking too many photos of the Matterhorn and the surrounding mountains and glaciers which were so close at hand.And my video was hard to stop taking too with so much to take in!!
After getting our fill of what was on view from this station we boarded the next train and rode up another couple of hundred metres to the next statiuon at Rodenboden which overlooked towards at least a half a dozen glaciers spilling off the mountains.
Again we had to stop ourselves taking too much video and too many photos but there was just so much scenery to enjoy.
One small disadvantage at this station were the number of people walking to and from the last stop at Gonergrat who didn';t realise that their voice carried so far in the clear atmosphere and making it not quite so peaceful as the last stop.
We rejoined the train and took the final few hundred metres to the top and Gonergrat.Here another couple of glaciers came into view and of course there was the ever present stately Matterhorn.!!
There was a little bit of commercialism going on at the station with a guy taking photos of people who wanted to pay him to pose with his two giant St Bernard dogs complete with brandy barrel attached under their chins!!We watched a trio of children lined up by their parents for a photo.The St Bernards had obviously had a hard day and their owner had to work hard to get them to pose when he was ready to take the photo.
We had a Swiss dish at the restaurant for lunch and sat behind....you guessed it a an Aussie couple.Funny how the southern accent is so recognisable amongst all the European ones around us during the day.The very tasty dish was made up of bread base,ham,cheese and a fried egg on the top and it went down very well sitting on the restaurant terrace with a cold beer and hot sun beaming down!!!Just can't remember its name!!
After a couple of hours at the top just sitting amiring the view in the brilliantly fine overhead conditions we thought we had better return to Zermatt as we had an hours drive to get to our overnight accommodation at Brig.
We sat up the front of the train on the way down to get the feeling of just how steep the incline actually was.
At Zermatt we took a short walk up the main street amongst the shops but by now we had been so spoilt by the views we had enjoyed up the mountain side that we couldn't get a lot of interest going in doing some retail therapy.probably just as well because the prices didn't look too reasonable with all those captured tourists around.
We cut out the drive down to Brig in just over an hour and found our overnight hotel before heading across the road to the Co-Op before it closed at 6.30pm to get a salad together for dinner.A salad was going to be more than enough after the huge lunch at Gonergrat.
Today's sights and scenery will be hard to beat on the rest of this adventure which has got exactly two months to go before we are due home and we are so thankful that we were blessed with such a grand day for our trip to view the Matterhorn!!!

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Comments

[Owen & Ruth]

Niklaus
Did you see this town when you traveled up the valley to Zermatt. It was decked out with Father Christmas Decorations (apparently year round) honoring St Nikklaus, who will be waiting in the wings for you when you get home to do your decorating in his honor. Now you see why I can't stop Ruth from telling everybody "go to Zermatt". Yes it truly was magnificent. I fear you did not walk down the side street there to view the 800 to 1000 year old farm houses with animal quarters below as used to be done then. Happy travelling

[Rin]

A-W-E-S-O-M-E.