Hello friends,I hope you have enjoyed our recent trip to Switzerland. This is my last post from our 'wintery escapades', so it's only fitting to wrap things up with a weekend get-a-way to Zermatt!
Have I mentioned that we don't travel lightly? It's wintertime, so we needed winter boots, gloves, scarfs, hats, jackets, hiking boots, dress attire, workout gear, etc.. for three weeks time.
We had three large trunks, two nap sacks, and my SLR camera + gear. You can imagine what we look like in transit, our three trunks weighed in at 67 Kilo (148 pounds)...
After a long week of meetings and dinner commitments, the World Traveler was ready to get out of Vevey and was looking forward to a fun weekend skiing Matterhorn. We were eager to hit the road for a three hour train from Vevey to Zermatt, and settle in for the night.
The village/town of Zermatt is quaint, with more of a winter feel than Noel. Fireplaces and animal skins to sit on, wintergreen and natural fibers lining the windows.
{St Niklaus - from train}
Adventure: We didn't plan to ski which meant I skied in running pants and wool mittens, Bill wore jeans! Skiing Matterhorn is serious business so you can imagine how out of place we looked.I admired a jacket while strolling Friday night, wishing I skied more than once a decade. Not that I would have bought a ski jacket for $3,000 Swiss Franc ($3,350 USD)... {gulp}. It was beautiful! I took a photo so I can drool over it from time to time.
Getting there: We took the train from Vevey to Zermatt, through small towns and village's like St Niklaus, and Kalpetran. Look at this photo, it's dreamy!
Six inches of fresh snow fell during our train ride, making for a magical ride through small villages. In addition to snow, we saw waterfalls, glacier blue streams... breathtaking views.
Zermatt is a rare place that doesn't allow for automobiles. Your only choice is an electric taxi/bus, horse & carriage, or on foot.
{Italy or Switzerland}
Skiing Matterhorn: Saturday morning we were up and out the door by 9am, walked next door to be fit for rental gear and off the slopes.Skiing in 2013 involves a credit card with a GPS chip. I guess this is how they keep track of skiers, and how they know if you took a wrong turn and started skiing in Italy. If you paid to ski Italy it's fine, we did not select this option since our passports were in the hotel safe.
tip: keep your passport with you!
The skiing was good, mostly a mix of green/blue trails. It was very windy at the peak but we enjoyed the highest trail four times before making our way down, and across the mountain.
Happy hour, post slopes, is a must experience at any ski resort. We found live music at a Dublin bar, a glass of wine. A lovely time.
Sunday we were hoping to paraglide but it wasn't safe (high winds), so we enjoyed a quiet morning and took the early train to Geneva.
It's four hours to Geneva. A quick workout, dinner on the lake and we were ready for a early morning, nine hour, flight home.
What an amazing adventure we had. This trip will stay with me for a long, long time.
