Zermatt

Panorama coach on the narrow gauge railway

We woke up, more refreshed than we expected after a very hot night in the hotel.  Went down for breakfast - usual array on offer and then packed and walked our suitcases to the station.  We went along the prom this time, said goodbye to Freddie, and then wondered how to get our suitcases up the very steep hill to the station...our first attempt we saw a huge flight of steps - hummmm, we walked on, I then noticed a blue line on the pavement that said lift...we walked to the end of it...there were escalators up - phew, for the first time we were going to arrive at the station without a sweat on!  We found our train, 1st class compartment (of course) and settled in.  The train headed along the lake shore for a while and then headed in land along a valley - most of which was industrial - quarries (well they have plenty of rock in Switzerland don't they?!)  When we arrived at the town of Visp we changed trains to go up a very steep valley to Zermatt.  It was in a rather lovely panoramic train, 1st class again, narrow gauge with rack and pinion - it was very very steep in some places, but all rather lovely as the hills and mountains took over, and wooden chalets became the norm again (although I think Grindelwald is slightly more picturesque but I am picking at hairs).  

Cow with bell

We arrived at Zermatt, luckily I had looked at the hotel website yesterday and discovered that if you called ahead they will send a bus out to meet you, I did so and the bus was waiting for us.  Lovely.  No cars are allowed in Zermatt, you have to park at the village before and take a train into the village, the only other vehicles allowed are these electric buses that the hotels have to ferry their residents around.  It meant again that we didn't get in a sweat getting our bags to the hotel - yay!  We got to the hotel and were able to check in right away - it was only 12!  Result.  The hotel room is spacious and modern - a huge step up from last night - we are excited for breakfast already!

Zermatt from above

We dumped our stuff, did some emergency laundry in the sink - we have a huge balcony on which we can dry it and headed out in search of lunch and ended up in a pretzel shop again - can't get enough of them (I wonder how many lbs I will put on in these two weeks of carbs and meat!) We then went shopping - turned out to be a bit of a mission in the end.  Although Zermatt has all the designer stores, it is more down to earth than other places, and the prices are reasonable (well by Swiss standards anyway).  My rucksack has been falling apart throughout the journey and needed replacing, but everything was CHF100 and above which is too much.  I found a whole load at CHF80 and at 30% off so I went for it - much to the boys' delight - my falling apart rucksack has been annoying them, I also got a new T-shirt.  Matt got himself a new baseball hat (he left his on the train to the chocolate museum in Zurich - silly boy), Tom got himself a new bear (of course) and a bear T-shirt!  So we were all winners.  We looked at restaurants on the main drag and they seemed very reasonable - so made plans for the evening.

Reward for a steep walk in the heat!

We then went back to the hotel as we had left the suncream behind - and it was heating up again.  Once we got there, we decided to have our afternoon down time and then go out when it was a bit cooler.  Matt had found a view point above the village from which we might be able to see the Matterhorn clearly.  Just as well it was a bit cooler, cause it was hot work walking up the steep tracks to the viewpoint.  It was a great viewpoint of the rock, but clouds were obscuring the top of it.  We waited and waited but the clouds were stubbornly attached to it.  Oh well, we had been told that the view of it is better in the morning, so we will try again then.

By the time we had returned to Zermatt we were all gasping for a drink and hungry so we headed to one of the bars we had recced earlier - the Brown Cow (of course) for a huge hot dog (Tom) and Burger (Matt) and chicken wings (me) it was delicious and the cheapest meal of the holiday and I had a large beer when I normally have a small one!  

We then walked through the town slowly back to the hotel.  As we passed a good view of the Matterhorn we noticed the clouds had gone so got snapping.  Phew - problem was it was twilight so not great photos, but at least we had seen it (and as you see in black and white they come out great).  We then returned to the hotel for more showers and down time before bed.  We left Tom in the room to get to sleep whilst we went to the hotel bar (first hotel to have a bar) for a drink.  One theme of this holiday is thirst - always we are (well I am) thirsty - it is hot and anyone who knows me well knows that I sweat in the heat so I am constantly replenishing but never satisfied!