Shivery Zermatt!
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2008
1
41
57
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Where I stayed
Campingplatz Alphubel
Zermatt, Swiss Alps, Switzerland
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Anyway, we found a garage on our way to get her checked over! He was a very nice mechanic, but could speak very little English so it was difficult to communicate with him. But, he did find the problem which was the exhaust had split in two & needed welding together - phew we thought, as Paul initially thought it may have been the turbo, which would have cost a lot of money to replace! Unfortunately, he couldn't do it for us as he didn't have the right equipment, but he pointed out a Renault garage a couple of minutes up the road, which he said should do it! Eventually we find a Renault garage that wants to help us with no mention of Winnie's size - yay! They had no problem doing it for us - we just had to wait a couple of hours, which was fine, & she was good as new & ready to hit the road again!
We were staying at a campsite in Tasch, which is the nearest place to Zermatt where you can take your car, as Zermatt in a motor free zone! The campsite was in a perfect location right next to the train station, where you take a shuttle to Zermatt, but unfortunately the facilities were less than impressive! Showers had to be paid for, internet was a ridiculous price & didn't even work, so we got our money back there - all in all not a great campsite, but best located for the shuttle which was really the most important thing for us! So, our intentions in coming to Zermatt, was to go skiing on the Matterhorn Glacier, which is Europe's highest Glacier, along with seeing the Ice Caves that are up at the top also!
So, the first day we decided to go up to the Glacier to visit the Ice Caves & suss out how easy it would be to get up there with all our ski gear on & carrying our skis that we bought in Austria! The answer - not very! They were doing a lot of work to the slopes in Zermatt ready for the winter season, which would have meant us having to walk quite far when we reached the top to eventually be able to ski, not to mention the bits before we got to the Gondola station at the bottom! So, after going up there we decided we shouldn't ski there, as it was just too much hassle for us carrying everything & we were both feeling a little under the weather, so it wouldn't have helped that either! We were a really gutted, as it was amazing up there, & there was lots of fresh powder snow - perfect skiing conditions & I'm sure much better than the slopes in Austria in terms of being a little less icy!
Anyway, we were still glad we went up there, as the views were amazing from the top & Zermatt itself is a very beautiful place - so picturesque! We were however slightly disappointed with the Ice Caves as most of the sculptures had melted so most of it was closed off, which was a bit rubbish but hey ho - you win some, you lose some eh (& we did get two free bars of chocolate, so it wasn't all lost!)! I imagine when the sculptures are done in the winter season the Ice Caves would be amazing & we would definitely like to come back to ski in Zermatt, as there are a lot of Pistes & you can even ski over the mountain into Italy - cool!
We decided to head off that same day, as there was no point hanging around in a crappy campsite when there was nothing else left for us to see or do here! So, we had some food in Zermatt, headed back, packed up our things & headed off at 4pm, which was when the last check out was! So, now to Lake Garda, Italy - country number 24!
