Zermatt

• Sam_continental's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Zermatt

Trip Start Apr 07, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End May 07, 2008 Next
Entry

  Zermatt, Swiss Alps, Switzerland
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Just arrived in Lausanne so will fill in on my stay in Zermatt! Well to start with the journey to get there was great in itself, as it has been with all my train rides this month. Disappointingly, my Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, which has been incredibly useful so far, failed to inform me that I would need to pay for the train stint from Visp to Zermatt; it said I would need to for many other trains on the line but not for the particular one I'd chosen. As soon as I boarded however I knew I couldn't possibly get away with this leg for free (well just with my Interrail) as there were massive panoramic windows and it was generally pretty cushty. So it was no surprise when the bloke came round, took my rail pass, started shaking his head in dismay saying "this is.....no good".  I put on my innocent face but was quite worried he might make an example out of me and give me a hefty fine, but luckily he just issued me with a ticket, which was half price with my pass. At about 8 quid it was no skin off my nose as the views were absolutely amazing. It was a narrow gauge track, so sometimes there were huge drops just the other side of the window with water just cascading down the side of huge rock faces into the rivers at the bottom. Excellent. When I got to Zermatt (1620m above sea level) the hostel was quite easy to find and was very nice, modern and clean, but quite different from everywhere else I'd stayed so far. This wasn't a bad thing as it felt very safe, there was no bar, lots of families and people of all ages. Also I couldn't believe straight out of my dorm window I could see the Matterhorn, boom it was right there infront of me, unbelievable. Dinner was included aswell which was handy.

My first day in Zermatt was a bit weird really because it was so different from everywhere else I'd been on this trip. It was so quiet and small, I kept thinking what am I going to do here for three days? I was completely in 'rush around, try to see loads of stuff' mode and it took me the whole first day to slow myself down. I also felt quite out of place, it seemed like everyone was a skier or a snowboarder or a hiker, or had at least bought some sensible snowboardy-type clothing with them, as obviously it would be cold up in the mountains, something I hadn't thought of before I left home! I was seriously thinking of leaving a day early or even the next day as I just didn't feel comfortable at all.

However after a good night's sleep I felt a lot better, put loads of layers on, bought a hat and boarded a mountain railway to Gornergrat (3089m), and I'm so glad I did! Even though it was thick snow, it was quite warm because it was so sunny, still minus degrees but I was fine with my hat on, and there were loads of other people up there the same as me, who'd just come up for the scenery. And what scenery! Fantastic view of the Matterhorn and all the smaller snowy mountain tops. I don't know whether it's always like that or whether it was because we had heavy snowfall the previous night, but we were in quite thick snow at Gornergrat aswell.

The next day I decided to go up the mountains by another route to Swarzsee Paradise (2583m) which was supposed to be beautiful and is right at the foot of the Matterhorn. However I decided to walk some of it, as there was a tarmac road up to Furi, the cable car station above Zermatt; a walk which I would be able to do easily without hiking boots. It was still a little tough as it was all uphill obviously but the weather was beautiful and it was good excercise. From Furi I took the cable car to Swarzsee Paradise - I just got on, not really thinking that it might be pretty hairy! Well it was fine, and I told myself that hundreds of people got on the same cable car everyday, but when something just feels very unnatural (it almost seemed that the cable was vertical at some points) I think you inevitably feel nervous until you're used to the experience. Up there the snow was even thicker than at Gornergrat and there were more skiers. I was looking around for ages for the scene that had sold going up there to me; a lake that reflected the mountains with a little chapel next to it. I was just about to head back down when I finally saw the chapel out the corner of my eye, it was white and so quite well camouflaged by all the snow, which was obviously covering up the lake presumably iced over. Walking down to the chapel meant crossing some ski paths, but it wasn't too busy, and I could see where other people had walked up to it by the footprints. I was thinking about the lake though, and obviously I didn't want to start walking on it - I could see a buoy in the snow, but also some rocks, and the footprints went right up to the chapel door so I presumed whoever went there had made it successfully there and back. As I started to follow the footprints though I could see them getting deeper and deeper into the snow, and then suddenly, my left foot slid right down until the snow was up to my knee! Agh! It gave me a bit of a fright and I had images of me just sinking until I was neck deep, so I thought sod this and headed back. I could've only been about 20 metres away and in hindsight I know I would've been absolutely fine, it was just thicker snow than I was used to, but they always say trust your instincts don't they!

I walked back down to Zermatt from Furi which was really nice, and it's quite surreal to suddenly find yourself surrounded by trees and grass and warmth when 20 minutes ago all you could see was snow. Unfortunately, I now have a pretty bad sunburned face as when I was up there the sun was reflecting off the snow, and I didn't feel it at all until it was too late. I want to say I look like a Panda but I guess an inverted Panda is more specific as I'm completely white where my sunglasses were. I guess it's a sort of metaphor for the bad point about travelling by yourself - no-one's necessarily going to be around to tell you when your face looks like it's about to ignite. i.e you have to look out for yourself. Sometimes you'll meet great people who will  look out for you for a few days, and you'll look out for them, but sometimes that won't happen and you'll have to go and buy some aftersun.

I'll try to put pictures up as soon as possible, there's been some incredible things to take pictures of. Now I'm off to find my hostel. Lots of love to all back home and I will see you pretty soon! xx

Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Chapel at Swarzsee Paradise 2	Clouds at Gornergrat	Gornergrat	Loads of snowy trees
Matterhorn from Gornergrat	Matterhorn from Swarzsee Paradise	Me at Gornergrat   Comments!	Old huts in Zermatt
Out of cablecar window	Shot requested by Dad	View at Gornergrat	View at Shwarzsee Paradise
View from cable car	View from dorm window 3 after snowfall	View from train to Gornergrat	View from train to Gornergrat 2
View out my dorm window!	View out of my dorm window 2 during the snowfall   Comments!	Zermatt from Furi	Zermatt from Furi 2

Previous Entry Next Entry