Switzerland Day 5: The Matterhorn!

Here's what we woke up to see in the morning on the day we left for Zermatt!

We walked around these stairs into a lovely breakfast room with a DELIGHTFUL breakfast!

Here's what my Dad ate!

They were wonderful and had special gluten-free vegan options for me, including bread, almond yogurt, vegan cheese, plus fruit and vegetables, of course!

I was able to make a couple of lunches from the leftovers!

Here's the room my parents stayed in. 

Cute!

Unfortunately, this place only had one bathroom, which scared us all a little bit, but it worked out just fine for two nights.

Greg got some physical Swiss Francs and they're beautiful!

Here's what I decided to wear.  It was warm and humid (as it was every day we were there!)

When Greg and I were in Switzerland eight years ago, it was quite rainy and chilly, so we were surprised by hot 

Off we went!

(walking to the train station: Hauptbahnhof)

Zoom in if you want to see the train lines!

Greg will explain it to you!

These train lines are well-traveled because lots of people want to see the Matterhorn and Zermatt, so there is more fancy stuff on these trains - this display screen, for example!

We successfully got all our suitcases on the train and transferred a couple of times, too.

Transferring to new accommodations was always challenging because of moving luggage, but we helped each other and we did it!

Greg taught my Dad how to use the SBB train app!

This bathroom had pretty murals!

The inside of the train:

Leaving Interlaken:

Eventually we got to transfer to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, heading for Zermatt!

It was fun to watch the front of the train from the back when went go around corners!

Of course the views were incredible!

Quite a few small buildings in the rural areas are shingled with thin slices of rock!

Greg stood by the luggage on some of the legs of our train journey to watch things and to make sure they didn't roll away.  He probably had the best views!

If I had had the time, I would've stopped to investigate this church!

One of the bendy parts of the train in between cars:

Most things in Switzerland are cute!

Another house with a rock roof!

Skulls on the wall:

A field full of beautiful wildflowers!

Another corner:

We arrived in Zermatt!

(Can you see me in the blue pants on the right?)

Die Post!

Dad and Mom with a photo of the Matterhorn - don't worry, they saw the REAL THING this day, too!

Oh good!  There's a Co-op right outside the train station!

We're in Zermatt!

And there is THE MATTERHORN!

Can you see it peeking up over the buildings?

Here's a close-up:

We had to walk a bit to our accommodations:

We waited a bit for the man at the desk to help us stow our luggage so we could get out and about without it!

We stored it in the basement in a locked room (used in the winter for storing skis!)

The electrics were interesting.

The room signs had little Matterhorns on them:

Look at the cute town!

We went to Co-Cop and Migros to get some food and beverages.

(Can you see me?)

I love these pretty blue shutters!

More people spoke French here.

The streets aren't very wide and all the vehicles are electric; no cars are allowed.

Swiss German is SO CUTE!!!

In German German this would be a Schokobrötchen, but in Swiss German, it's a 

Schogglweggli.  I LOVE IT!  (But no wonder that it's hard for a regular German speaker to understand this very different dialect!)

Greg often got pretzels and a nice yummy pretzel bread sandwich.

Plus a pain au chocolat.

We had an al fresco meal!

(And look at how my parents and I match!)

I had dried fruit and nuts, two small hummus and vegan cheese sandwiches with gluten-free buns, and some chocolate!

Look at this guy, vacuuming the street!

And then we tried to find the train station to get up to view the Matterhorn.  The area at the top is called the Gornergrat.  But we got lost!  Even though Greg and I did this excursion eight years ago, we couldn't remember where the station was!

It was quite warm and we got very sweaty.

Community Library

We did get to see some sights we otherwise wouldn't have seen!

For example, this view of the Matterhorn with the adorable Swiss chalets in the foreground is wonderful!

Construction:

Mom sharing some excitement!

Hot Christie, trying to keep a good attitude:

Finally we found a bus that took us to the station to the Gornergrat!

And then we were on the train up to see the Matterhorn!

It is cute to look at all the chalets in the valley!

More cogs to help pull the train up the mountain!

On one flat area there was some construction:

There is the very recognizable Gornergrat!

The Sphinx Observatory is on top.

There are my parents, seeing the Matterhorn from up close for the first time:

We walked across the snow to the edge of the area where we could view the Matterhorn!  It was surprisingly warm.

Here come my parents, trying not to slip on the packed snow!

Look at my Mom's amazed face!

Helicopter tours were available:

We were happy!

It got cool enough that my jacket was nice.

Parents' selfie:

The snow was dirty but my rubber-soled shoes did great!

There's a glacier down there!

Cute little high-altitude rock flowers:

We watched the paragliders:

There's a little chapel at the top.

I asked Greg if he had any change so I could light a prayer candle.  I like the symbolism of the candle taking the prayer to God and I like the visual of many candles (many prayers) all together.

Greg did have change, so I lit a candle!

What a blessing to help my Mom get to see the Matterhorn!

The weather up there was lovely!  It was warm, but not hot, and we were surrounded by gorgeous snowy peaks!

My parents decided to do some sunbathing.

Because we had gotten lost down in Zermatt, many of the "attractions" (cafe, shops, etc) at the Gornergrat were already closed, but that was okay with us.

Selfie taken in a window with allllll the snowy mountains around us (plus a bonus paraglider!)

A little Christie cave!

The clouds are rolling in!

My Mom was still excited!

Can't really see because of the snow, but this is an example of a cog-wheel train track.  This trail has info about the development of the train track up there and it gives a nice photo opportunity!

This instrument measures precipitation!

Info about the process of building the train track;

There's the train going down . . . 

We had a snack on these benches.  The birds were eating nuts from my Dad!

Time to head down the mountain . . . 

The cute train seat fabric pattern:

Mountains, pine trees, and edelweiss:

Can you see Zermatt in the valley?

I fell asleep . . . (trains have this effect on me!)

We eventually made it back to our hotel!

It was cute and very clean.

We could see the hills and all the cute rooftops out the window.

The bathroom was very modern and clean.

My parents got an even fancier room!

They had a lovely balcony!

AND they could see the Matterhorn from their window, balcony, and BED!!!

There is the cute street down below:

Snow safety devices on the roof:

The rest of my parents' balcony:

The Matterhorn from inside their room:

My Dad and Greg had seen these sausages outside the butcher shop earlier in the day, but by the time they got back there, the shop was closed for the evening.

My Dad picked up dinner from this cute McDonald's.  Greg got some stuff from the grocery store.  I had food left over from earlier in the day, so I ate that.

And here is my dinner!

Potatoes, paprika lentil chips (my mother is watering thinking of these, but I can't find them here!), a gluten-free sandwich.

Greg got a water that had the Matterhorn in the bottom of the bottle!

Of course I had chocolate, too!

This vegan choco berry was my FAVORITE!

This chocolate wasn't vegan, so I didn't eat it, but we got it when we went to the Jungfraujoch the day before.  You can tell the weather was WARM from the shape of the chocolate!

I was excited to see the sheep on the hillside, and I could hear their lovely bells.

The sun lit up the clouds around the mountain.

Nighty-night, and come back soon to join in the next day of our adventure!