Day 26: Vevey Day 3 - Zermatt

We woke up today at 7am so that we could arrive in Zermatt before noon. As one would expect Mary was cranky because she had to get up so early. (Mary Note: Yeah, didn't help that sleeping last night wasn't very easy due to noise outside...) We had a relaxing breakfast, real muesli. Mary did not enjoy it, she says the rolled grains are not cooked / not cooked enough. (Mary note: They're squishy! Muesli should be Crunchy!) Jeff thought the food was just fine, especially the pineapple yogurt.

We headed to the train station for 8:38 and arrived early. (Mary note: Yeah, by like half an hour... so why did we get up so early again?) Our train took us from Vevey to Visp with no transfers. We had some trouble finding a comfortable rail car. The first one we boarded was practically empty, but there was a odor of urine present throughout the air. We sat there for a few minutes and decided that we could not stomach it for the entire trip. After moving to another car we had a much better experience. Along the way we both enjoyed the scenery.

However, nearby power lines got in the way of many photo attempts. Regardless, here is a shot of the terraced vineyards that go up the side of the mountain slope:

After almost 1.5 hours on the train we arrived in Visp. The transfer was easy, we were on our way within 10 minutes. The train twisted through the valley as it headed towards Zermatt. Mary read her book most of the way up, but took breaks to enjoy the mountain scenery. We were both content to sit in our seats, unlike others on the train. There were two women who spent most of the trip with their heads half out of the train window. This action is potentially deadly on other tracks in Switzerland. (Mary note: all the other trains have "Nicht Heirauslehnen" or something like that, meaning don't lean out.) The entire train trip from Zermatt to Visp lasted roughly 1 hour. By 11pm we had arrived in Zermatt.

We got off the train and headed to the tourism office to pick up some form of map. The only maps that were immediately visible were panoramic style maps. These were of some use for determining the names of mountain peaks. We were still able to navigate without a city street map. The entire town takes approximately 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other.

Unlike other nearby towns, Zermatt is completely car free. Yet, we learned that car free does not mean vehicle free. There were many little electric taxies and pickup vehicles that could deliver people or goods to their destination. Here is an image of one:

We headed to the church square and found a bench for lunch: pear, carrot, bread, and cheese. After lunch we wandered around a little. Jeff wanted to climb a trail to get an overview of the town. Mary was not thrilled about this idea. (Mary note: Getting a little tired of all the crazy steep inclines...) In the end Jeff ran up a steep trail so that he could get the view. Mary only went up half way, where she could get a partial view.

Mary waiting for Jeff:

The view:

After the trail we headed south towards the edge of town. We expected to get a great view of the Matterhorn. We did not have time to walk part of the trail that heads towards the base of the Matterhorn. We also did not want to spend more money going up a cable car (Mary note: And really, we'd been up a much higher mountain already). Instead we walked to the main parking lot and sat on a bench. We watched the Matterhorn for roughly half an hour. Bear decided to come today, (and not be invisible) here he is:

In the process of waiting around, Jeff tried to eat his chocolate, he found out that his bag was acting like a greenhouse; it does not breathe much. The chocolate ended up making a huge spot on his shorts, and laundry was yesterday!

The clouds moved around the Matterhorn as we watched. We took several photos from the nearby area. Here are three of the best:

(Mary - psh, Jeff only included HIS pictures. Well here's one of mine!)

Just as we were about to leave we saw this person with milk cans (empty?):

When we finished watching the Matterhorn we headed to the church, here is the inside:

The Matterhorn museum is next to the church. However it was closed until 2pm. We had 30 minutes to wait. We shopped around a little and did not buy anything because Zermatt is much more expensive compared to elsewhere.

The museum building consists of a glass dome with an elevator and staircase on one side. The actual museum part is all underground. Inside the museum contained buildings that attempted to show the different aspects of life related to the Matterhorn. (Mary note: supposedly they were trying to mimic an archeological dig site?) One building was dedicated to the people who had attempted the climb, but had fallen to their death on the way down. In this building, broken rope and other artifacts were on display. In addition, we found out why many of the buildings were built on stilts: to keep the mice out. It turns out that these buildings are actually used as food storage.

We finished with the museum before 3pm. We decided that it was time to head out. We thought it would be nice to get back a little earlier than 7pm, as originally planned. On the way down to Visp Mary took some photos and read her book. Here are some of those shots (from both up and down):

The train ride from Visp went well, except that the train car's ventilation system was broken. We managed to sit there for half of the trip before the heat drove us to a different train car.

We arrived back to Vevey at 6:30 and promptly made dinner. We ate penne with tomato sauce and a salad with homemade dressing. It started raining on us when we ate outside, so we moved inside.

Tomorrow we hope to head into the nearby Lavaux region. In this area there are vast quantities of terraced grape vines. We may even try to sample some red wine to bring back home.

Hopefully the casino and bar outside our window area  is a little quieter tonight. They were pretty noisy yesterday, so we slept with our window closed. When we woke up in the middle of the night, it was pretty hot and stuffy in our room.