Nov 9, 2012 - Lunch in Zermatt

No time to explore yet, the station has not changed that much, but the busy platform 1 with its kiosk, and bahnhof buffet have gone, and outside the platforms of my favourite railway Furka Oberalp have been modernised. But it's another railway I am taking today. Waiting on the forecourt is a new unit of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, formally the BVZ. A nice touch on these private railways is the table map showing where you are and the surrounding area. This yet another modern train, is light airy, even roof windows so you can see up to the...

Aug 17, 2012 - Zermatt - Toblerone Town

We were off to more winding roads all day, never exactly a relaxing car ride in the back seat but exciting to watch the surroundings. We left the French area of Switz and headed back over to the German side through a valley at the end of lake Geneva. Stunning scenery. Dad drove up some winding hills and we investigated a castle just for the heck of it, the bonuses of a rental car! All we were going to do today was head to our hotel at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, but I suggested spur of the moment for us to day trip it to Zermatt. This...

Jun 19, 2011 - Guten Tage from Zermatt Switzerland

We left Milan this morning and three trains later arrived in breathtaking Zermatt, Switzerland. The cities of Italy were important to experience, except Milan which was nothing to write home about, but we are clearly the happiest in the mountains. And what unbelievable mountains these are. We are headed up the Little Matterhorn tomorrow via cable car. We thought Swiss fondue and apple strudel might give us the sustenance we will need for our hike around the area tomorrow. Jay was finally able to get a few pictures to load onto this trip...

Oct 12, 2010 - The Hike: Day 15 - Herbriggen - ZERMATT

Today started with the coldest morning in the history of the world. My fingers struggled to manipulate my belongings and as a result of having to cup and blow on them every 2 minutes, getting packed up took about 30 minutes longer than it should have. Somehow I got ‘er done and at 10am was on the road to Zermatt. That’s right, Zermatt, the final stop of the Haute Route. The road, unfortunately, was 18km long and though I flew through the first two hours of hiking, I quickly became tired, hungry and angry at Kev for leaving such a long hike...

Jun 22, 2010 - Rome to Venice to Milan to Zermatt..

3 days on...We travelled two hours on a train down to Napoli and stopped into a little restaurant for pizza and a bottle of red wine. Oh and the most wonderful thing in the world; buffalo cheese and proscuitto!! We jumped on another train for a further 20 minutes down to Pompeii. We walked around the ancient, flattened by a volcano town for a couple of hours. A really fascinating place. The next morning we got picked up in a Mercedes to drive to the airport for Venice. We very casually drove on the highway at 180kmh, another sign of crazy...

Jun 25, 2009 - Scenic Switzerland

Hello from Switzerland- a country with as many languages as it does weather conditions! We have loved this country so much and sadly we leave it tomorrow morning. We have spent 5 nights in different towns/cantons (like our states) and had so many different experiences. We visited Lucerne and its huge lake, surrounded by amazing old buildings. A cruise on the lake gave us great views of everything. We went to a traditional Swiss folklore show and dinner which was quite entertaining especially when Aaron (among others) was dragged up on stage...

Apr 22, 2009 - Vignettes Hut - Zermatt

Wow!!! What an incredible day! We watched a nice sunrise from the hut before heading down into some thick valley fog. After a quick downhill section we put on the skins and started heading up to the first col, the Col d'Eveque. It felt like a relatively gentle climb but we couldn't see through the pea soup to know what was coming up. Occasionally we caught glimpses of peaks as the fog rolled in and out and we could also see that there was a long, long line of people in front of us. We were on a glacier and at one point all of the groups...

Apr 29, 2008 - Accomplished one of my goals!

Hello hello! Sorry I have not written in a bit...but I have been super busy. Busy good though. So what is new? Well, last week I started my German classes in Bern. What a 1st experience! My boss had led me to believe that it was to be a bunch of English people learning German...well this was NOT so! I found my classroom, walked in and asked the teacher if I was in the right class...to which she responded in German. I was like.....huh? So thinking I had the wrong room I left and went back to the administration desk. Nope...I was in the right...

Oct 9, 2007 - Zermatt

hello all, this is zach i'm a guest writer for this portion of the enry, after all of our adventures in italy we decided to head up to switserland for the last portion of my journey, we hopped a train in balzano italy and headed north into the mountains, we arrived in zermatt in the dark compleatley unaware of our surroundings. after a long evenings search for reasonabley priced lodgeings, we awoke to go exploring for the day we walked to the center of the town and crossed the main bridge in the town to look up and see the matterhorn...

Jul 26, 2007 - Zermatt

Hello from Zermatt, home of the legendary Matterhorn. The town itself is basically one big tourist trap, but it is surrounded by some pretty amazing scenery. The views of the Matterhorn are spectacular. I have been lucky, as the weather is beautiful and the mountain is crystal-clear today without a cloud in the sky. I know many who have come here and never seen the peak due to clouds. I arrived about dinner time last night and immediateley set out checking out the town so I could update the book and have some free time today to go up one of...

Mar 24, 2007 - Courmayeur

23 Mar: We explored the mountain today but forgot the camera the snow is so dry and fresh but no new falls unfortunately. Even the manmade snow is dry and fresh. You can see that the season was not great as many of the off-piste areas have little snow left - it must be an amazing mountain with all those extra areas to ski. I am happy - lift tickets were cheap, ski hire was cheap and there is still heaps of great snow. We could not believe the number of cafes and restaurants on-mountain, almost every run has one. 24 Mar Deb: More skiing on...

Sep 6, 2006 - Top of the World

Well we have decided to stay two nights in Saas Fee. The place is fantastic and after we were offered free cable car rides all today, who could turn it down. We felt like we were on top of the world...and the altitude of 3500+ meters above sea level saw to that. The photo's we just hope give the place the justice that it deserves. This internet cafe of sorts is very expensive so don't have time to say more than that for now. The photo's take so long to download. Will try and get a full write up on Almagell, Brig, Saas Fee and the others...