Next stop, Zermatt! Three days of mountain views, cable cars, scenic trains, and a few adventures that didn’t go quite as planned. We were finally in the Alps, and we had some serious altitude to tackle.
Zermatt
There’s just something cheery about Alpine homes with their balconies full of bright flowers. This was our home for three days, complete with a clear view of the Matterhorn!
But first, the requisite overpriced arrival lunch.
Maps
Let’s get oriented! Zermatt is down in the bottom left. During our stay, we took a gondola to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise (upper right), a funicular to Blauherd (far left), and a cog train up to Gornergrat (middle).
Matterhorn Glacier Paradise
Our host advised us to take our time getting to the top, stopping along the way to adjust to the altitude. Naturally, we ignored that advice and zipped straight up from Zermatt at 1,620 meters (5,315 ft) to the Klein Matterhorn at 3,883 meters (12,740 ft). That’s quite a climb, and a perfect recipe for altitude sickness.
The journey took us through several stations, including Furi (1,867 meters), Schwarzsee (2,583 meters), and Trockener Steg (2,939 meters), where we transferred to the Matterhorn Glacier Ride for the final ascent.
We’d picked up an extra fleece layer for this trip, and we needed it. It was really cold! We had hoped to take the gondola across the border into Italy, but it wasn’t running that day. Connor decided to try walking there instead. Well, sort of.
After Connor’s attempt to enter Italy, we wandered into the Glacier Palace. It sounded like a great name for a great place. It wasn’t. Once I realized we were actually inside the glacier, I promptly announced, “I’m out!”
On the way back down, we stopped to explore a mountain lake and take some photos, then had lunch at the first place we could find.
Blauherd
This was a bit of a nothing sandwich. We went, we looked, we headed back down.
Connor wanted to walk down, so he got off at Sunnegga (2,288m). Here he is looking optimistic.
Unfortunately, the trail turned steep and gravelly, and he took a few tumbles, injuring his knee. It’s one of those moments I’ve replayed many times, wishing I’d insisted he wait until Gornergrat, where we were more familiar with the trails.
Gornergrat
The train took us up to Gornergrat, where we looked around a bit before heading back down to Rotenboden to walk to one of the mirror lakes.
But not just any old mirror lake — the very one we visited on our honeymoon 31 years ago!
From there, we continued walking down to Riffelberg, where we had lunch before catching the train back to Zermatt.
Vocabulary
The word of the day is Zmuttweg. No great insights here. I just thought it sounded cute.
Getting our last views of Zermatt, and proof that Connor was walking comfortably after his tumble. At least that eased my guilt a little.
For the record, we left with zero Fuchs. I’m serious, we didn’t manage (or afford) to buy the chocolate that was sold here.
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