A sunny day in the mountains

Saturday in Zermatt finally brought us some sun and clear skies. We woke up relatively early, only to realize we had a great view of the Matterhorn right out of our hotel room window. The picture below was taken from the terrace outside of our room. Pretty awesome, right? I think it looks a little fake, but that's the real deal!

Matterhorn over Zermatt

We had planned to go up the Matterhorn Express to experience those views, but because of strong winds it was closed. Instead, we went up to Sunnegga, then to Blauherd, then on up to Rothorn. We changed cable cars at each of the stations, and actually went up to Rothorn first, so that we could then work our way back down.

The Swiss and Kanton flags at Rothorn

It was really cold at Rothorn, and we finally felt some of the wind that closed the other lift. I think I was feeling the altitude a little bit more than the previous day, so we headed inside and had some coffee and hot chocolate to warm up a little and pass some time before heading down the mountain for a lunch reservation.

34 weeks at the Matterhorn

When we ventured back outside, BK had me pose for the above picture, then we ran into Lucky the dog and his person. Lucky is a Swiss mountain dog, who has the job of posing for pictures with skiers and visitors all day. We had to take part and have a couple of pictures made. The only bad thing about it was that we about froze to death waiting behind a huge group of teenage girls who all had to have five different poses with the dog. It was a bit painful, especially when the wind picked up even more!

 

After we finished with our picture taking, we headed down to Blauherd, where we found a great bar called Blu Lounge. Since it was sunny and we had come down out of the wind, the patio at this place was a great place to hang out. When we got there there was one lone guy playing guitar and singing, then we he took a break, a larger group played. The larger group was a little different- they were part of Carnival happening in Zermatt, and were dressed in pretty funny costumes. They weren't quite as together as the other guy, but it was amusing none the less. We also had lunch at this place- if you're in Zermatt, make the trip up here.

Band playing at Blu Lounge

After we finished lunch, we headed all the way back down the mountain, into Zermatt for some walking around and a little shopping before catching the train back to Basel. While walking around we ran into some real, live curling happening in the center of Zermatt. As it seems like curling is all BBC shows from the Olympics, I had to get a pic of the real deal.

Curling matches

We headed home that evening so that BK and I could go to our Planning for Parenthood class on Sunday. Zermatt is a great Swiss destination that I would highly recommend visiting if you're over here and have a couple of days to spend exploring. I'm really interested in going back during the summer to see what it's like and experience a different side of the village.

Like I said, BK and I had class on Sunday. I'll fill you in on all the new things we learned about parenthood soon, along with the adventures of this week…be back soon!

Hitting the slopes in Switzerland

Friday in Zermatt meant that it was time to ski! Luckily for us, we had three really different days of weather. Thursday when we arrived it was snowing really hard; Friday it was still snowing a little bit, but made for nice powdery slopes to ski on; and Saturday it stopped snowing and the sun came out. Crazy!

Headed to the ski lift

Like I mentioned before, I didn't ski, but I did get suited up and go up to the top of the mountain with everyone to take pics, explore around a little bit, and be there for when everyone was ready to break for lunch or a snack. I did get quite a few looks of concern as we were headed up, and as I asked for a lift ticket (so that I could go up and down the mountain). Rightly so…no one wants to see me on skis.

How happy does he look to be on the slopes?!?!

Zermatt seems to have a large number of ski runs to choose from, with various lifts to take you up. We took the Gornergrat train up to Gornergrat (there are other stops along the way) for everyone to start skiing. During the winter the train is full of skiers, but I hear it is just as packed in the summer when people are going up for views of the Matterhorn. In theory we should have had nice view, but it was way too cloudy and snowy to see anything.

Skiers off the train and ready to go

AH and CH hired a guide/instructor to help them with skiing, as it is a little different from US skiing. If you don't really know what you're looking for, you're likely to ski right off the run you're on, and possibly right off the side of the mountain. They also don't do a lot of easy slopes in Switzerland. In fact, they don't use the color green as an identifier; it starts with blue, then red, then black, then yellow. Yellow is essentially a double black diamond, and you're on your own...not for me! My understanding is that BK stayed with the group for a few runs, then headed off on his own.

While they were all out enjoying skiing, I went up to the Gornergrat Observatory to see if there were any views from the very top (there weren't), have a snack and finish a blog post. Of course, the winter Olympics were on as well, which are kind of fun to watch at the top of a snowy mountain.

Gornergrat Observatory

A little while later I met everyone at the Riffelburg train stop to have lunch and relax. If you're up on the slopes, the Riffelburg Buffet and Bar is pretty much your only choice for refreshments- it was a good, easy meeting spot.

Riffelburg Buffet and Bar

After lunch, AH and I stayed in put while CH and BK went out for a few more runs. CH came back after a couple, and the three of us headed back down via train. BK really outdid himself and skied for quite a while longer. He ended up skiing all the way down the mountain into Zermatt on various runs. The part that really killed him though was the walk back to our hotel in his ski boots. Age is just a number, right?

Before heading down the mountain

When we got back down, we enjoyed some desserts and drinks by the fireplace in the hotel lobby, then the guys went to rest a bit. I didn't feel like I had gotten very much exercise during the day, so AH and I headed out for a walk around Zermatt. It had cleared up some and wasn't snowing, so we stopped and checked out the Mountaineers' Cemetery, which is where people who have lost their lives to the Matterhorn are buried.

Markers in the cemetery

And what day was last Friday? Valentine's Day, of course, but they don't really celebrate it here in Switzerland. The four of us went out for a nice dinner at Restaurant Julen, a somewhat traditional Swiss restaurant located in the middle of Zermatt. Everyone really enjoyed their meal; I would definitely suggest you go if you get a chance. They are known for their lamb; I had lamb ravioli and really liked it!

Dinner at Restaurant Julen

After a day full of activity and a dinner of heavy Swiss food, we were all pooped and ready to head back to the hotel after dinner. Saturday our trip came to an end, but brought beautiful weather and lots of great views. More to come on that!

A winter wonderland in Zermatt

Sometimes I can't believe that BK and I have lived in Switzerland for nearly a year and have yet to go skiing. We made sure to bring all of our ski gear when we moved at the end of March last year, only to realize that ski season was pretty much over when we got here.

Hotel transportation from train station

This was our first ski weekend in Switzerland, and we definitely picked the top of the line place to come: Zermatt. If I'm completely honest, this is probably our last ski weekend of the year too, though. Zermatt is quite the luxury ski resort town. I'm sure it helps that we stayed in a really nice hotel, Grand Hotel Zermatterhof, but we figured as this is our last pre-baby getaway and we haven't done any European travel since November, why not splurge? The hotel was really nice, is centrally located and is around 10 minutes from the train station.

Hotel Zermatterhof

Thursday afternoon when we arrived it was snowing really hard, so we met our friends, bundled up (BK and I needed to add more layers) and went to explore the town. Everything was covered in fresh snow, which was beautiful. It makes it really seem like a winter wonderland and something you see in a book…it's probably what you picture when you think of Switzerland.

Streets of Zermatt

As we were walking along, we stumbled upon a cozy little bar/restaurant that BK found online, The SnowBoat, and took a break from the winter weather to enjoy some cocktails and hot chocolate. The staff was really friendly and we enjoyed watching the Olympics with other visitors there. We didn't have a meal there, but the menu looks really good and offers some unique dishes. Based on our experience, I would think it's at least worth a try for dinner.

BK and CH warming up in the Yacht Club

After we had warmed up some, we ventured back out to explore a little bit more. One thing that we found a little annoying about the streets of Zermatt were the electric car taxis. Zermatt claims to be "car free," but in reality they are not. They are really just gas engine vehicle free. It's nice, as you never have any exhaust smell, but the taxis come very close to running any pedestrian who is in their way right over. It's irritating when you're working to stay upright on slippery streets and you have to quickly get out of the way for these little golf cart cars.

We wanted something easy for dinner, so earlier in the day AH and I looked around for somewhere while BK was renting skis for the next day. We found Pizza and Spaghetti Factory, which was close to our hotel and had a good variety of Italian food. We booked there, and after more walking around town, headed in for a nice dinner.

Lots of snow on Thursday night!

That brought our snowy night to a relatively early end, as we all knew we wanted to get up at a decent time and head up to the ski slopes. Don't panic…I didn't ski. More to come on skiing and our days in the mountains above Zermatt!