Hallo all!
Had a fantastic day today! First of all thanks to all who crossed their fingers, it sort of worked! We had a foggy view of the Matterhorn this morning and then saw half of it in the sun on a walk this afternoon. But hey, having to wait around for the cloud to clear to see it makes me appreciate the view all the more. It is such a beautiful mountain with very sharp faces.
We started off walking for a bit today. I was talking to billy on Facebook this morning and heard the hotel almost vibrate a little bit but thought nothing of it because the walls are thin and floorboards creaky here so assumed it was people moving around. Turns out it was a small earthquake! As a result, lots of the heavy snow from overnight had moved about on the hills so they were blowing up parts of the hills to clear the snow. The noises sounded a bit like gunfire! We went to have a look at the glacier paradise cable car, and the board there told us the chance of avalanches today was '3 - considerable' - eek! But it's ok we are alive and there were no avalanches!
We headed to the Gornergratbahn, a train that climbs to an elevation of about 3000m above sea level.....usually. Today due to the earthquake and heavy snow there were 'technical difficulties' at the top section so the furthest we could go was Riffelsburg. So up we went, winding through the lovely snowy forest. We got out at Riffelsburg and had a nice view and a look in the souvenir shop but there wasn't a whole lot to do here. We did however buy some chocolate and cool it down in the snow before eating it!!! The usual stop, Gornergrat, has a big viewing platform and tourist sort of area. But visibility was next to none up there today anyway so oh well. We headed back, bought some sandwiches for lunch and enjoyed them on our hotel balcony. It was -2 today (-10 at Riffelsburg) but I had on a thermal top, jumper, leathery jacket and coat so was toasty warm!!
We headed out again and had a look in the shops - always dangerous! Swarovski were having a sale (uh oh!) so I bought a snowflake ring and mum bought a fish and a bangle. All very cheap though due to end of season sale - hooray! We meandered our way through the shops and stumbled across a path we hadn't yet walked. We stopped for a view of the Matterhorn which tried verrrry hard to poke through the fog but didn't quite! So continued down the path and hit the Matterhorn Trail. We followed this for about 1.5 hours and had a terrific walk through the forest! So many snow covered trees, bridges etc. Also saw some finches and many people out walking their dogs. The dogs here are all beautiful big dogs like Dalmatians and huskies. Love it! We eventually came to a little village called Blatten, with cute little wooden houses. Here we ran into the skiing track and could see many people skiing and snowboarding. There was an alpine restaurant and we walked down the other part of the trail and had amazing views of Zermatt with the cable car in the foreground. Absolutely beautiful all covered in thick snow!
When we got back to Zermatt we tried the local specialty called Raclette at a restaurant called Whymper-Stube. Racklette is melted Swiss cheese with ghurkins, pickled onions and potato. It was very yum and warm!! Then we went to the Matterhorn museum. This was underground and set up as if it were an archaeological site of Zermatt in the 19th century. We got in for free using our Swiss rail passes! There were stuffed animals and fake houses from the period as well as many artefacts and lots of history about people attempting to climb the Matterhorn. In 1847 Zermatt was a small farming village, but from 1857-1865 mountaineers started flocking here and there were 18 unsuccessful attempts to climb the Matterhorn. On 13 and 14 July 1865 though, Edward Whymper (yes the restaurant was named after him!) and 6 others made it to the top after 10 hours of climbing. An hour later though, on the way down, the least experienced climber of the group called Hadow slipped. All 7 men were joined by the same rope, so 3 of the others all fell to their deaths too. The surviving three were accused of cutting the rope to save themselves, though they claim it broke. We saw the rope in the museum. After the matterhorn had been conquered (bitter sweetly though) tourism and interest in the area increased. Many hotels were built and it was the start of the Zermatt we know and love today!
We had more crepes for dinner tonight, ham and cheese though!!
Heading off to Lauterbrunnen tomorrow which has a maximum temperature of -11, oh dear! So if you don't hear from me tomorrow you know I've become an icicle in Lauterbrunnen! Haha. If it's fine we are going to hang around here a bit to see the Matterhorn, but otherwise we are going to head to Lauterbrunnen and go tobogganing hopefully!
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox
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