I'm finally getting around to putting up some pictures of our trip to Zermatt... The trip was perfect, it was a beautiful country. We started by meeting in Zurich (coming from opposite ends of the globe) at the airport and then took a train cross-country to Zermatt. Zermatt is at the very southern edge of Switzerland near the Italian border in the Alps.
We spent the week downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, and hiking... I think the hiking was the highlight for both of us. It was well marked, quiet, and of course a great workout. We hiked between 1600 and 2500 (?) meters, but somehow never really felt the affects of altitude. What a deal!
Here's a shot from the balcony of our apartment! What a view!
Here's Ang and I at the top of the mountain. This was our one day of downhill skiing, and we got out the day after we arrived in Zermatt! I was great, but we were both ready for another challenge for the next day. We were excited to see the woods and hills in a little more detail, so we headed out hiking.
This is a shot of us nearly to Furi, maybe a 2 mile hike from Zermatt. As we made our way there, we passed a number seemingly abandoned buildings/residences. We later learned they are used only in the summer. We something called a "Rosti" for lunch in Furi. It was a wonderful German mixture of potatoes, cheese, onions, cheese, sausage, and cheese! (did I mention there was plenty of cheese?). Good thing we only had to travel downhill after this meal, it was a little on the heavy side!
Check it out! It snowed a few inches the morning before our second hike! It was perfect... We picked up a couple plastic bags from the local grocery store, and put these on our feet in between two pair of socks. Our feet stayed dry and warm all day with only running shoes! This time we chose a much more challenging route. We headed straight up hill from Winkelmatten (I think this is sort of a neighborhood designation for the area we stayed in) to the town on Riffelalp. Here we had a tremendous view of the valley while we had fondue for lunch.
For our last day in the Zermatt area, we travelled to a neighboring town (Tasch) to do some X-C skiing. The trails were perfect, but deserted! We nearly had the place to ourselves. It seemed everything we went on was freshly groomed and somehow, in the middle of the Alps we skied ~10-15k without one hill!! The town of Tasch is located on a large flat area in the middle of a valley just north of Zermatt.
Our last day in Switzerland was in Zurich. Unfortunately, we left the camera behind accidentally when we left to go exploring. It took us a little while to find the main part of Zurich while we were exploring (we got a little lost... twice). It was a beautiful town, with waterways running through it, and some fun streets to walk up and down. This appeared to be a real shopping district, but we had a lot of fun just looking around. We did stop and get a fabulous dessert right on the river at the Grand Cafe. Angie got a fabulous Tiramisu, and I got a milkshake... Turns out Swiss milkshakes are Little more than shaken milk? Who'd have guessed? More later!
