Day 5 - Friday July 21 - Zermatt and the base of the Matterhorn

By Ellen Outten

 


Yesterday was a better day for seeing the Matterhorn so I'm glad we had that luck.  Today, we took another cogwheel train to Gornegrat, the end and closest you can get to the Matterhorn.  We were approximately at 10,500 feet.  

When we arrived, after the 1/2 hour ride, we found rain, fog, and a touch of snow coming down.   It was COLD!




The weather did move through fairly quickly but it wasn't the hoped for viewing.  As our guide said, "he" is a shy mountain and doesn't always show himself.

We were lucky.  Many come to see the mountain and never see it at all.

When we left the mountain and got some pictures in the train ride back down.  



These are the glaciers draining down into Zermatt.













Once down, Wayne and I went to lunch in Zermatt on our own.   It's a tourist spot and ski resort in the winter.  Typical main street with shops and restaurants.

Another day, another new taste.  






The rest of the day, including dinner is on our own.  I'll wander the streets of Zermatt window shopping.

Tomorrow we leave at 8 am and drive over the Alps to Lugano where we stay for 3 nights.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3 - Wednesday July 19 - Old City of Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus

By Ellen Outten
Image
  Our first day of touring!  We left the hotel at 9 am and headed 15 minutes down the road to the old town of Lucerne for a 2 hour walking tour.   Our first stop, we picked up a local guide who walked us to the Lion Monument.   It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. If there's a bench, Wayne will find it. From there we went into the Old City for a guideed tour of some of the famous landmarks.  The most famous is the Chapel Bridge.  The timber bridge, together with the water tower are a landmark of Lucerne.  It burned to the ground in 1993 and was rebuilt in 8 months.  The bridge is 672 feet long and is covered with gorgeous flowers.  This year, the flowers are impatiens.   In past years, Wayne tells me, there were geraniums along the entire length of the bridge. We walked the length of the bridge and looked at some of the original paintings on the triangular interior frame
Read more

Day 1 - Monday July 17- Lots of travel

By Ellen Outten
Image
We left home at 5 am and buzzed through United bag drop and TSA security. It's 6am and we're waiting to board, hopefully at 6:35. Departure is 7:15.   It's a 3 1/2 hour flight to Chicago, and then a 3 hour layover before our 3:50 pm flight.to Zurich. We are due to land at 7:45 am on Tuesday morning.   Carol Lee was wonderful and baked us cookies for the flight.  I took this picture to prove to Carol that we ate them.   Wayne went on a scouting trip through the waiting area for the one other couple taking our tour whom we were told were on our flight.  As usual, there he is making new friends.  (Not the person in orange, the couple on the other side, woman with blue sweater).
Read more

We're Off Again - Another Adventure

By Ellen Outten
Image
July 17, 2023, the start of our next adventure.  We'll be visiting Switzerland and Austria primarily. And, we'll briefly travel through Liechtenstein, Italy and Germany.  The map shows our planned tour with Odyssey Unlimited Tours.   We take off for Zurich, connecting through Chicago for the start of our 15 days through the Alps on Monday leaving the house at 0dark30.  I'm looking forward to beautiful scenery and a look at the Matterhorn and cooler temperatures!    This will be a much different trip as there will be no cruising.   We'll be staying in different hotels, changing about every two nights.  Our first two nights will be in Lake Lucerne. I'll be posting each day, hopefully, just as I have on the past trip.  Stay tuned! 
Read more