Day 5 : Zermatt

After a very nice night of resting I woke quite early.  I went for a walk and spend some time reading.  The rest of the family started waking up and we had a lovely breakfast of fruit salad, yogurt and muesli. 

The plan for the day was a visit to Zermatt.  But we were very lazy and missed the gondola that went down at 10:25. That meant we had to wait an hour for the next gondola before traveling by train to Zermatt.  Erik left at about 11:00 because he was riding his bicycle to Zermatt.

This was another long, beautiful journey through the mountains.  Even in the summer the mountains was covered with snow.  It was a nice day but there were still some clouds in the sky.  The journey was as follows:
-         10:25 Gondola from Laucheralp to Wiler
-         10:37 Bus from Wiler to Goppenstein
-         Train from Goppenstein to Brig
-         Train from Brig to Visp
-         Train from Visp to Zermatt
I lost track of the times of the trains and just followed Ariane to the next train.  Ariane even had time to go to the shop at on of the changes (Showing once again the difference between the Swiss who know all about reliable public transport and South Africans with no public transport.)

We arrived in Zermatt at about 14:00 and Erik was already waiting for us.  There was a marathon in Zermatt that morning and the streets were very busy.  We went to the Coop store and bought some food.  Then we found a bench next to a tennis count and had a picnic.  It started raining a bit but we just went on.

Ariane, Erik and Mom
At about 15:15 we went for a walk through the town. The flowers on buildings were stunning and it made the streets look cheerful.  It was very busy with a lot of tourist groups walking behind tour guides and for the first time we hear people talk in English. 
 
 We walked through the town looking for a view of the famous Matterhorn Mountain.  It was very cloudy but we hoped to get a good view.  After each turn we were looking up and at last we got a glimpse of the mountain.  We walked closer but the clouds were not kind and we could not see the whole mountain.  After waiting for almost 30 minutes we gave up and walked back to town.
At about 16:00 Erik started riding back with his bicycle but we stayed a bit longer.  Went into some shops for souvenirs and went to by meat and vegetables for dinner.  It was about 17:00 when we walked back to the station.  The trains were very busy and we had trouble finding seats together.  A lot of people were standing. We were tired but still had a long ride ahead.

  • Train from Zermatt – Visp
  • Train from Visp – Gumple Steg  We had to wait for about 20 minutes for the next bus
  • Bus from Gumple Steg – Goppenstein It started raining while we waited for the next bus
  • Bus from Goppenstein – Wiler
  • Gondola from Wiler – Lauchernalp  The office was already closed and we had to pay CHF 8 each for a one way ticket and could not get any discount.
  • Walk from gondola to chalet
When we arrived at the chalet at about 20:25 Erik was there.  We ate some lekker minestone soup that one of the neighbours gave us and had some coffee.  After relaxing a bit Erik, Ariane and my mom started making dinner.  I went to phone Hardus and then we ate.  After cleaning it was time for bed.

Comments

  1. SelenaThePlaces19 March, 2012 16:55

    Such beautiful pictures! I can't to see more of Europe. Thanks for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete

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