2 nights in Hotel Gornergrat Zermatt
The reason for our stay here was to explore the cable cars and railways around the Matterhorn
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We arrived early afternoon which gave time to walk up the main street about 300m to the Matterhorn Museum, You can read about the town the below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermatt
The town only has electric vans or horse drawn 4 person carriages to take people to their hotels. Ours was of course within walking distance of the station.
The walk up to the museum was on about 4cm of snow with quite a lot people going backwards and forwards, the museum itself was mainly underground, the lower level had a number reconstructed buildings representing a mountain village. A guides hut, church, granaries etc in one of the huts was a model of the Matterhorn showing the various routes over the years, the first in 1865 when 4 people lost their lives on the descent. In the museum was a good audio visual we saw three short videos, one extracts from a German film made in 1937 about the first ascent 'the Mountain Calls' by Luis Trenker the film made the climb look easy
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The other interesting video was one showing the rescue capabilities of Air Zermatt which runs helicopters both for rescue, delivery to mountain huts, and joy flights. We see a line of climbers during the summer so it cannot be too bad.
We walked back in the dark past an outdoor ice counter serving champagne by the glass as this was outside an expensive hotel I guess it would have been an expensive glass. All the shops still had their Christmas decorations so it was very pretty.
Next day some of the group got to the station at 7:00am to catch train & cable car to see the sunrise on the Matterhorn, we fortunately could see it from the hotel balcony window.
Most of the group caught the 9:00am cog train to Gornergrat (3000m) This was opened in 1898 and for the first 30 years only operated in the summer, the first winter being in 1942, the delay was due to technology and money not being available to protect against the avalanches and heavy snow.
We had lovely clear sunny weather and had lovely views of the Matterhorn after a little time we caught two cable cars up to another point Matterhorn Glacier Paradise (3883m) where again I felt a little funny, clear sky but a bit windy and cold somebody said about -15C but if you kep out of the wind it wasn’t too bad for a few minutes, came down on a gondola to Troskene (2939m) and then another all the way to Zermatt (1602m) This via a couple of intermediate stations and brought us in at the other end of Zermatt. This meant a lovely 40 minute walk on snow past houses till we found the main street we walked up the previous day. We stopped to have a gluwine this time made from white wine and apple juice and cinnamon. Lovely and warming. Back to the hotel for dinner
Next day was a trip on the Glacier Express to Pontresina for a 4 night stop
Full day to explore the Matterhorn environs
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Zermatt, Swiss Alps, Switzerland
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2025-02-16
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Lynne and John
2014-01-13
Wonderful photos. We are very envious. Sitting here in a heat wave looking at the photos of the views from your hotel window. What a contrast!
Love to all.
Heather Grant
2014-01-13
I remember on my first trip up the cable car to the top, on the descent there was only me, plus the "driver" plus another chap ... who on the way down opened the top and climbed out on top of the cable car - I am not sure if he was a mechanic or not but I was somewhat nervous.
Pamela Mason
2014-01-14
Loved reading about Zermatt and well remember my trip to Gornegrat and how you look down on all the mountain peaks. Special moment for me was when leaving at the station I looked up at the mountain and the sun was just shining on it while the rest of the world was dark. Magic! So glad you are having such an amazing time. Enjoy the cool. it is HOT here. love Pam
Joseph and Wai Yoong
2014-01-15
Awesome pictures of the Swiss landscapes plus "glacier paradise", Dave and Leigh. Matterhorn will be on our list. The 1992, 1994 and 2011 visits to Switzerland were not enough to accommodate all the beautiful landmarks. I can imagine how active our cameras and tripods will be upon being there. Happy and safe travels always!
Airdrie
2014-01-18
Wonderful photos-thank you David--memories for Peter and me!
No photos of the brother -hope he's behaving!!!