Woke up to see Jeff staring intently through the skylight as the Matterhorn was visible in the morning light. It's definitely something to look at. It's funny that Mum had a photo clock of the Matterhorn over the fireplace for all those years. Growing up I never even knew where it was!

Good boy Jeffrey went to search for breakfast vittles for us . He did well considering there wasn't a lot open.

Seeing the Matterhorn was showing us some flesh (the shameless hussy), we decided to take the cable car up the mountain to the Glacier Paradise for a look.

There are a couple of stops on the way up to the top where you can get out and have a look around. It was snowing on us at the mid level station when we arrived and it was nice light fluffy snow again like in St Moritz. Jill especially was excited as even though she spent winter in Europe in 2013, she was never actually snowed on. Jeff, Jill & I stayed outside and had a mini snow ball fight for awhile until the intense cold drove us inside. Ironically, Bev, the only one who grew up in a country where it snows regularly, stayed inside.

After recovering from frostbite we rode the cable car again to the top station through a total whiteout. 3,883m at the top and it was rather cold outside!

Seeing we were cold we thought it would be a great idea to visit the Glacier Paradise - essentially a cave cut through the ice with some ice carvings scattered throughout the cave. I can tell you that normal socks and sneakers with breathable mesh panels were totally not suitable for this and sitting on the ice throne also gives one a frozen bum!

After only a short while had to go back inside as toes hurting! Jeff stayed out in the freezer for a bit longer, taking photos of the various ice sculptures . Put a camera in his hand and he's like a little kid at the beach - won't come in out of the cold even though his lips might be blue!

After this we took the cable car back down to the Furi station and then walked over to a cute wooden restaurant chalet in the nearby fields to have lunch. Decided to try the famous fondue (EUR46 for 2 people - eek!) We shared the fondue between the 4 of us although it was mostly only Jeff eating it. *Because it was gross!

Bev decided to go on her own back down to town on the cable car to look around and pick up more souvenirs as we all wanted to walk back to town via the forest paths. We were quite low in the valley again by now so it was green and warm enough to be out walking around for a few hours.

Eventually after making a couple of wrong turns and engaging in some foreign sign language with other walkers we met, we found the amazing Gornerschlucht Gorge .

I'm sure that translates to "beautiful something" but of course with us juvenile creatures its name resulted in lots of silly comments about the gorge being a "schlut".

The gorge was, well gorgeous (groan). From the end we entered it's accessible via a steep set of steps which are really almost ladders, then there is a walkway along a huge section of the gorge wall, right down into the gorge itself. Quite spectacular with the icy water rushing over the polished jasper stone. Plenty of trees growing out of impossible cracks, moss and pretty pink flowers clinging to the gorge walls. Really lovely!

After we found our way back into the village we foraged at the local Co-op supermarket and stocked up on some more breakfast provisions. The fresh fruit & veges all look so good and cheap! We bought fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and apricots . Even managed to find fresh sliced bread for toast and soy milk for Jill. Surprising in the land of cows, cheese and chocolate. Thought non-dairy milk would be frowned upon here.

We then lugged our shopping back up the hill to our cute little chalet and for a rest. Luckily Bev had found her way back (via a couple of scenic unplanned detours) but all good.

After having a rest we all walked back into town for another look around and to get some dinner. The houses in the village are so cute and many of them have a vege garden surrounded by a border of colourful flowers. Tulips are popular and grow really well here. Saw some sheep in someone's backyard too plus more sheep up on the valley side grazing in the alpine grass as well. It really is like living in a twee Heidi village.

After not too long we found a small restaurant down a side street off the main drag that had soup and other things at a more reasonable price . The lady was really friendly too which was nice as a couple of other restaurant staff had been a bit snooty to us when we were enquiring about availability.

Well... she was friendly until she tried to give me tomato soup which I hadn't ordered. She hovered with it at our table with this puckered mouth look on her face and you could tell she was thinking "look - can't you just eat this??" It really looked like she was just going to give it to me anyway but eventually she took it away and came back with the barley soup I'd ordered. I really hope it was sans sputum!

On the way back to our chalet we walked past the cemetery and noticed that lots of the graves had candles in red votive holders flickering on them. Very beautiful and all the graves are well tended with fresh flowers as well, with no weeds anywhere to be seen.

A really nice day in a lovely place.