Zermatt

Okay, so this post is a little out of order. I mentioned in my last post that Turin was our last outing with our visitors from Australia. While I wasn't lying about it being our last trip with them, we did go somewhere cool with them before this outing which isn't worth missing out on the blog.

Kate and Sarah happened to visit us in the coldest part of winter. The temperatures dropped to around -12 degrees in the valley and to crazy temperatures of -15 to -18 up in the mountains. The famous and lovely village of Zermatt isn't all that high up in the mountains but that doesn't stop it from being bloody cold. We had been told many, many times by our good friends Mitch and Lu to go and visit Zermatt while we're here in Switzerland. They visited a few years back while they were living in France and again when they came to visit us and both times they came back saying how lovely it is. On their second trip to the quaint, mountain village they took their cute, little boy Oliver who slept through most of the playing in the snow since he was so snuggly wrapped up in his snowsuit.

Cold temperatures weren't going to stop us from visiting this much talked about place so we all layered up in our snow gear, jumped in the Panda and drove to Täsch to catch the train to the 'no cars allowed' village of Zermatt. I was quite warm in my many layers but at temperatures like those, there's no stopping your face from freezing.

For some reason they don't plough the snow off the walkways so there's weeks of built up and compacted snow layering the footpaths which makes it interesting walking up the streets. Zermatt is home of the famous Matterhorn mountain which features on the packaging on Toblerone chocolate. When you first arrive in the village you can't see the mountains so I was dying to walk to catch a glimpse of it. Unfortunately, due to the build up of snow and ice Kate slipped and fell over, injuring her leg. She's tough though and picked herself up and hobbled to the nearby restaurant to thaw out in the warmth and recover from her fall. Fortunately for her she fell in a very beautiful part where we were treated to great views of the majestic Matterhorn. We made our way back to the main part of town and found ourselves another warm spot to sit. We sat in an english pub to drink beer and play a game of scrabble.

Even though there was an unfortunate fall over in the ice and freezing cold temperatures, it was still a rather enjoyable day. The sky was clear, the air was crisp, the views were beautiful and the company was great. Definitely worth another visit!

The view from the restaurant.

We caught up with our buddy Roger. 

The train from Täsch