Europe 2013 - Day 15: Zermatt, Switzerland
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Today we were in Zermatt, Switzerland! We started the day eating breakfast in our nice B&B, and then we started talking with this nice couple from Canada. They were talking about going snowboarding today, so we were thinking about doing the same thing as well, so we all tagged along with each other. We have always wanted to go snowboarding in Switzerland, so we said “When in Rome” so we rented some equipment and bought some lift tickets, and headed to the top. The day was kind of cloudy so we couldn’t see the awesome Matterhorn that well, but we could see it towering over everything through the clouds. Then, it started to snow… remember this is still June, not January, it didn’t lightly snow, it really came down hard and it was really windy and it pelted us in the face as we went down the hill. It was white out conditions. We didn’t pack that warm of gear either, so it was about 32 degrees F and all we had on was hiking pants, rain jacket with no lining, and our summer sunglasses. We did rent some gloves, and Amanda rented snow pants, since all she had was shorts… it was a very cold experience, but well worth it! They can actually ski here all year around, which we thought was pretty cool. We did about 6 runs, and they were all the same run because only one run was really open this time of year, but it was still a very fun experience!
Our ride to the top of the mountain.
Glacier can be seen between the cliffs.
Bottom portion of the Matterhorn.
Almost can see all of the Matterhorn.
The ski run.
Amanda cold, as we didn’t have very warm gear.
Coming down the slopes.
Standing at the top of the mountain.
Elevation 10,924 feet.
Standing with our snowboards, you can see the snow.
The clocks on the mountain.
Waiting for the ride back down to the bottom.
After snowboarding, did some shopping around the town of Zermatt, and we decided to go on a hike. Now, it has been snowing on the top of the mountain, but that means rain for the lower valleys. We had to hike through rain showers, heavy rain fall, and light mists by the end of the hike, which was about 2 hours, the rain finally began to stop. The views were amazing, and the hike was nice, we just wish it were sunny so we could get better pictures of the mountains, and the Matterhorn.
Getting ready to start the hike.
Views of Zermatt from our hike.
Our final destination of our hike a settlement called, Zmutt.
Looking out over the valley and mountains.
The cable car over Zermatt.
Since Zermatt does not have motor vehicles, these are the electric vehicles they use.
Our B&B, we would recommend it!
For dinner tonight we went out with the couple from Canada, we decided since we were in Switzerland we needed to do fondue. So we had great cheese fondue, and then had some chocolate fondue for dessert. It was everything we thought it would be and more!
Our fondue for dinner, we had three different kinds.
Tomorrow, we are off to Champery, Switzerland and we are hoping it clears up in the morning so we can get some better pictures of the Matterhorn. Tomorrow we begin our car portion of this trip, as we will be driving around the rest of Switzerland.
From Zermatt Switzerland.
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