The Top of the Alps - Day Two

Today was perhaps the highlight of the whole trip because nothing could have been more spectacular than what we saw from the top of the Alps.

We awoke around 6 am and enjoyed a wonderful Swiss breakfast buffet at our hotel.  A sweet German woman named Judith, prepared the spread, which included these tasty breads and pastries, juices, granola, yogurt, muesli, cereals, cheese and meat!

This is what I ended up putting on my plate:  pineapple/mandarin salad, granola, orange juice and bread with Nutella...what you don't see is that this is the third slice of bread I ate this morning...I will be smuggling several loaves home before we leave....:)

After breakfast we decided to head to one of two grocery stores in this village, called Coop.  A small market with beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables.   Only a vegetable gardener like myself would notice a superb display of tomatoes like these....not your anemic-looking, tasteless tomatoes that you find in American supermarkets...but the real thing.  Every tomato I have eaten here is sweet and flavorful...mmm!

Beautiful zuchinnis...picked before they turn into blimps.

On the way home from the market we noticed all the beautiful flowers growing in the local gardens here.  Like these yellow Columbines...

Our tour with Alpenwild doesn't officially begin until later this afternoon, so we decided to take a gondola ride up to the Klein Matterhorn, which means "Little Matterhorn."   Luckily we had a Swiss Rail Pass, which gave us a 50% discount off the 99 franc per person cost!   As I was handing over my Swiss francs at the ticket window, I wondered if it would be worth it....little did we realize what a treat we were in for...an experience of a lifetime.  As we stepped out the front door of our hotel, this is what our view looked like...for those who are not mountain-savvy...that's the Matterhorn...not the Disney version, but the real thing.

Heading onto the gondola we were in for a wonderful surprise...had no idea where we were really going (they called it Matterhorn glacier paradise)...we thought it was just a glacier next to the Little Matterhorn, but it turned out to be THE actual peak.  The map above our heads shows the entire Zermatt region with its many train and ski lift routes.

The sign above our heads says "Last Trip to Italy"....had no idea we would go to Italy today too!

The beginning of this gondola ride gives you a nice view of the valley surrounding Zermatt, similar to any ski resort lift, except you get to enjoy the Matterhorn off in the distance....

The gondola system was named the Matterhon-Express...

My husband, who is nervous about heights, was white-knuckling this ride, and not moving an inch to keep the gondola from swinging....

A view looking back down the valley into Zermatt...

The Swiss use slate as a roofing material, which withstands the weathering from snow and cold.  At the beginning of our trip this man was beginning to roof this building...three hours later he had only one row done.. he had to be pretty buff to lift each piece of slate!

Another home with a slate roof...almost artistic in how they piece it together on the rooftop.

As we got higher, the following mountains came into view...

At the 7,625 foot mark...

An American Indian teepee in Switzerland???

As we got higher up the mountain, we had a more full view of the Matterhorn....

The gondola had places where you could get off, go hiking for a few hours, and then get back on again.  We planned to do that on the way down, as we weren't quite sure how far up this thing went. For 99 francs (before the discount), we assumed it had to be quite spectacular at the top...here is a shot on the way up--

At one of the stopping points we got off and had a picnic on this mat that was on the ground.  We ate our grapes and enjoyed watching the Swiss go skiing in July!  The lifts were running only at the top of the mountains (10,000 ft. +).  Mark enjoyed the break from hiking on the road to becoming an official "hiker" like his crazy, Italian wife.

Over the next couple of days, we took several shots of ourselves in different parts of this valley, with the Matterhorn in the background...

At this stopping point we didn't see another gondola going up the mountain, assumed this was the end of the ride, and almost decided to go back down...but something told me to go into the big building next to us and we found the sign below showing a pathway to a tram ride into Italy  (hidden behind this building) that took you to the top of the Alps.  

We had paid for the full ride, and were glad that it wasn't ready to end...just yet.  What we experienced next was the Mother of all cable tram rides...not your wimpy gondola ride that carries skiers about 50-100 feet off the ground, but a tram (that holds about 20 people) that crosses a massive glacier....get this....1,000 feet above the ground up to the top of a mountain, the Klein Matterhorn, on the border of Italy and Switzerland!  Found out that it is Europe's highest-altitude aerial cableway.  The icing on the cake is that there is a glacier at the top that they have tunneled through, and you get to walk down into it! 

I took 6 minutes of footage, but because the Wi-Fi is SO slow and intermittent in the Alps (for obvious reasons),  it will take 452 minutes to load!  So, I will load all my video clips (some really cool ones) that I took when we are back in the states (so now you have to read my blog again next week to see this spectacular footage...you will feel as if you came along for the ride...:)

Once we were at the top, you walk through the inside of the top of this mountain and take pictures at various lookout points.  Here we took a shot of one of the highest peaks in the Alps, the Breithorn, with its massive lump of snow on top.  Switzerland just had its coldest and wettest spring in 38 years, so there was a ton of snow up here.  

Mark and I got adventurous and decided to climb the Matterhorn on a whim....:)

"Look Mom, no hands!" 

There was a long tunnel inside of this mountain, and we walked to the end of it and found an elevator, with this sign next to it..."Highest viewing platform in the Alps, unique 360 degree panoramic view of 38 peaks above 4,000 meters."   Wow!  So up we went....

We came out of the elevator ...

and walked up to a viewing platform that allowed us full views in every direction. 

One thing that I have noticed about the Swiss people....they honor the Christ openly and unabashed. We found this cross on top of the platform with this placard beneath it in Gothic script, in German. Any of my German friends want to translate this for me?  Would sure appreciate it...:)

One of my hiking partners, Dave Kenison, sent me this English translation:

"The Creator, who is without beginning or end, always makes mountains full of beauty and spendor.  Come here all people, give honor to God, praise Him, worship Him!"

The second sign is my personal motto:  Be more human.

And "less selfish" I might add...:)

So this is paradise....

The Swiss make good use of this mountain, and put a communications tower on top with antennae too!

Looking south we see the Breithorn...we were amazed to see about a hundred people climbing up the back side of this huge mountain, on the snow.  Small groups were roped together with their ice axes and crampons.

You can barely see a string of people climbing towards the summit of the Breithorn below...

It took them probably 2-3 hours to slowly plod up this summit from the saddle...being roped 

together and using ice axes and crampons.

Here the skiers took a lift to the top and skied down one of two different runs, only to be carried back up to the top and ski down again....skiing in July!

After we were done enjoying the wonderful views, we took an elevator to the bottom and came out into a glacier under the ground.  We walked through this tunnel about 100 yards and found ice sculptures in the nooks and crannies of this pathway....

On the way down we got off the gondola to hike to the base of the Matterhorn, which took about an hour total....here is our view from the beginning of the trail...

I got distracted by all the beautiful alpine wildflowers clinging to life in 

this high elevation and cold air...

Mark crossing his first snow field....

He was a bit nervous because downhill from here was this sight...and a sheer drop off below that. :)

Proud of him for not freaking out.

At the safest point we could go without it becoming a Class 3 rock scramble, 

not to mention that we were short on time....:)

More wildflowers...

The Swiss don't hesitate to paint directional markers on their trails...

you would NEVER see this in the U.S.

Loving this hike...a good steep 1,000 foot climb in about an hour...

As I ran down the trail, I noticed some black sheep licking the snow field below....on closer inspection I noticed they had bells around their necks!  A small herd were eating some of the alpine flowers and plants and getting their water from the snow.  They let me get real close when I noticed these creatures had horns coming out of their heads...I backed off right away.

After we got back to the hotel, we showered and got ready to meet our tour group and leaders.  We decided to take a relaxing 2-mile loop hike through the village of Zermatt and get to know each other better.  Of course, I couldn't pass up a few photos of Zermatt's lovely flowers, so bear with me for a few frames...:)

Moss in bloom...

Edelweiss...looks better in the countryside than here in town...

Found out why the Swiss plant flowers outside their windows...to keep the flies away!

Bleeding hearts...

Another thing I love about the Swiss people...almost every home has a vegetable garden in the yard!  

Our hiking group is made up of hiking lovers from across the country.  We have a young couple--both anesthesiologists from Philadelphia, a woman from Boston, a young couple from Phoenix, another couple about our age from Colorado, and our trip leaders Josh and Nicki who are Swiss Alps afficionados. :)  

Next, we walked through the Gornerschlute Gorge cut by this glacier-fed river...so powerful.

Walked the boardwalks through the gorge while getting to know each other better.

Had a delicious salad with lots of vegetables, local breads, fish, Swiss french fries (double fried and not healthy) and steamed vegetables.  Undid the healthy eating with three scoops of rich and creamy ice cream in three different flavors:  vanilla, strawberry and pistachio.  The lights went out all over the village and we ate by candlelight...never saw what my ice cream looked like, but it tasted great anyway!