We giggled. It was surprising, and faintly ridiculous, seeing all our earthly possessions (for the past 6 months, anyway) shoved into one tiny locker. Franz and Helga never looked so small.

If it fits so easily in there, how come all this stuff is such a pain in the ass to carry?!

Travel Day

We were in Martigny, Switzerland, halfway through our travel day from Chamonix to our next stop, Zermatt, Switzerland. We’d taken the train to Martigny, then had a layover long enough for lunch, before our train onward. Rather than take them with us as we walked around town, we shoved our poor travel partners into a locker seemingly perfectly sized for them, at the train station.

We continued on our next train destined for a town named Visp, where we would change trains one more time. Soon after leaving Martigny, Erika fell asleep; no surprise there. Then, before long, something funny happened. All day, train announcements had been given first in French, then in German, and finally in English. The digital signage on the train, also, was in French. Somewhere between Martigny and Visp, all that flipped: suddenly, announcements were German first, then French, then English. All digital signage was now in German.

I guess we’d moved between the more French area of Switzerland into the more German area, but it was funny how stark that change was, even on the train! Ich spreche jetzt Deutsche!

Erika and John Stay Just Outside of Where They Want to be, but that Turns out to be Exactly Where They Want to be

Zermatt itself was stupidly expensive. Just crazy! So, instead, we booked a lovely AirBnb in nearby Täsch. Täsch was a 10-15 minute train ride from Zermatt, so we figured that’d be easy enough.

And it was. And, even better, Täsch was adorable! A sleepy little rural residential area, with narrow roads meandering past beautiful Swiss mountain houses, and adorable guest houses, like the one we were staying in. It was Les Houches versus Chamonix all over again, as we’d discover when we first visited Zermatt, and found out how incredibly packed with tourists it is.

The scenery is just incredible too. Green fields surrounding the town, with everything nestled deep in a stunning valley. You can look further up the valley to where Zermatt is, and where the valley ends. It ends in a cul-de-sac of sorts, with giant snow-capped Alpine peaks where the houses would be in some suburban cul-de-sac.

We slowly walked to the store, loving our surroundings. The crisp air, the wonderfully clear stream running through the center of town, the many many flowers all over the balconies and porches. We got some fresh vegetables, and were able to cook at home that night. We could eat a little healthier, and save a little money at the same time; we needed both desperately.

Zermatt

I started off the next day with a beautiful run around our town. It was wonderful, I could have gone all day and then been unable to move the next day, which wouldn’t have been good for our hiking plans. Fortunately, reason won out and I kept it short.

We gathered our things, and took the short train ride to Zermatt to explore for the day. There, we found a beautiful, but supremely overcrowded, Swiss ski village. Here in the summer, though, it was warm, full of bright flowers, with a lovely cool chill coming from the river fueled by glacier runoff.

Zermatt is a famous ski village, and there is actually year-round skiing to be done there. During the summer, it can only be done in one particular area, and only in the mornings, as the midday sun will quickly turn the area to slush. Sure enough, around lunchtime, we saw plenty of people start to come shuffling through town in their ski boots, done with the morning runs.

One other interesting thing we noticed very quickly is Mandarin writing everywhere–on menus, hotel signs, etc. And, soon enough, we saw the large groups of Chinese tourists these signs were intended for. This was really strange to me! What sort of tourism advertising or whatever has brought so many Chinese tourists to this one Swiss town?

These kinds of areas we encounter–that experience large amounts of tourism from one specific region or country–have fascinated me all trip.

Raclette

Obviously, an important thing that we dove head-first into in Switzerland–and would continue to spend large amounts of attention on all throughout Europe–was cheese. And one of those cheese delicacies we needed to try was raclette. So when we found a cute place, with a great outdoor patio and good prices on raclette, we were in!

To make raclette, a wheel of cheese is held in place, while it is heated with fire or a burner of some sort. Then, after it’s good and melted, the melted portion is scraped off and served.

Delicious! We had that, some goat cheese on toast, a salad, and a beautiful beer to finish the decadence. A wonderful treat out in the sunshine of a beautiful day!

Gornergrat

One thing we’d wanted to do in Zermatt was take the scenic Gornergrat Bahn up to the high altitude reaches of Gornergrat. Gornergrat is basically just an observation point, high on a ridge above the valley, that provides a panorama of the Alps around it, including one particularly famous Alp, the Matterhorn. There is also a hotel and an astronomical observatory up there.

So, after lunch, we made our way to the railway station to see about taking the trip. We knew it wasn’t a cheap ride, but we hadn’t done our full research, so we didn’t know just how expensive.

“A hundred and fourteen Franc?!” I felt my knees buckling as I looked at the computer screen.

Oh, for those who don’t know, Franc-to-Dollar is a pretty easy exchange rate. It’s right at 1-to-1, so that would be…

“A hundred and fourteen dollars!?” That’s per person, by the way. I was going to be sick.

After some hemming and hawing amongst ourselves, and Erika having to relax me and convince me that no, Switzerland wouldn’t be the end of our trip, I swallowed hard and stuck the credit card into the machine.

A View Unlike Any Other

It’s telling that I actually had to go back and lookup how much that ride was to write this post, that it wasn’t permanently etched into the folds of my brain. Or carved into my forearm during some psychotic break or something.

And that’s because this visit was truly magical. My only memories are of our time up there, and not the exorbitant cost. We spent probably an hour and a half up there, and could have stayed longer. The views are simply spectacular.

The train ride, itself, is pretty spectacular as well. It’s a cog railway, and the way that it chugs up such a steep, steep slope, is amazing. The train passes over little ravines, through tunnels, and through narrow chasms in the rock. As it moves higher, and gets near the top, it crosses large, flatter alpine fields, some of which were full of cows wearing giant bells around their necks. The cows had bells!

Once you arrive at the top, the views are already superb. From the station, you walk further up the hill, to the hotel and the observation platforms, and get to take in the true grandeur of the place.

Looking north, you can see up the bright green valley where our home in Täsch lies.

To the east and south, you can see the massive glacier covered Alpine peaks that make up the border with Italy, including the second tallest mountain in the Alps, Monte Rosa.

And then, to the west, rises the star of the show: The Matterhorn.

The Matterhorn was the only part of this experience that didn’t want to play along, preferring to stay hidden in a cloud of its own making. But when it came out, whew, it was impressive.

We’re big spenders now, so even though the café up there was fairly expensive, we got a coffee and a tea, sat inside away from the cold, and enjoyed our drink with an epic view. Make it rain.

It was an awe-inspiring trip, and it was also cold up there! At over 10,000 feet, it was quite a bit colder than it was down in Zermatt.

You can actually hike all the way up to Gornergrat from Zermatt. We hadn’t fully decided which hike in the area to do yet, and when we were in the train station staring at a $228 expense, this hike was looking pretty tempting! I bet it’d be an amazing one, with a truly epic reward for arriving at the top. Obviously, we didn’t do that though, opting for a different hike the next day, and I’m so, so glad we did.

The Trift Gorge Hike

This is my favorite hike I’ve ever done.

Caps Ridge in New Hampshire, day 2 of Torres del Paine, the Devil’s Garden in Arches… for me, this hike tops them all. Whenever we go back to Zermatt, I’d like to hike up to Gornergrat, or do the famous Five-Lakes Hike. But I’d be hard pressed not to just do this hike again.

It’s challenging–but not brutally so–as it’s all ascent from Zermatt up to our goal for the day, the Hôtel du Trift. It’s beautiful–the scenery is out of this world, as you’re surrounded by verdant greenery and towering snow-capped peaks.

The really remarkable thing for me, though, is the combination of ease of getting to it, and the feeling of isolation it still provides. The hike begins right in the middle of Zermatt village, so it’s incredibly easy to get to. And yet, soon after climbing out of the village, you rapidly get to a point that feels like you’re out in the middle of the wilderness. Normally, getting to such a remote feeling takes a lot more transit and effort.

It was perfect and I loved every moment of it.

Starting Off

As I’d said, the hike begins in the middle of Zermatt. So, all we had to do was take the train to Zermatt, walk a short ways into town, then find the narrow alley where the hike began.

From here, the hike immediately begins to climb, on steep sidewalks and staircases while still in town. The portion in Zermatt is incredibly steep, and being right at the beginning of the hike, it doesn’t take long before you’re huffing and puffing!

The upside of this steep ascent is that you rapidly get up above the town. Just a few minutes into the hike, and you’re already getting views like this:

And it only gets better.

Leaving Zermatt

Shortly after climbing up out of town, you move into a grassy Alpine field that puts Zermatt completely out of sight. Suddenly, you feel like you’re far, far from civilization, much less a significant tourist attraction like Zermatt.

It was at this moment that I was struck with the feeling of “oh wow this is going to be the best hike ever isn’t it?” And that feeling never left.

Edelweiss

From here, the trail makes its way into Trift Gorge, and follows the river up into the gorge. This includes a few beautiful crossings of the river.

After following the river for a while, the trail leaves the river to climb steeply, steeply upward, to the Café Edelweiss. Perched on the edge of an overlook, the café gives exquisite views of Zermatt and the valley below.

Just past Edelweiss is a decent length stretch of flat trail through the trees. Flat trail! Before enjoying that treat, we sat down to have the lunch we’d brought with us.

Hôtel du Trift

After leaving those trees (and that wonderful flat terrain), you return to the open air in the middle of the gorge. The trail winds up into that gorge, through scenery more staggering than I could have ever imagined. Pictures don’t do it justice, just go to Switzerland now and do it. Wait, it’s winter. Okay wait a couple months.

This part was slow going for us… partly because of the steep terrain, but really mostly because we’d stop every 50 steps to gawk at our surroundings and take pictures.

Up far ahead and far above, acting as goals far beyond our hike for today, giant Alpine peaks await, covered in snow and glacier. You look down at the path, to take a few steps and make sure you don’t trip, then look back up, and each time the scene is somehow more shockingly beautiful.

Eventually, we made our way up to our goal for the day, the Hôtel du Trift. Here, there is a restaurant, as well as a fairly expensive guesthouse. This place is the jumping-off point for a number of long, intense hikes further (and higher) that would not be in the cards for us today.

Instead, we took the time to enjoy the beautiful, picturesque plateau the Hôtel is situated on… and to have some coffee and apple pie at the restaurant!

Back to Zermatt

Eventually, we managed to tear ourselves away. We needed to make sure we had enough daylight to get down. Plus, it was looking like some storms were wanting to develop across the valley on the Monte Rosa ridge.

Making our way back down was faster… though we’d still stop frequently to get pictures, overcome by the beauty.

The closer we were getting to Zermatt, the more those stormy clouds were making their way over the ridge, and settling down in the valley over Zermatt. We were getting pretty worried we might run into rain before we got back to town.

A Rainy Walk back to Täsch

All day, we’d been hoping to have enough energy to simply walk all the way back to Täsch, instead of taking the train. It only adds about 5 kilometers of flat walking, so we thought it’d be fun if the hike didn’t destroy us.

We felt good enough to do it, but the rain was not looking good! It was starting to thunder way back in the valley past Zermatt now, and we could see rain off that way as well. But we continued hiking confidently with the intent of heading back to Täsch.

*Thunder rumbles over Zermatt*

“This is so stupid,” one of us would say, as still neither of us stopped.

We look back and see the rain falling over Zermatt now.

“We should just turn back and go to the train station.” Neither stops nor slows.

Finally it’s raining on us and yet we continue walking on…

…and walk all the way back to Täsch!

It never rained really hard, and the thunder stayed back deep in the valley toward Zermatt. So, really, we had a great walk back. It was fun, and most of it was under trees so we didn’t get terribly wet. I loved it so much, and it just further added to what was already such a special hike.

We got home, got our wet clothes off, took hot showers, and cooked for ourselves for a third night, opting to stay in and watch Netflix with our own home cooked meal. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day, and I so badly didn’t want to leave yet.

What’s Next?

Sadly, though, it was time to leave the Alps. But, not yet time to leave Switzerland. We had a couple nights in Zurich still before we’d be moving on.

Hopefully, you enjoyed reading about our swing through the Alps, and will come back soon as we head to Zurich!