Zermatt – where Matterhorn is

Zermatt And so, at the southern tip of Switzerland, lies a mountainous area known as Zermatt. I have to say that it is quite a touristy place, with loads of Japanese. The train stations even made announcements in Japanese I think if I did not hear wrongly while the train signs were definitely in Japanese. But the buildings were cute and there were no cars at all in this town! The roads were for small vehicles that cater to the supermarket. Anyway, this is the place where you can get up to the renowned Matterhorn mountain, from which you can see Mont Blanc and the Monte Rosa range. A pity the weather yesterday wasn’t good and the tip was shrouded in heavy fog! There are various ways to get up to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and I chose the easier way out as I did not have much time there. Got the cable car ticket that gives you access to the observation deck up at Matterhorn. It costs me 49.50 Fr with a half fare ticket so I believe that if you do not have the half fare card, it will be about 100 Fr. Very expensive indeed. To get to the cable car station, walk all the way south for 10min and you will see the prominent rope way. And that is the view that you get while you walk along that cute street. The first stop would be Furi and during the ascent, you could see the houses of Matterhorn! Then you will slowly make your way up to Schwarzee (2583m). There’s an idyllic lake there with a chapel beside it actually. The weather was so crazy that the cable car had to stop several times due to the strong winds and hail. Yes, it was hailing. And when it stopped, the cable car bobbed up and down which was slightly scary I thought. But I trust the Swiss! Near to the top, this is the view you get at Trockner Steg (2939m). There is also a cafe and viewing gallery there. And then, before you get to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise terminal, you need to change to this huge cable car that can hold much more people and has more standing space. I like the fact that this cable car looks so vulnerable when juxtaposed in front of the gigantic mountain. And that’s how cold it is when I got up there. You could see icicles forming and I wasn’t in the right clothings! At the bottom right, I think the stream-like thing is actually a glacier! And yes, on the way back I managed to see this cute sheep parade which made lots of melodious sounds as they all have a swiss bell in front of them! And below is a video of it or you can click here! Enjoy!