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Today was a big day. Our destination was Gornergrat, one of the famous “14’s” in this area of the Alps. To reach it, we drove to Tatsch, the next town down the valley and took a train to Zermatt. In Zermatt we bought tickets on the cogwheel line that runs to the top of the mountain. It’s a fun and scenic trip. It’s an electric train so it’s quiet and smooth. There are big windows on both sides that offer expansive views. The trains run like clockwork, coming and going every 24 minutes. On the way up we had great views of the majestic Matterhorn. The train goes up and up from the lush, green valley to a vista of rock, ice and snow at the top
The cogwheel train ride up the mountain. Matterhorn in the distance.
The infrastructure is amazing. There is a five-story luxury hotel on top as well as a very swank restaurant. There are wide patios and lookouts built of stone and well marked trails everywhere. There is a gift shop and outdoor clothing store. It is very domesticated. We oohed and aahed at the mind blowing views.
Working our way around and across a narrow snow capped ridge. The plan was for Don to disperse Paul Howard’s ashes from the top. Don gave a nice speech, we all expressed our feelings and it was done.
The official Paul Howard sendoff.
The top is at 14,000+ feet. The air was thin and we were breathing hard. After a while we decided to turn back. We were getting tired.
We decided to have some lunch at the restaurant. It is a big fancy place sporting a cow theme: giant avant-garde painting of cows and cowhide patterned accents. Don’s brother Jim generously gave Don $225 to spend on dinner for all of us before Don left Minneapolis, so he treated. We all got salmon salads, coffee and split a lovely strudel with vanilla sauce for dessert. I was still full eight hours later! After lunch we caught the return train to Zermatt. The train stops a few times on its trips to pick up and drop off passengers, so we stopped a couple of times to look around.
When we arrived in Zermatt, we found this small tourist mecca to be completely overrun with people. There are people here from everywhere. The streets were teeming with bodies. The shops were so crowded that you couldn’t squeeze in.
The bars and restaurants were buzzing. We decided to check out the scene by strolling up the main drag. Since there are no cars, the streets are void of traffic. It’s just wall to wall people. Don picked up a couple of tacky souvenirs and we checked out some of the grand old buildings. There is also a nice view of the Matterhorn from downtown.
Don still had a little fun money leftover from lunch so we decided to get a few drinks. We stopped at a cool, small local bar with sidewalk seating and got some drinks. We were clumsily trying to take a selfie to share with Jim B when a woman at another table volunteered to shoot it. It wasn’t until looking more closely at the picture later that we realized that her friends at the table behind us photobombed the picture.
It was getting towards evening so we decided to head back to the house. While walking back along the main street, we began to hear the telltale sound of tinkling cowbells. A few seconds later a large herd of long horned, long eared goats came down the middle of the street. This was not a tourist stunt. Apparently this is a tradition. The herders have been driving their flocks through Zermatt forever and still have the right to do so. You’ve just got to watch where you walk after they pass.
The Zermatt Goat Parade
We caught the shuttle train back to Tatsch and drove home. I did laundry and took a shower and the others had drinks on the porch. Clay and Don made charcuteries and I made our signature gin and tonics with our special gin. Our porch looks down on the town of St. Niklaus in the valley and across the valley to the peaks on the other side. The weather was dramatic and every-changing and the clouds were rolling over the peaks. The guys took turns taking showers and cleaning up and then Don, Dave and I had our second round of Quiddler for the Swiss championship..