Finally, on this day we left Geneva. I was feeling pretty excited, cos a widespread belief is that Geneva and Zurich are two boring cities in Switzerland, despite being the most well-known in the country. Our next destination was Zermatt, a skiing resort which is famous for two things : the emblematic Matterhorn peak and the fact that no motor vehicles are allowed in the town.
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Our plan was to leave Geneva at about 11 am, but we missed the train and so we had to wait another hour for the next train. We had lunch in the Geneva Airport train station. Since it was cheaper, Wen Lee and I had most of our meals bought from Migros ( equivalent to Singapore's NTUC Fairprice) and had our meal while waiting for the train.
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Our train took us to Visp. From there, we had to change to another train, a red and cute panoramic train which had large windows. The train ride from Visp to Zermatt took about 65 minutes and passed through beautiful mountains and streams. It stopped at several small stations along to way to pick up more skiers, and we took the opportunity to admire the beautiful cottages built beside those stations.
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Once we reached Zermatt, we walked to our hotel. Zermatt is pretty easy to navigate, since it's only made up of several streets and everyone travels there on foot. Our hotel, Hotel Restaurant Derby is only about 50 metres away from the train station.
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By the time we got there, it was already about 3 pm, but we managed to cover the whole of Zermatt by 7 pm. Zermatt is about 1605m above sea level and my one reason to be there was to catch a glimpse of the majestic Matterhorn, without doubt the most famous Swiss peak, with its trademark triangular shape.
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Along the way to view the peak, we stopped by at the Matterhorn Museum, where many exhibitions connected to the peak are displayed. The museum is made up of a small glass entrance, but the entire museum is actually underground.
.
Right behind the museum is the cemetery, dedicated to those who perished scaling the peak. Walking in the cemetery was indeed a sobering experience.
.
Also nearby is the Kirche, a small church situated in the middle of the town. We went in for a quick glance and continued our walk on Hinterdorf (Zermatt's main street) . It was a surreal experience walking in Zermatt because on both sides of the road there are rows and rows of Valais houses. The houses in Switzerland all look as if they belong to a fairytale somewhere.
.
Towards the end of the street is Mazot, a place dotted with old brown wooden houses, which i'm not sure if there are still occupants living inside. At Mazot, i see many skiiers making their way to the three main skiing areas : Rothorn, Stockhorn and Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.
.
Unfortunately, the Matterhorn peak was shielded by the cloud that afternoon, so i had to go to the same spot again the next morning. We walked back to the hotel, and on our way grabbed a kebab for dinner. We had a nice chat with the kebab man, who guessed that we were from somewhere near Southeast Asia. Pretty good, given that an Italian man i spoke to in Geneva thought i was Japanese. Most of the people there mistake us for Japanese rather than Chinese. Well, i'll take that as a compliment though.
.
.
Our plan was to leave Geneva at about 11 am, but we missed the train and so we had to wait another hour for the next train. We had lunch in the Geneva Airport train station. Since it was cheaper, Wen Lee and I had most of our meals bought from Migros ( equivalent to Singapore's NTUC Fairprice) and had our meal while waiting for the train.
.
Our train took us to Visp. From there, we had to change to another train, a red and cute panoramic train which had large windows. The train ride from Visp to Zermatt took about 65 minutes and passed through beautiful mountains and streams. It stopped at several small stations along to way to pick up more skiers, and we took the opportunity to admire the beautiful cottages built beside those stations.
.
Once we reached Zermatt, we walked to our hotel. Zermatt is pretty easy to navigate, since it's only made up of several streets and everyone travels there on foot. Our hotel, Hotel Restaurant Derby is only about 50 metres away from the train station.
.
By the time we got there, it was already about 3 pm, but we managed to cover the whole of Zermatt by 7 pm. Zermatt is about 1605m above sea level and my one reason to be there was to catch a glimpse of the majestic Matterhorn, without doubt the most famous Swiss peak, with its trademark triangular shape.
.
Along the way to view the peak, we stopped by at the Matterhorn Museum, where many exhibitions connected to the peak are displayed. The museum is made up of a small glass entrance, but the entire museum is actually underground.
.
Right behind the museum is the cemetery, dedicated to those who perished scaling the peak. Walking in the cemetery was indeed a sobering experience.
.
Also nearby is the Kirche, a small church situated in the middle of the town. We went in for a quick glance and continued our walk on Hinterdorf (Zermatt's main street) . It was a surreal experience walking in Zermatt because on both sides of the road there are rows and rows of Valais houses. The houses in Switzerland all look as if they belong to a fairytale somewhere.
.
Towards the end of the street is Mazot, a place dotted with old brown wooden houses, which i'm not sure if there are still occupants living inside. At Mazot, i see many skiiers making their way to the three main skiing areas : Rothorn, Stockhorn and Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.
.
Unfortunately, the Matterhorn peak was shielded by the cloud that afternoon, so i had to go to the same spot again the next morning. We walked back to the hotel, and on our way grabbed a kebab for dinner. We had a nice chat with the kebab man, who guessed that we were from somewhere near Southeast Asia. Pretty good, given that an Italian man i spoke to in Geneva thought i was Japanese. Most of the people there mistake us for Japanese rather than Chinese. Well, i'll take that as a compliment though.
.
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