HANNAH SHARES

This past weekend we decided to take our first trip outside of Italy and headed to the Swiss Alps. We booked two nights in Zermatt, a little mountain town known for skiing, hiking, and climbing. It sits just below the Matterhorn, an almost perfect-pyramid peak.

We couldn’t leave until late Saturday afternoon, and had a five hour drive to get there. Zermatt is a car-free town, so we arrived in Täsch just after 10pm and took the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn train from Täsch to Zermatt. Thankfully the ride is only 10 minutes and when we stepped off in Zermatt, our hotel was a short walk up the street from the station.

We stayed at Hotel Pollux right in the center of town. Lucy slept most of the ride there and went right to sleep after we got her set up in the room. Success! Michael went to check out the cozy bar downstairs after a long drive through the mountains. I got our things unpacked and ready for exploring the next day.

Lucy woke us up around 6:30am Sunday and after 7am I looked outside very confused because it was still very dark outside. The sun didn’t come up until almost 8am! We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and headed outside in search of our first peek of the Matterhorn. A short walk up the street and there it was!

The town has this cozy, relaxed Alpine feel and everyone is there to just hang outside. The weather reminded me a lot of Colorado – the temperature was in the 40s but the sun and clear skies made it feel much warmer. It was so wonderful to take in the crisp mountain air. One of the first things I noticed were all of the incredible flowers in bloom all over the town. They were really some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and they were blooming in this cold weather! We had a small lunch at the hotel restaurant – we both ordered soup and a light beer. Lucy took a quick nap and we headed back out to walk the parts of the town we hadn’t seen yet. There is a river that goes through Zermatt, the Matter Vispa, and you can tell it is the melt from the nearby glaciers. The water is this light blueish-green crystal color, similar to some we saw while living in Washington. Later in the afternoon we visited the Matterhorn Museum, which tells of the ascents of the Matterhorn and the history and culture of the town. We also stopped in a chocolate shop, Läderach, for some sweets. We picked out a few truffles and a few flavors of their popcorn. The truffles were good, but the popcorn… wow. The popcorn is caramelized and covered in flavored chocolate, we tried the milk chocolate, strawberry and caramel. Michael loves caramel, and there is still a bit of the caramel corn left in our pantry. I keep telling him he needs to finish it because it will probably be gone if he doesn’t. I’ll give him one more day.

We ate dinner that night at a traditional Swiss restaurant, Theodors Stuba. One of the typical Swiss dishes is fondue, but we opted to try a couple of other things on the menu and save the fondue for dessert (chocolate, of course). Michael had a Wienerschnitzel and I had the tomato risotto. Both were very good! However, Lucy quickly decided she wasn’t happy with the restaurant and wasn’t going to cooperate long enough for dessert. I was pretty bummed we didn’t get our chocolate fondue.

On Monday we had breakfast again at the hotel, walked the streets and popped into the shops, and I grabbed a piping hot chocolate at a cute little cafe, Petit Royal. We headed back for Lucy’s nap and to pack up and then headed back to the train station to start our trip home.

It was definitely a quick weekend, but since we weren’t skiing or hiking, it was plenty of time to see the town. As we were leaving, Michael made a comment that Zermatt was as close to a real-life utopia as he could imagine, other than Disney, ha! The town is set up for an absolutely perfect and easy travel experience. We booked our tickets for parking and the train online beforehand, punched in a code to park and got on the train in just a few minutes. We didn’t need them, but there are free luggage carts you can use to haul your luggage and gear on and off the train that just clip into the side of the train. Once you get to the town, everything is super walkable, but if you are staying somewhere a bit far or need transportation to carry luggage, all of the hotels have these free little “E-Taxis”; they look like tiny electric busses. They are so cute! Everyone we encountered was helpful and friendly. Zermatt is also probably the most expensive place we’ve ever been. We went in an off-season, so our hotel was pretty affordable, but you definitely get sticker shock at the cost of meals, beers, etc., especially after being in Italy for so long where these things are actually quite cheap. Michael isn’t big on skiing, and with Lucy it would be pretty difficult to do a ski trip while we’re here, but we are already thinking of going back for another quick weekend next Summer to do some hiking. Who wants to come with us?!

ZERMATT GUIDE

DINING

Theodors Stuba for dinner (good, but I’d probably try something else if we go back); Restaurant Pinte for lunch (where we had yummy soups!), Petit Royal for coffee, cocoa, and other treats (their apple streusel looked so good); Stephanie’s Crêperie for sweet and savory crepes, we didn’t get to try this, but there was a super long line every time we walked by, so it’s top of our list for next time

THINGS TO DO

Explore! Walk around the town, pop into the shops; Skiing and hiking These are obviously the top reasons to visit Zermatt. We’ll be back for some hiking next summer.

HOTEL

Hotel Pollux – super cozy and friendly, we would stay here again!