On Vox: Thin Air
(Mon 29 June -Um -Part one)
Now based near Interlaken, our itinerary again gave us a few days to do our own thing, though with plenty of suggestions for excursions provided. Over Sunday dinner, in the handy Swiss/ Korean(!) restaurant we found near Wilderswill Station, we laid our plans to visit local delights in the predicted poor weather.
Our plans were all thrown aside, however, when we were woken in the early hours by the bright Sunshine lancing in through the hotel room curtains. With the peaks of the spectacular mountain scenery around us clear and sunny, we roused ourselves for an early breakfast and a brisk walk back to the station.
Retracing our steps back to Brig, we set off to complete the route of the Glacier Express using local trains, and with my bought guidebook to inform and entertain rather than the voice in our ears. This was a spectacular route, the cogs clunking on and off of the racks as we climbed up towards Zermatt. There were also, finally, glaciers to be clearly seen. :-)
Matterhorn from Zermatt
Zermatt is a town that sits higher in altitude than the top of Snowdon, and is geared completely to the tourist trade. The town is car free, though that doesn't mean traffic free, with little electric carts, horses and bikes jostling with the holiday makers on foot. This was the first place that we parted with significant cash for anything other than food, though our Swiss Pass halved the damage.
There were activities and attractions galore to choose from, and noticing that our first choice was much cheaper if we waited until after lunch, we set off in search of inspiration. The Matterhorn towered in Majesty above us as we followed the glacier fed river up the valley. Three sets of cable cars took us onwards and upwards, past the tree line and then the frost line, the last swinging us out and over a glacier that made us feel very small (and high in the air).
Our wildlife spotting eyes were working again as we picked out a herd of alpine wild goats crossing an ice field - an iconic creature made much of around Chur, but, knowing the habits of their Welsh cousins, we thought we had little chance of seeing them.
From being suspended high over the source of a glacier, the cable car was swallowed up into a tower of rock. The Kleine (lesser) Matterhorn had been reached. A lift cut inside the peak takes us even higher, and then a staircase in the pure alpine air takes us to the summit, a viewpoint once only accessible to adventurous mountaineers. The leaning tower of the Matterhorn is close by, snagging those clouds that dare to flirt with it's peak. Other alpine peaks surround us, and deep drifts of snow overhang cliffs and glaciers as people more intrepid than us hike to summits not yet crowded by the casual tourist. Um. Wow!
Shorts and skis
With our first experience of high altitude (3883m) making itself felt, we eventually tore ourselves away from the view and went back down the lift to find the inevitable cafe to sit in for a while. This wasn't just any cafe, though. Here, on a sweltering June day, you can watch people leaving through a portal in the rock face and skiing off into the distance.
The world having stopped spinning a little, we went in search of the other attraction advertised for this high destination - the glacier paradise. Without any idea what to expect, we entered another lift, this one heading down further into the rocky peak. Emerging, we found ourselves at the start of an uneven, icy, tunnel, leading down away from us. After a short while we realised that the walls were no longer covered in ice, but were bored into solid ice. We were now inside a living glacier!
Inside a glacier
The tunnel opened out into a series of caverns, complete with ice sculptures and a few historical bits. We could also peer up into a real glacial crevasse. Very cool, in more ways than one. We were very amused by an underwhelmed matron who came marching up to the furthest bit still looking for the "attraction" and stomped away in disappointment, making her observations (or lack of them) known loudly to her companions and the whole cavern.
Originally posted on planetprent.vox.com