The Matterhorn

view of the Matterhorn

closer

cable cars

quite cold up here

snow

going down!

nice Swiss food with matterhorn view

temperature

Malcolm in the snow

...still not yodelling!

The Matterhorn

... we got up and dressed in layers of warm clothes (actually I slept in a few!) and took more as when we went to Mont Blanc 3 years ago it was freezing up there.

First we got the little red train that went up to the village of Zermatt, basically a skiing centre.  Then we got the chair lifts (gondolas - the sort that 4 people can sit in).  This went up past several stations that you can get out at but we stayed on until we came to a stop high up in the mountains.  We thought that was it but realised there was one more.  This was a big gondola that can get about 50 people in - and it went up to the snow where the skiers and snowboarders were active.  We had a look around - the altitude makes it hard to go up steps quickly!  Then we had a coffee and a danish.

On the way down we hopped off at a few places for a look around and back down in Zermatt it was very hot, it said 28 on the sign.  We had a really nice lunch outside a hotel with the Matterhorm as a view.  Then got the train down to the car which we had left at the campsite.  we quickly changed into lighter clothing and drove down to the valley floor.  It would have been close to 30 degrees there, late afternoon.

It's 7.30 now and we are sitting outside our tent in France, in T-shirt and shorts drinking wine and relaxing.  Our camp site overlooks Lake Lucerne, we are just a few kms into France.  I don't think we'll be cold tonight.