Boundless Horizons

Day 2 – Geneva to Zermatt

This was the most beautiful train journey I’ve ever taken, Swiss trains definitely spoiled us! But first, let’s go back to the weekend before our trip.

It was Friday, 21 June, and I was about to finish work for our summer holiday. We had a family wedding at the weekend and then we were off to see the Matterhorn! I was checking the weather forecast when I saw the flooding in Zermatt. Not good! We kept an eye on the news to see what our options would be. The town was cut off for a few hours, with mudslides on the road and part of the railway flooded. I started to look into hotel options in Visp, since we would be changing trains there on the way to and from Zermatt. By the evening of the 22nd, the part of the line between Tasch and Zermatt was running and replacement buses were running between Visp and Tasch. So while it wasn’t ideal, at least we could get there!

So Wednesday morning we checked out and headed across to the train station. We stopped off in the supermarket for sandwiches and snacks for the journey as we wouldn’t get to Zermatt until after lunch. We also picked up some Swiss wine as we were keen to try it! Switzerland doesn’t export much of their wine so neither of us had tried it before. Our train from Geneva to Visp was at 10:29, we’d booked first class and we picked seats upstairs for the views.

And what a view! This was a beautiful journey along the banks of Lake Geneva into the Alps. The photo at the top of this blog shows the view near the start of the journey as we headed away from Geneva, while the photo above was taken later as we moved into the mountains. The scenery was absolutely amazing, I couldn’t stop looking out of the window. We arrived in Visp on time at 12:53. Our connecting train was scheduled for 13:08, and due to arrive in Zermatt at 14:14, but of course that was now a replacement bus. The replacement buses were easy to find outside the station, and they had a trailer on the back for luggage.

The bus departed exactly on time at 13:08, and we were treated to even more incredible views. We arrived in Tasch at 12:45 and collected our luggage from the bus. Zermatt doesn’t allow internal combustion engines, so visitors arriving by car have to park at Tasch and take the shuttle train. That means they prioritised getting that part of the train line operational again and the train runs quite frequently. In fact, we arrived in Zermatt at 14:07 – 7 minutes ahead of our original schedule! I was really impressed as I’d accepted we’d lose some time with the replacement bus.

Our hotel offered the option of an electric taxi ride but we knew it wasn’t a long walk and after a long journey we decided we’d like to stretch our legs. That also gave us the chance to get our first view of the Matterhorn! In fact, our hotel was right beside the Kirchbrücke bridge so every time we left the hotel we had a chance to have a peek at the peak. There was a little bit of cloud obscuring the mountain but we had plenty of chances to see her over the next few days!

We were staying in Hotel Bernina, which was gorgeous. There was a log burner in the reception which gave the hotel a cosy feel, and our room was beautifully decorated. We also had a verandah with a little table and a couple of chairs. Our room didn’t face the Matterhorn, but we had a great view of the valley.

After relaxing in our room, we headed out to explore. There’s a little bakery across from the hotel and a small grocery store so we had a quick look to make a note of what’s available. The Matterhorn Museum was open until 6pm, and we wanted to visit early in our stay to give us a bit of the history of the town. Tickets cost CHF 12 each, and it was definitely worthwhile. We learned about the town itself and the history of climbing the Matterhorn, including the broken rope from the first ascent.

We stopped off in St. Mauritius church for a look around. No, we never did find out why there’s a giant clothes pin on the altar! The ceiling had an interesting mural of Noah’s Ark. Then we headed back to the hotel to drop off our purchases from the bakery and grocery store, and freshen up for dinner.

Dinner was booked at SayCheese! in the Grand Hotel. We really wanted to make sure we tried fondue in Switzerland, and we wanted an excuse to have a look around the Grand Hotel, so this seemed like the best choice. We were a little early, but they seated us right away. We opted for the Fondue Zermatterhof, made with local cheese and served with bread and small potatoes. We also added a local sausage, Salzis. The fondue was excellent – when we were almost done, our server took the pot away and broke up the crust at the bottom so we could eat it, which might be the best bit. We were really glad that we didn’t have a starter because we were both so full afterwards! I’d really wanted to try the Toblerone Fondue for dessert but neither of us could face it. We each had a little digestif and then we set off for our hotel.

We’d picked up some more Swiss wine from the bakery across the road earlier, so we enjoyed a glass of wine on the verandah, where we had a beautiful view of the night sky! There were so many stars visible in Zermatt. We don’t often get to see so many because we live in a city, so that was a great way to end the night.