Boundless Horizons

Day 4 – Gornergrat, Zermatt

Another day with great weather! Like yesterday, we had a plan for what we wanted to do today but kept it flexible in case the weather didn’t cooperate. Today we planned to take the cogwheel railway up the Gornergrat.

After breakfast at our hotel, we headed to the Gornergrat Bahn station, which is just across from the main train station. We bought return tickets at the station, and we were able to use the Half Fare card for a discount. We also opted to buy priority boarding for CHF 7 each, which meant we could grab seats on the right hand side of the train for the amazing Matterhorn views. We’d debated whether we should get off at Rotenboden to see the Riffelsee lake, but having paid for priority boarding it made more sense to keep going all the way to the top.. Priority boarding only applies when boarding in Zermatt so leaving and getting back on would negate that on the way up.

The train departs every 24 minutes during the day, so we didn’t have long to wait, and it takes 33 minutes to reach Gornergrat station at 3083m (10115ft). We’d brought layers with us again since we’d needed them yesterday, but I was quite surprised that we were okay in t-shirts at the top.

The station has the Tiger Bowl restaurant and some free-to-use restrooms. Don’t miss the photo machine! It’s just outside the station and will take a photo of you with the Matterhorn in the background if you scan your train ticket. The location is a little awkward as the machine isn’t obvious and you stand quite far back from it – we saw a few people have their photos ruined with someone walking into the shot, though it seems you can retake it.

We headed up to ZOOOM the Matterhorn, admission is included with the train ticket and it’s a fun interactive exhibition. The best bit was the paragliding simulator, where you sit in an egg chair, pop on a VR headset, and use handles to steer around the Matterhorn. You choose from one of two experiences, though as it was quiet I did both. One is a more sporty flight, whereas the other is more scenic. It was good, and worth stopping for a visit if it’s included in your train ticket. There’s certain ski pass tickets which don’t include the extra attractions (ZOOOM the Matterhorn, and the Matterhorn Glacier Palace which we did yesterday). If it’s not included with your ticket, admission is CHF 12 (CHF 8 for the Glacier Palace) – considering we were in and out in under 30 minutes, I wouldn’t say it was worth paying extra.

Next we carried on up to 3100 Kulmhotel. The hotel has a selection of shops on the ground floor which sell a range of local and Swiss products, at a slight markup over the price down in the town. We weren’t quite ready for lunch yet, so we just stopped for a drink at Restaurant vis-à-vis. I had a hot chocolate with rum, which was served with a little mini Toblerone!

Then it was up to the viewing platform behind the hotel. The views here were incredible, with lots of glaciers cascading down the mountains. The Viscope telescopes overlay the name of the mountains and glaciers that you can see, which is a nice addition and really helpful. The viewing platform is larger and less crowded than the one on Klein Matterhorn, so we spent quite a bit of time taking in the view.

By this point it was 2:30pm and we were getting hungry, so we went back to the station to grab a late lunch at Tiger Bowl. We both opted for chicken bowls and a bottle of local Valaisanne lager. The food was very tasty with a bit of a kick to the sauce!

After lunch, we took the train back down to Zermatt. We debated whether we should get off at any of the stops to go for a walk, but clouds were starting to come in so our photo opportunities were going to be limited. Plus we’d spent more time at the top than we expected and we wanted to check out the shops on Banhofstrasse. We picked up a few souvenirs and stopped at the Coop for wine and snacks, including another couple of bars of chocolate to add to the taste test. The bottle of Caves du Paradis Sierre fendant ended up being my favourite of the whole trip, it’s a shame I can’t seem to get any sent home!

We weren’t particularly hungry after our late lunch and we knew we had a long journey coming up tomorrow so after shopping we opted to grab pastries from Fuchs bakery to take back to the hotel for a light dinner.

Tomorrow is the train to Strasbourg, so we had to pack up and get ready to check out in the morning. The journey involves changing at Visp and Basel, originally we booked the 9:37am train from Zermatt but as the replacement bus service was still running the train company advised allowing extra travel time. We decided to give ourselves an hour of buffer and take the 8:37am train out of Zermatt just in case, but that was going to mean an early start!