Carry On Up The Matterhorn

Guete Morge Dear Reader,

And finally, the moment you have all been waiting for, my ascent up the Matterhorn - as British explorers, adventurers and mountaineers will tell you, the only reason for going to Zermatt. So having put on my ski jacket and hiking boots, ensured sufficient rations, I set out...

Ok, so I didn't go up the real Matterhorn - only the Klein Matterhorn, which in itself is 3820m high (enough for the air pressure to change and make my crisp packet explode) - and I didn't quite ascend in the same manner as in legends gone by - the Swiss have rather lovingly put in a nice cable car series for skiers, snowboarders and tourists like myself.

The view from the top was absolutely incredible! From so far up it was possible to see Mont Blanc and the back of the Matterhorn itself (which was distinctly lacking in snow). On this photo, the Matterhorn is the peak on the right and Mont Blanc is the flatter looking peak on the left hand side(if memory serves me right):

According to the tourist website, it is sometimes possible to spot the Mediterranean peaking out amid the Alps - I'm not sure it was clear enough to do given all the snow, but have a look at these photos and tell me if you think you can! Note, I cannot remember which direction many of these photos were taken in, so consider this more of a panorama series...

Having been outside long enough for my eyes to start to hurt from the glare (don't worry, no snow blindness here), I decided it was time to venture inside the mountain and into the glacier - 15m below the surface - in order to visit the Glacier Palace, which has been carved out of the ice itself. Once inside, there were a number of ice sculptures (here are a few of my favourites):

Including a slide made of ice, where you come out of a bear's mouth (I've got a few bruises now...)!

St Bernard Dogs

Allô Dear Reader,

In the interests of learning about mountain survival (and because they are cute), I paid a visit to the Museé et Chiens du Saint-Bernard in Martigny, in French speaking Valais.

The Museé is the winter home to a number of St Bernard dogs, who go up to the Col du Grand-St-Bernard between June and September.  Le Col is the oldest Alpine pass and the dogs live at a hospice on the route. This hospice is still run by monks/canons, who used to go out on skis with the dogs to search for survivors (and those who were not so lucky) in the snow. According to my guide book, the monks have served this hospice for around 1,000 years! The pictures on the train give an impression of what skiing monks looked like…

Ok, I’ve teased you enough now – here are some cute pictures of St Bernard dogs now:

On the way back from Martigny, I had time to visit Sion (Sitten), which is the capital of the Valais/Wallis canton. Despite being the capital, it seemed strange to me that everything was in French, as this canton is one of the few bilingual ones. The language boarder stems from the time of the Roman Empire – the Latin evolved into French, whereas the areas controlled by the Aleman (Germanic) tribes have remained German speaking. Even the architecture felt different from the wooden Swiss chalets I’d become used to seeing in Zermatt.

The name Sion apparently comes from the fact that there are two medieval castles facing each other on the hills above the town – Château de Valère and the Château de Tourbillon. Unfortunately Valère, which is the more complete castle, was covered in scaffolding when I went, so here is a photo of Tourbillon, which was destroyed by fire in 1788.

For those interested in flags and such like, here is the Valaisian one. The stars represent the original number of districts within Valais - 8 French speaking and 5 German speaking (today there are 6 German speaking districts):

Riding the Gornergrat

Buna Saira Dear Reader,

In order to more fully experience the mountains around Zermatt, I took a trip on the Gornergrat Railway, which is a cog railway that goes up the Gornergrat mountain (3130m). The tourist area is 3089m above sea level and the Gornergrat has been visited by tourists to Switzerland for 111years.

As you can see from the huge icicles on the railway sign, the weather up the mountain was extremely cold and the snow was deeper than me! Apparently the hiking up here is wonderful...unfortunately the moderate risk of avalanche meant that I wasn't willing to risk it.

The view was absolutely stunning, with an amazing view of the Matterhorn and of the Monte Rosa Massif, which is an area of the Alps. It was also possible to see a number of glaciers, including the second-largest Alpine glacier, the Gornergletscher. I'm not sure exactly which mountains/glaciers are which now, so here are some pretty winter wonderland scenes:

Furi and Fondue

Grüssech Dear Reader,

Having arrived in Zermatt, my parents decided that it was time for me to experience what it is like living properly in the mountains. Although I complain about the hill between the Altstadt and the university in Konstanz, at least the traffic can still travel in a normal way. Not so in Zermatt - the place is actually car free, with a huge carpark 6km away in Täsch! This is Zermatt (with the Matterhorn in the background):

We headed up in a cable car/gondala to Furi (or Furri, depending on what signs you looked at), from where the plan was to walk down to Zermatt - a distance of about 4.5km pretty much straight downhill and in some stages is quite steep! My camera unfortunately decided that this was the opportune moment to run out of battery, much to my annoyance.

Our trip took us through a the hamlet of Zum See, which could easily have become snowed in being in the foothills of the Matterhorn (luckily, most of the snow had melted, although there were still a few small patches in the shade). The houses here were made mostly of wood, with large slates on the roof, and seemed to have been standing for easily a hundred years. This is a much more modern example from the town of St. Nikaus (possibly where Father Christmas really lives?):

As we carried on treking through the woods, I noticed a number of small wooden barns in remote locations along the way. Apparently farmers would fill these with hay in the summer, and lead their livestock between the huts in the winter - only moving them on when they had eaten all the hay in that particular barn. Many of them appear to have been left abandoned or uncared for. Having wandered into the Hinterdorf (old quarter) in Zermatt this evening, this photo gives an impression of the age of these barns and the houses in Zum See.

The wooden shack on stilts on the left of this picture is known as a 'mazot', which is a barn that is lifted from the ground by stone discs, that look a lot like mushrooms. It's meant to protect against mice and rats, and mostly they seem to be a foot off the ground. Some of the ones which are far taller, I have no idea how the people managed to get in...there doesn't appear to be a trace of a ladder on some of them.

In the evening, it was time for me to try some hearty mountain-faring food, so naturally I opted for the cheese fondue made from Valaisian raclette cheese - lecker!

Cross Country Travel

Guete Obig Dear Reader!

I am writing this from the beautiful country of Switzerland - stereotypically festooned with chocolate, cows and cheese. Despite living right on the border, I'm ashamed to say that I have not seen a lot of Switzerland, but I am currently visiting my parents in Zermatt in the south-west near the Italian border (i.e. the complete opposite end of the country!).

My journey between Konstanz and Zermatt lasted roughly 4-5 hours, which given that I was travelling most of a country, seems like a relatively speedy time to have achieved. Given the wonders of Swiss efficiency, though the price-tag not-so-much, I managed to make it through five of the 26 cantons: Thurgau, Zürich, Aargau, Bern and Valais (though people more knowledgeable about the rail system, feel free to correct me!). Despite it taking what seemed like forever, the scenery more than made up for it, particularly in the Bernese Oberland and on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.

I have attempted to get some photos from inside the train, but as always, window plus movement does not equal top quality photography...
Lake Thun, said to be one of the prettiest lakes in all of Switzerland (I'm not sure it really compares to the Bodensee, but I am a bit biased):

The Bernese Oberland - where basically all the classical views of Alpine scenery in Switzerland come from:

On the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn - most of this was a single track railway, which was clinging to the edge of a cliff between the mountains above and the valley below:

And in the interests of showing off more Swiss mountains, here are a few more I spotted along the way...

May Day

Sali Dear Reader,

In Germany, like much of Europe, May Day is a Feiertag (bank holiday) and so in celebration of not having to go to class, a friend and I decided to travel over the Bodensee for an explore on the otherside. We started off by getting the ferry to Meersburg and pottering around in the glorious sunshine, though the lack of Morris Dancers was most disappointing! This is a view of the Neues Schloss from the sun terrace:

We then decided to go on a short spontaneous 5-8km-ish hike and headed towards Unteruhldingen am Bodensee, which is the next town/village along the coast and seems to be a hotspot for tourism. In the spirit of adventure, we packed our sandwiches and sat in a vineyard to munch on lunch (the town on the opposite bank is Konstanz):

Our journey took us through a wood, which was much welcome given the burning that both of us have suffered from today. We managed to lose the track at several stages but despite that, having worn dolly-shoes, and navigating off a cartoon map, we did finally reach our goal following the reassuring bright yellow Wanderweg sign-posts (of two different pathways)!

Our aim was the Pfahlbauten Museum, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2011 (the UNESCO website lists this under the banner of "Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps"). Pfahlbauten is a set of reconstructed villages dating from the Stone Ages and Iron Ages, from when the Bodensee-Dwellers would build their homes on the lake itself. The villages are recreated from neolithic artifacts found in the area and archeological expeditions within the Bodensee and around. I believe the original Piles can still be found under the water. Although the reconstruction was made up of around 5 example houses for each period, in reality the villages could have numbered between 20-30 houses.

My particular favourite fact from the museum was that a Log Boat (literally a boat carved out from a single log) will always float, regardless of whether it gets flooded with water, as it still acts the same way that a tree would! I wonder if the same would be true if the village fell in...