May 26-28, 2024
There are many things to comment about driving in Switzerland. First off, it is extremely mountainous, windy, full of tunnels blown through the mountains and more round-a-bouts than anywhere I’ve ever seen. Driving from Chamonix to Zermatt was no exception and poor Kenna got a little car sick. We stopped at a gas station to pee and get her a coke. Rel bought some candy that she continued to try to find the rest of the trip to take back, she liked it so much. We came up on TT about 20 miles from Zermatt and stopped on the side of the road to snap a few photos and say hi. The last few miles was straight up and so narrow that you had to wait at lights so one way could go before the opposite way could go. Following GPS (big mistake btw) we passed by the Matterhorn train terminal in Tasch, not realizing that public driving is not allowed beyond that station and drove straight into the town of Zermatt. Our first sign was a woman who literally snarled at us as we went by and then another woman waved at us frantically, so we stopped and rolled down the window. She said “driving in the village is strictly forbidden. There is a very expensive fine!” So I turned around, pulled over and called the hotel. They told me to go back to the train station, park the car and take the train into town. Luckily, we did not get stopped by any police and made it back to the train station. We barely caught it by squeezing into a cargo area. It’s a very short 10 min ride and then you call the hotel when you arrive on their set up public phones, where they send a mini cargo looking electric van to pick you up. Kenna told us she really wants one of those to drive around in Draper. Right as we got to our hotel (Hotel Daniela) TT arrived but flew right by us, so of course we tried to chase him down. He’d seen us but was close enough to 100 miles that he wanted to hit it exactly so he kept going. He said the last 20 miles were brutal! I’ll bet. We went out and walked around, but were a little disappointed that clouds were covering the peak of the Matterhorn. We found an Italian restaurant that was really delicious, especially the desserts.
Once again the beds in the hotel are the hardest I’ve ever slept on. We went to breakfast and then rented E-bikes. We headed up the mountain on a gravel road all the way to the base of the Matterhorn which was still covered in clouds. We went by an empty ski resort, that I found to be creepy without people there. Kenna was a little bit sick with a sore throat. We stopped in the tiniest little village, also with zero cars, and ate at a restaurant that had just opened three days earlier for the summer crowd. Wowza was the food great and fresh! Spaghetti, carrot and ginger soup, caprese salad, bread and hot chocolate. The ride down was breathtakingly beautiful. Once we got back to the village, we shopped around a bit. My small suitcase extendable handle had been broken by the hotel in Chamonix, so I bought a new one and then I bought a new periwinkle-is silver-ish puffy jacket that I love!
Once we got back to the hotel, I went to shower and wash my hair, only to discover I had packed two shampoos and no conditioner (and they don’t provide any). The kids went to find the pool and hot tub. And they also found some kind of coffin like Himalayan salt walled meditation space.
We went to dinner at a place called Luna and got poured on while we walked back.
The next morning, the clouds parted for us to get a few too many photos of the top of the Matterhorn and then we hung out on some cool partially reclined benches for just contemplating the view of the mountain.
TT changed into his bike clothes and headed off from Grindewald. We packed up, got a ride to the train station and got on. About halfway through the ride, a girl passed out right onto the floor. Rel sprang into RN action to help her. She came to and told us she was pregnant. We gave her a bottle of water and then she started throwing up, her friend only had a canvas bag. We helping clean us with tissues and Rel was fanning her. As this was happening, we saw TT biking past the train out on the road. We were worried to leave the girl, but her friend was helping her so we loaded up the car and took off.
Guest Blogger Rel:
My favorite memory of Switzerland was when we were in Zermatt. When we first arrived we were driving into the town and immediately started getting dirty looks and we were confused until a lady stopped us and said “no car town, you must turn back, no cars.” PSA: if you ever go to Zermatt, you CANNOT drive your car into town and you have to take the train in. Lesson learned haha. The first morning we were there we rented E-bikes to explore the town and go up the mountain towards the Matterhorn. The hills of the town were so hard to bike up and we got lost finding the trail. Once we started on the trail, it was so beautiful. There were so many sheep and it was soooo green! The trail was like straight up but it wasn’t so bad because of the E bike. We went through some tunnels, over bridges and got to the top where we would’ve seen the top of the Matterhorn but sadly it was a wee bit too cloudy. We started riding down and passed through the little town of Z’mutt which you can only get to by biking or hiking. It was such a cute little town with little buildings. We stopped at the restaurant Z’mutt for lunch which we didn’t have high hopes for. Boy were we wrong about that, this meal was to die for and I would go back just for this meal. We got soup, fresh bread, tomato and mozzarella with balsamic, hot chocolate, and some type of spaghetti that was all freshly made by two older guys. It was amazinggggggg and I dream about this meal often. After that we rode back down and the next day we were able to see the Matterhorn clearly and it was sooo cool!!!