Matterhorn!!!

After visiting some friends in the Valais area of Switzerland, Melinda and I decided to take the train from Brig to the historic town of Zermatt, so we could get an up close view of Switzerland's most famous mountain, the vaunted Matterhorn. Its not possible to drive to Zermatt by the way, as it is nestled in the foot of a very secluded valley. Nonetheless, it is a highly popular spot for the Swiss and tourists of all varieties... granola bar backpackers, D&G jetsetters, and everything in between. The pic at left is Melinda standing beside the "Matterhorn Goothard Bahn" which carried us to Zermatt through the winding valleys between some of Switzerland's highest peaks.

Once in Zermatt, we took a stroll down the main street, hoping to find a good view of the Matterhorn waiting for us once we got past the many hotels, cafes, restaurants, and traditional Swiss alpine homes I like to call "Heidi houses". As we got to the end of the town, we found that there was a cable car which could take us to a lake high above Zermatt where we were told we'd have an excellent view. The cable car ride itself was absolutely hair raising... with parts that ascended the mountain at more than a 45 degrees angle! See pic below...


Once at the top, the view was absolutely amazing... I couldn't stop taking pictures. The Matterhorn loomed over us, and the clouds that seemed to steam from it gave it an almost living feeling - as if it were some fierce animal!

After taking many, many pictures of the Matterhorn and surrounding mountains, we decided to enjoy some lunch at the cafe by the Lake, which had an absolutely amazing view of the mountains all around.

There are over 30 peaks in the area of Zermatt, making it one of the best known mountain climbing bases in the world.
As we were waiting for the train home, we noticed a couple of guys with some climbing gear and packs at a cafe nearby - we had to wonder if they'd recently been on any of the mountains, or if maybe they just carried the gear around to pick up chicks!