Zermatt and Murren A very rare trip for us during the school summer holidays. Children have no interest in being hauled around the mountains do they? We were about to find out.
Firefly Friday - Arduous drive to Folkestone with the apparently millions of other people starting their summer holidays on this day. Fortunately Eurotunnel FlexiPlus did us proud again (as usual). We spent the night in the Ibis in Calais (specifically Coquelles, next to the Eurotunnel).Saturday - Drove straight from Calais to Tasch. The French peage was typically free flowing and we arrived in Zermatt late in the afternoon to check in to the magnificent Firefly hotel. It was very hot out though, with the top temperature we saw on the car's thermometer being 36.5C.
Firefly This was one of the three on-suite bedrooms in our suite. In retrospect, a 2,400 sq ft three bed suite seems a little excessive, but it was absolutely fabulous at the time.
The Factory To get into the Zermatt groove, we went to The Factory for dinner for some Zermatt Beer.
The Factory Judith had a cheese fondue (i.e. a bowl of melted cheese) that came with a diced loaf of bread and about a kilo of new potatoes. I had a rosti.
Edelweiss Edelweiss was visible up on the side of the valley, 1,100 feet above Zermatt. I was hoping to make it up there at least a couple of times during our few days in Zermatt.
Park We stumbled across a park in the middle of the village that we'd somehow never seen before. The open space offered a great view of the Matterhorn, with some comfy benches to admire it from.
River The river through the village was a raging torrent like we'd never seen in any of our previous visits.
Bar 55 Back to the hotel's Bar 55 for a beer...
Library ...before retiring to our library area for a bit of light reading before bed.
Library Judith in our room's library area.
Shady Sunday - Up and out early to try to get some walking in before it got too hot out. There weren't many people on Zermatt high street at 08:30.
Randa My plan was to get the train to Randa and then walk up the east side of the valley, which would stay in shade for the longest.Here's the view over Randa and down the valley as I left the village.
Bridge After about 90 minutes I got my first sight of the Charles Kuonen suspension bridge. At 494m (1,621 feet) long, it's currently the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world.
Bridge I was surprised to discover that it hardly wobbled at all as I walked across. It was very narrow though. It was also drawing a lot of visitors so the trails nearby were very busy by Zermatt standards.
Europaweg Ropes Having crossed the bridge, I decided to continue to follow the Europaweg back to Zermatt. Ropes bolted to rock walls are always quite entertaining.
Europaweg Tunnel It's not often that you come across a tunnel on a hiking trail. The rope bolted to the wall must have become too precarious along this bit. It was about a hundred meters long, with a bend in the middle so you couldn't see the other end. With all of the rocks on the ground, a torch was essential for safe progress. Fortunately I had three with me (just to be on the safe side :o)
Vertigo This is the most vertigo-inducing bit of trail I've walked on in the Zermatt area. The trail itself is barely visible below the rope bolted to the rock wall.
Europaweg A short while later the trail had curved round, giving me a great view of the bit that the last three photos were taken on. The entrance to the tunnel is almost right in the middle of the photo and a group of about a dozen people are about to enter, but they're too small to see in this photo. However, you can just about make out the line of the trail going across the middle of the photo.
Randa The sun was now high enough in the sky that I was walking in the sunshine so the temperature was climbing steadily.
Zermatt View Up the valley I had a great view of Zermatt in the distance.
More Tunnels This was a strange bit of the trail. An artificial overhang had been created to protect walkers from rock falls, but every hundred meters or so the trail ducked into a tunnel for about thirty meters. Maybe some sort of refuge?
Matterhorn Eventually I made it far enough up the valley to get a view of the Matterhorn again.
Hut So it turns out that these huts don't last forever after all. I think this is the first fallen-down one I've ever seen though.
Tasch Although my plan was originally to follow the Europaweg back to Zermatt, Judith called to say she was on her way to Tasch, so I diverted down the valley side and met her for lunch.We managed to find a shady spot in a bit of a breeze across the road from the train station.
Zermatt After lunch Judith got the train back to Zermatt, whilst I decided to walk. Even though it's a fairly flat walk (only 180 meters of ascent over about five miles), the termperature was in the high 20s, so it was a relief to make it back to Zermatt.
High Street The high street was somewhat busier than when I'd left this morning.
Lightning You can hardly see it in this photo, but the horizon is glowing slightly due to a massive lightning storm going on somewhere outside of our valley. Lightning illuminated the sky every couple of seconds, but we couldn't hear any thunder. Very spooky.Distance walked today - 12.8 miles (20.7km)Ascent today -4,241 feet (1,293m) Descent today - 4,241 feet (1,293m)
Matterhorn Monday - Up even earlier today as I was planning to walk on the west side of the valley, which would be in full sun from sunrise. Having encountered far more people than I would prefer on the trails yesterday, the receptionist lady from our hotel had suggested that this walk would be both quiet and scenic.
Arigscheis The trail was easy enough to find thanks to the excellent Swiss signage.
Shady (a bit anyway) The first couple of hours of the walk were through fairly dense tree cover, so even though this side of the valley was in full sun, the trail was not too hot, which was a big relief.
Trail Although the higher I got, the fewer trees there were.
Tasch I had a great view over Tasch (just visible in the bottom of the photo) up the valley opposite. The Taschhutte is up there somewhere. Not been there yet.
Arigscheis The view from Arigscheis was magnificent. There was also a picnic table and some benches, so I decided to have a bite to eat while I admired the view.
Helicopter While I was having my picnic this helicopter flew overhead. I was careful not to try to photograph it as it approached so as not to inadvertently make the "I need assistance" sign, which is unfortunately the same as the "I'm taking a photo" sign.Here it looks like it's about to crash into the mountain, but it's not.
Hut I always find a hut lashed to the ground with metal cables a little unsettling. It makes me think that where I'm standing the weather could turn turn extremely "challenging" indeed. Probably quite quickly too.
Walking I had some fun balancing my phone on a rock and then walking away.
Standing I had more fun balancing my phone on a rock and merely standing nearby.Anyway, a couple of hours later I made it back to Tasch. I was planning to walk back to Zermatt, but I was so hot when I got to Tasch that the thought of another 90 minutes walking in the blazing sunshine didn't appeal at all, so I got the train instead.
Cake I'd almost forgotten. This was my birthday and the hotel had supplied a lovely cake. I felt I'd earned a large slice of that.
Swimming Time for a swim in the hotel's excellent pool. Although it was a bit of a challenge picking a time when it wasn't full of childen shouting at each other, as they like to do.
Spa Pool And a dip in the new spa pool.
Flowers Flowers outside the hotel's pool./sun room.
Edelweiss While Judith returned to the hotel's pool to do a few (dozen) lengths, I put my boots back on and headed off on the short walk to Edelweiss.
Zermatt View There's a great view of Zermatt from their terrace. I really do need to stay up here one night (but not a night when I'm already paying for a three bed suite in town!).
Firefly I had a good view of the building works going on on the top of the Firefly. Fortunately that was all going on during the day while we were out and they'd generally cleared off by the time we got back in the afternoon.Judith is just visible on our balcony on the right of the photo.
Miniature Playing with the miniature setting on my camera.
Clouds! On the way back to the hotel, the view down the valley looked ominous. So it wasn't a great surprise when it started raining heavily a while later.
Gee's Bar We braved the rain to head to Gee's Bar for a drink.
Shop Window An interesting display in a shop window we passed on the way back to the hotel.
Old Town I took this with the Low Light setting in the Pro Camera app that I'd recently bought for my phone. Seems to have done quite a good job.Distance walked today - 10 miles (16.1km)Ascent today - 3,792 feet (1,156m)Descent today - 3,792 feet (1,156m)
Zermatt View Tuesday - Up and out early again. First stop is the brilliant view point on the way to Findeln from Winkelmatten. The trail is conveniently still well in the shade at this point.
Zermatt View Brilliant view on a day like this.
Tufternen Passing through Tufternen a while later.
Walking Abandoning my phone on a rock again.
Judith I met up with Judith at Blauherd with the intention of walking to the hutte at Fluhalp (she'd got the train/cable car up). However, about a million other people had the same plan, so we decided to skip that and head towards Findeln instead. As you can see from the photo, the trail was pretty quiet heading in that direction.
Trail Judith on the trail to Findeln.
Findeln Egge A while later we arrived at Findeln Egge, where we popped in to Paradies for some very nice (and hilariously expensive) ravioli.
Beer Still, at least their beer was broadly normal price.
Findeln Egge After lunch we carried on down the mountain back to Zermatt.
Zermatt View Judith at the view point I stopped at on my way up a few hours ago, now in full sunshine.
Garden A garden full of flowers in Zermatt.
Swimming Judith went for a swim again, while I headed off to Edelweiss agan as it felt like it had been a pretty easy day of walking so far.
Deer Just before setting off, I saw this deer out of our hotel room window, which was particularly impressive given that our room was on the fourth floor!
Edelweiss View Half an hour later I was enjoying the view at Edelweiss again.
Beer Then back to the hotel for a beer before dinner.Distance walked today - 13.6 miles (21.9km)Ascent today - 4,238 feet (1,292m)Descent today - 4,238 feet (1,292m)
Matterhorn View Wednesday - We were leaving Zermatt today to drive to Murren, so I wanted to get out for a short walk before we set off. Can you guess where I went?
Edelweiss
Cake Back at the hotel I finished off the last of my birthday cake with breakfast. Mmmmm. Cake.
Firefly Time to say goodbye to the wonderful Firefly hotel. I'm sure we'll be back again before long (although maybe not in a huge suite!).
Driving Driving up the winding road to the train station...
Lotschberg Tunnel ...to catch a train through a mountain, which cuts about a hundred miles off the drive to Murren.
Murren View Having caught the train with the car to Kandersteg, we drove to Lauterbrunnen, where we parked the car, before switching on to a cable car to Grutschalp, where we caught a tiny little train to Murren.This was the view from our balcony. It's hard to grasp the scale, but in the bottom right of the photo you can just make out the edge of a village.
Murren View Looking south along the valley.
Hotel Having settled in we went out for a bit of a walk. However, it was getting very cloudy out and before long it had started to rain.
Stars Strangely, as it got dark all of the clouds disappeared, giving us a lovely view of the stars.It was at this point that I discovered that my Panasonic camera is rather good at making time lapse videos. Click here to see a couple of short time lapse videos that my camera made.
Star Trails My first attempt at star trails with my new Panasonic camera.Unfortunately I couldn't point it far enough north to get the star circles, but otherwise it seems quite up to the task.Distance walked today - 2.6 miles (4.2km)Ascent today - 1,148 feet (350m)Descent today - 1,148 feet (350m)
Birg Thursday - The place to travel to from Murren is the revolving restaurant at Schilthorn. However, it was a very sunny day and I would be walking on an east facing slope that had been in full sun since sunrise. There was little/no shade. I decided to go anyway.This was the view of the cable car station at Birg as I left Murren.
Mountain View Across the valley I had a brilliant view of the three peaks of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau (although the photo was a bit into the sun, which wasn't ideal).
Sheep
Birg (and Schilthorn) Getting closer to the Birg cable car station now. My destination, the revolving restaurant at Schiltorn, is just about visible on the dark peak just to the right of Birg.
Birg Similar picture to the last one, but I liked it.
Birg A close up of Birg. Just under the cable car you can see the Thrill Walk, which is a walkway bolted to the vertical rock face. I was looking forward to having a go on that later.
Shadow Just to remind me that there were virtually no clouds and no shade.
Grauseewli The lake Grauseewli, with Schilthorn visible in the top right. you can also just about make out the cable for the cable car. That's how Judith (and about 98% of the other people) would be getting to the top.
Birg On the final climb to Schilthorn there were great views back to Birg and the mountains beyond.
Schilthorn Getting close now.
Schilthorn The final bit!
Schilthorn There were a lot of people at the top. I arrived about an hour before Judith because she was stuck in a massive queue of people waiting for the cable car.Everything at the top is massively James Bond themed because they made a bit of the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service here. That's the one with George Lazenby that hardly anyone remembers. But they weren't letting that hold them back at all.
Thun The town of Thun, at the end of Lake Thun, was visible some twenty or so miles away.
Murren This was the only bit of Murren visible from Schilthorn. I never did get the chance to stand on the tennis court and see if I could see Schilthorn from there.
Birg Having had a nice (and surprisingly affordable) lunch in the revolving restaurant, I decided to walk down to Birg (to have a go on the Thrill Walk). Judith opted to get the cable car down.
Birg View An hour or so later I met up with Judith again at Birg...
Beer ...where we enjoyed the view with a beer.
Thrill Walk This is the entrance to the Thrill Walk.
Thrill Walk So they've got a glass floor bit...
Thrill Walk ...and this mad tube bit that you can make your children crawl through...
Thrill Walk ...and this highwire bit that would be much, much more exciting without the safety net.We noticed that the clouds were starting to gather and the staff collected all of the big umbrellas off the terrace, so we thought it was probably time to crack on.
Clouds Before I'd gone very far at all, Birg disappeared into the descending clouds.
Cable Car Here's the cable car on its way up to Birg, which was completely hidden in the clouds now.
Valley View I decided to go down a different way to the way I'd come up. The trail was quite steep and very, very eroded, but the views were excellent.
Rock Formations There were some impressive rock formations.
View A miscellaneous view on the way down.
Murren Shortly after I took this photo it started to rain lightly. Shortly after that it started to rain heavily.
Wet My wet weather gear saved me from the worst of the conditions.I've no idea how Judith has managed to get my phone to take such a blurry photo.
Dinner As it was still miserable outside we decided to have dinner in the hotel's restaurant, which was very nice.Distance walked today - 12 miles (19.4 km)Ascent today - 4,543 feet (1,385m)Descent today - 4,543 feet (1,385m)
Cloudy Friday - For the first time all week we woke up to clouds.
Walking We decided to walk the trail that follows the train track from Murren to Grutschalp.
Train The little train passed us several times along the way.
Wengen Across the valley, through the haze, we had a nice view of Wengen.
Mountain View Trail At Grutschalp Judith got on the train back to Murren while I set off on the Mountain View Trail. Unfortunately, due to all of the cloud there wasn't much in the way of mountain views to be had.
Allmendhubel A while later I met Judith at Allmendhubel, where we had a light lunch...
Beer ...and a beer obviously.
Train After lunch Judith got this impressive little train back down to Murren whilst I walked down.
Walking We decided to walk down to Gimmelwald, which is the half way point for the cable car up to Murren from Stechelberg. This was a miscellaneous view on the trail down to Gimmelwald.
Unimog We passed this well used looking Unimog in a garage.
Paragliders There were loads of paragliders out on this day.
Gimmelwald They brew this in Gimmelwald I think. It's quite unusual as there aren't many dark beers available. It was very nice though.
Cable Car As it turned out to be rather more of a downhill walk than we were expecting from Murren to Gimmelwald, Judith didn't fancy walking back up again. So she got the cable car.Distance walked today - 10.9 miles (17.6km)Ascent today - 2,578 feet (786m)Descent today - 2,578 feet (786m)
Sunrise Saturday - We woke up to a fabulous sunrise.
Hotel Alpina We checked out of the hotel and headed for the train.
Train When we arrived at the station the train was rather empty, but it had filled up a bit by the time it left for Grutschalp, where we boarded the cable car down to Lauterbrunnen to retrieve the car.The Swiss motorways were very busy, but things calmed down a lot when we made it across the border into France and we made good time heading north.
Sofitel We arrived at the Sofitel in the middle of the afternoon to discover that they'd dug up their car park to build another hotel. It was a good job we'd turned up on Saturday when the place was completely deserted.
Suite As it was the last night of our holiday, I'd booked one of their newly refurbished suites, which was lovely and had that brand new smell that brand new things have.
Philharmonie Luxembourg We decided to walk into the middle of Luxembourg city for dinner. Although the walk from the Sofitel only takes about 25 mins, there's a lot to see along the way. For starters there's the Philharmonie Luxembourg, which is just across the road from the hotel.
View Then there's a lovely view.
Modern Art Museum Then there's the Modern Art Museum, which I reckon is better from the outside than the inside (if the awful Tate Modern is anything to go by).
Fort Obergrunewald The path into the city then winds through the Fort Obergrunwald...
Trois-Glands Park Before heading into the Trios-Glands Park.
Cottages You pop out of the park near these cottages...
Pfaffenthal Lift ...before crossing the river to the Pfaffenthal Lift, which whisks you up the other side of the valley.The main square was absolutely rammed, but we managed to have dinner at an okay Chinese buffet nearby.
Brewery After dinner we headed off to look for the Clausen Brewery, which we found in this curious and trendy looking former industrial site. You can tell it's trendy because both Amazon and Microsoft have their offices in there.
Brewery We did find the brewery, but strangely just didn't fancy a beer. Perhaps we were just tired from all of the travelling.
Park So we headed back to the hotel through a conveniently located nearby park.
Road This is the main road past the Sofitel - the Avenue John F Kennedy. To cross this road you need to cross a bus lane, a pedestrian island, a two way cycle lane, another pedestrian island, a three lane road heading out of town, another pedestrian island, a four lane road heading into town, another pedestrian island, another two way cycle lane, another pedestrian island and two tram tracks. This must be the widest road I've ever crossed in my entire life.
Sofitel Just time for a soft drink in the Sofitel bar before turning in for the day.
Atrium The obligatory photo up or down (in this case up) the atrium.
Driving Sunday - As it was a lovely day, we spent the first couple of hours off the motorways, driving on deserted Belgian and French roads and filled up with fuel in the hilarious town of Martelange. The road through the town is in Belgium, but the row of a dozen or so side-by-side petrol stations on the right side of the road (as you're driving west) are actually in Luxembourg. Consequently the fuel they sell is up to 35p-a-litre cheaper than in Belgium (or France for that matter). Very weird.After a couple of hours we ducked onto the motorway as it was going to take all day to get to Calais on the back roads.
Eurotunnel Epic fail from Eurotunnel FlexiPlus. Checked in, got the hangar, but the gate didn't open! It took them nearly ten minutes to sort it out. I felt most sorry for the people stuck behind us (although that's the sort of thing that usually happens to us).They made up for it though by sneaking us onto the back of an earlier train than the one we'd gone to board. We were the last car on (as you can see from the photo) and the train left about two minutes after we boarded.
BMW We had a surprisingly straightforward drive home from Folkestone for a Sunday afternoon in August, with Judith's BMW returning an impressive 49.6mpg for the whole 1,500 mile trip to Switzerland and back.
The End I thought I'd end with a mountain picture. We've had a brilliant week, but it was much, much busier than we're used to (apart from the deserted Sofitel in Luxembourg) so I think it's safe to say that whilst we'll definitely be going back to Switzerland again, it won't be in August.Total distance walked this week - 62 miles (99.8km)Total ascent this week - 20,539 feet (6,262m)Total descent this week - 20,539 feet (6,262m)