Zermatt and the Matterhorn

Zermatt was our last planned stop over our Christmas vacation, mostly to see the Matterhorn. This has been on our list since we arrived in Switzerland, but it was a pretty lengthy drive and we hadn't yet visited anything in the area. We weren't planning to do much here, so I didn't do a lot of research other than looking up an address to put into our GPS.

We plugged it in and off we went. We got as far as Täsch and ended up on some small dead-end road. It was about then that we realized you couldn't actually drive to Zermatt. I am normally so over-informed for our travels, how did I miss that?! Zermatt is a car-free town so you need to either take one of their cabs or the train from Täsch. We thought the train would be fun, so we parked and got our tickets.

We wondered how you could take a cab if you weren't allowed to drive there. Te picture above shows why. The town uses these cabs that look like miniature busses. Some are cabs, some are shuttles for hotels and businesses. Either way, they are so cool and if we would have known, we would have taken it one way and the train the other. These vehicles give the town such a cool, secluded feel. Even the police car was the same style!

Being from Canada, it was hard not to compare it to Banff. The old brown wooded buildings, snowy streets and mountain backdrop reminded us a lot of walking around the town in Alberta, but the no traffic was a huge bonus.

It was a gorgeous day the day we were here, and people were outside eating and drinking on patios. The town felt so relaxed and quiet, with people in ski boots everywhere.

Although they have shuttles, the town isn't overly huge so we walked from the train station to get a better view of the matterhorn.

Of course, we took some pictures and came prepared with a Toblerone to eat in front of the matterhorn. When you don't know when you'll be back, you have to be that touristy.

We took a few more pictures and headed back into the town for lunch. It was Christmas day, so not everything was open other than the hotels. We had a great lunch near the train station before heading back.

If it weren't Christmas day, I'm sure we could have spent more time here. For us, we mostly wanted the view and to check out the town. This was definitely high on our bucket list that we're quickly scratching off, and would definitely tell anyone visiting Switzerland to add it to theirs.

+Kahli