We both slept in this morning. I woke up about 7:00 AM, and did my usual routine, making coffee and working on the blog posts. I was a day behind, not getting anything done on the post for our last day in Grindelwald the day before yesterday, and then for all of the extra travel to Bern yesterday on the way here to Zermatt.
Stephanie woke up about 8:00 AM, and we both ate breakfast and got ready. There were patches of blue sky appearing outside, so we thought we would do one excursion. Of all the possibilities, we chose to do either the Gornergrat Bahn or the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. We had done both before when we visited Zermatt in 2012, and they were our two favorites. With only one day to explore, we did not need to purchase a pass, just a single attraction ticket. The passes are a great deal for two or more days, but for one day, it was just too expensive, you can’t do two of the main sites in one day, especially as late as we were getting started.
After getting ready, we walked to the tourist information center near the rail station, and they had access to live webcams to check the weather conditions at the various attractions. We had the same online back at the apartment, but they understand the impacts of the changing weather conditions better than us. Based on the current conditions and the forecast, they suggested the Gornergrat Bahn.
We headed across the street to the station for the Gornergrat and purchased our tickets, taking advantage of the Swiss Half-Fair Card we have, basically cutting the cost in half. It was still CHF 110.00 for the two of us.
It was unfortunate that we arrived at the station just as a train was leaving at 10:00 AM, so we had to wait for the next departure at 10:48 AM. By the time the next train arrived for boarding, the waiting area was pretty full, but not terribly crowded. We got seats to ourselves using the two seats across from us for our backpacks, allowing room for a little social distancing. Of course, every train here requires masks to be worn while on them, so also having some extra social distancing space makes it a little more comforting.
I did not think about which side we needed to be on for the best scenery, and unfortunately, we were not on the side with the best views as we were going up the mountain, but we could always sit on the other side when we are riding back down later in the day. I am 0 for 2 on train side selection after Mt. Rigi and here.
The Matterhorn
The ride up was nice, there were quite a few clouds but also some patches of blue sky here and there. The train, which is another cog railway, made several stops as we ascended. The ride lasted about 35 minutes and we were at the top. The actual mountain is called Gornergrat, and is at an elevation of 3,089 meters. From Wikipedia “The Gornergrat is a rocky ridge of the Pennine Alps, overlooking the Gorner Glacier south-east of Zermatt in Switzerland. It can be reached from Zermatt by the Gornergrat rack railway, the highest open-air railway in Europe.”
The Gornergrat Cog Train
We were actually able to see the Matterhorn, it was only obstructed a little by some thin clouds. It was not as spectacular a view as we had on our last visit here in 2012, but based on yesterday’s weather and today’s forecast, we were happy to see the Matterhorn at all, many times it is totally obscured by clouds.
We spent a lot of time walking around and taking pictures with the tripod set-up. There were a lot of open areas with great views, albeit a little cloudy at times.
The Gorner Glacier in the Background
Except for our first sighting of the Matterhorn when we arrived, for a total of about 30 minutes, we never saw it again, the clouds were rolling in and obscuring the view. The glaciers that can be seen from Gornergrat were visible most of the time, it was a little strange, you could see them, but the Matterhorn peak itself was always in the clouds.
The Gorner Glacier – Third Longest In The Alps
We took the train back down the mountain one stop to take some more photos, hoping the weather would clear enough to see the Matterhorn again, but no such luck. We took the next train back up to the top and went to the restaurant for some lunch. We ordered a pork sausage with fries to split as well as two 0.5 liter Endinger Beers.
Stephanie Lighting Votive Candle in Chapel
We actually had to show our Swiss Vaccine Certificates and ID to enter the restaurant, which is the new rule in Switzerland now. We ate outside on the deck overlooking the glaciers, and although it was cloudy, it was quite nice.
After finishing lunch, we visited the small chapel outside the restaurant and Stephanie lit a votive candle while inside the chapel.
The Zooooom – The Matterhorn VR Experience
Next, we headed to a new exhibit called “Zoooom the Matterhorn”, and yes, that is the spelling. The exhibit was an individual Virtual Reality experience of flying over the Matterhorn. It was interesting, but the quality of the VR was not that great. Then we watched a 180 degree movie on the four seasons of the Matterhorn and of Gornergrat, which was pretty interesting. Overall, the entire exhibit it was just OK. For 2021, this experience was free with a Gornergrat ticket, but would become an extra charge next year. We both agreed we would have been disappointed if we had needed to pay extra for it.
Waiting for the Gornergrat Train
Once we were finished with the Zoooom, we headed back outside and saw it had become really cloudy, so we decided to call it a day and take the 2:48 PM train back down to Zermatt.
Once we arrived back in Zermatt, it was beginning to drizzle. We headed to the Coop to pick up some supplies, mainly items for sandwiches for our Glacier Express train ride tomorrow, as well as some wine for that trip. The Glacier Express is an 8 hour panoramic train ride and will take us to our next destination, Pontresina. We actually depart the train in Samedin, one stop before St. Moritz, and take a train connection from there over to Pontresina.
We actually picked up some items for a lite dinner since we had a good lunch up on the mountain. We also needed to repack our bags for tomorrow’s transit. We knew the forecast called for rain most of the remainder of the evening, and we didn’t want to be out in the rain again like yesterday. We were tired, and the early break today would do us good. We have been on the go pretty hard since we arrived in Switzerland, and with the rain, it was a good time for a little break.
Once back at the apartment, we repacked our suitcases, just getting them a little more organized, which also helps to lessen their size. We both took showers, and enjoyed some wine while we watched the rain falling outside. I looked at our PDF copies of our tickets for the Glacier Express tomorrow just to make sure everything was in order, and then looked at the newly posted Covid requirements for the Glacier Express Train. Apparently, now the wording on the requirements indicated we could use our “third world” (Meaning not the EU) vaccine cards as long as it was for a vaccine approved in Switzerland, which the Moderna Vaccine we had met that requirement. This meant all of the aggravation and additional cost for going to Bern for testing to get a Swiss Vaccine Certificates was now for naught.
I know it is a difficult time, but the everchanging rules here have not been a pleasant experience. This Glacier Express Train was one of the highlights of the trip, so we wanted to make it happen, but the email we had originally been sent saying that our CDC Vaccine Card would not be accepted was now no longer correct. Oh well, now we just hope the weather is good for tomorrow’s scenic transit. At least, in the end, we should not have any more issues with the Swiss Covid Certificate since we now have a permanent one.
We ate a light dinner of ham, cheese, bread and crackers and enjoyed the wine.
We made an early evening of it, and were off to bed by 9:00 PM. We set an alarm for 7:00 AM tomorrow morning. We are pretty well packed, and our train does not leave until 8:52 AM. It is just a few minutes walk to the station from our apartment, so we can leave about 8:20 AM and easily make it to our train.