Day 15 & 16: Zermatt

The town of Zermatt
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Day 15:   We left Interlaken at around 7:30 a.m.  We arrived at Zermatt at around 11:30 this morning.  Zermatt is wonderful.  Zermatt is small, still a bit old-fashioned, and has wonderful views of the Matterhorn.  It's so quaint and high up in the mountains that cars aren't even allowed up to Zermatt.  Instead, they have little motorized vehicles (almost like giant golf carts) that some of the hotels drive around, that they use as taxis, etc.  Even the police cars are those little tiny vehicles!  We found our hotel with ease thanks to the Tourist Office right by the station.  We then headed on out and walked back towards the Gornergrat Bahn to catch a small train to Gornergrat. The views from Gornergrat were amazing.  The train ride up was amazing (thanks to our little guide book, we sat on the right-side of the train on the way up and caught incredible views of the Matterhorn all the way up).  To the left, you can see down the valley right down to Zermatt.  This area around Zermatt is a hiker's dream.  There are countless trails from various points and for various difficulty levels.  We only wish we had some hiking boots!  We reached Gornergrat and just explored for a while.  Despite all the tourists up there, it was very peaceful.  You're surrounded by tall mountains (Matterhorn is the tallest peak in the region but there are about 8 peaks around that are higher than 4,000 meters).  By the time we made it down and back to Zermatt, it was close to dinner time.  We headed back to the hotel to do some research.  We picked up a traveller's guide to restaurants and found a restaurant that we were incredibly interested in.  Schwyzer Stübli is located off the main strip.  We couldn't have been more pleased with our selection.  The restaurant is incredible - with live music playing (accordion players and a bassist playing alpine music), Swiss decorations everywhere, staff dressed up in Swiss outfits, and great food.  To share we ordered the cheese fondue with mushrooms to start (you didn't think we'd come to Switzerland and not order fondue, did you?!).  This was definitely some of the best fondue we had ever had.  We found ourselves scraping the fondue bowl at the end, desperate for more cheese.  We then shared a main meal, a dish with a Bernese pork sausage (yes, you only needed one sausage - it was huge!) in an onion gravy sauce.  You could choose a side dish so we chose spatzli, a type of egg noodle/dumpling that is delicious.  Our night was great.  Alpine music in an alpine setting, great waitress named Linda who was great with us tourists, and some fun conversations with the tables next to us (some older couples from Iowa).  We ended up enjoying ourselves so much, we stayed at the restaurant just chit-chatting and listening to the music for around 3 hours!

Gornergrat
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Day 16:  Today, we woke up and headed downstairs for our free breakfast.  Cereals, various breads (including croissants), and fruit cocktails were awaiting us.  We filled ourselves up on some free food and then headed on out to ride the highest cable cars in Europe.  We rode up the cable cars, which first stopped in Schwarzsee, a beautiful little glacier lake right at the foot of the Matterhorn.  On the way up, we only just briefly stopped by Schwarzsee and decided on exploring it more on the way down.  We then hopped on the final leg of the cable car up to Klein Matterhorn, which they've recently re-named as Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.  Paradise is definitely the right word.  No, it's not all tropical and warm, but it is definitely one of the most amazing places we've been to.  When we got to the top, we were way above the clouds with snow surrounding us everywhere.  You can climb to the viewing platform that is 3,883 meters above sea-level (or 12,736 feet).  It was FREEZING!  We were glad we dressed rather warmly!  Since it IS a glacier, they've built a glacier palace, just like the one at Jungfraujoch.  It's a bit intimidating walking down into a glacier, realizing that the walls are all made of snow and ice.  Beautiful carvings inside the glaciers make the trek worth it.  After freezing our tushes off, we headed back down the cable car towards Schwarzsee to rest and enjoy the sights.  Tiny little glacier lake, high up in the mountains, and we can't figure out how all those little fish get in there!  We hiked down to Schwarzsee and found frigid water (TJ felt it) that was crystal clear.  Schwarzsee is taken care of by a tiny little chapel that sits next to it.  It's an incredible sight.  After a couple of hours in frigid temperatures, we headed on back to Zermatt (where it was nice and warm).  All that cold air and walking sure did make us hungry!  We ate at the Derby for lunch.  We both shared two dishes - the gnocchi and the risotto.  DELICIOUS!  We also ordered escargots for an appetizer.  Melissa had been wanting TJ to try it for a while.. and guess what?  TJ really really liked it!

Fondue time
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We're still in Day 16 right now (it's about 6:30 p.m.) and so we haven't finished our night yet.  We haven't had our second night of fondue so we just can't share that with you just yet.  We will though, oh, we will!  Tomorrow afternoon (around 2:30 p.m.), we're headed off to Venice.  We will be in transit pretty much all day and night tomorrow and will be in Venice on June 22 (it's the 20th today).  Update you all soon!

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Klein Matterhorn
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Day 16 cont.:  Just an update as to where we went to dinner last night.  We chose a restaurant that specializes in fondue.  It's right across the train station and next to the Gornergratbahn.  It's called Restaurant Ross-Stall.  We shared a cheese fondue with herbs to start.  It was so good.  We once again found ourselves scraping the fondue pot.  We then shared a broth-based lamb fondue next.  It was so incredibly tender and delicious.  They don't overwhelm you with meat either.  Just enough to fill you up.  It came with an array of dipping sauces.  The owner then informed us that you can sip the broth after the fondue is done.  She brought us over some sherry and her husband came by to "teach" us how to eat the broth.  It was so incredibly good.  TJ loved it.  He kept on sippin'!  We were definitely in love.  The restaurant is nice and cozy.  The owners even were sitting at a corner table with friends enjoying fondue and wine.  The food was AMAZING!