5 Letter Travel: Our Journey Around the World: Fondue, Rolex, Hiking, and Roman Polanski... Hello Switzerland!

After turning in the rental car on the French side of the Geneva airport after a long day of driving, we hopped on a Swiss train around Lake Geneva (see pic at right) and continued eastward until we reached Gstaad, a small posh town in the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately we visited during the off-season (between winter skiing and summer hiking) so we were limited in the number of lifts and trails open, but at least the crowds were minimal. We never caught a glimpse of Roman Polanski, but apparently he's been hiding out in one of the chalets here. :)

Anyhoo, so the next day we took the train just a couple stops to Schonried, where we hiked the Helena Trail up the mountain and took the lift at the top back down (see pics). It was a beautiful sunny day, and on the trail we saw abundant wildflowers and numerous cows (with a lovely manure-stench that spread throughout the countryside, blech) - and the funny thing is, here they actually wear giant cowbells! (see pic) I kept asking the cows for more cowbell, of course. :) And we finished off the day with a nice dinner of none other than Swiss cheese fondue, which beats the Melting Pot hands down any day.

View from our room	Gstaad
Hike	Hiking signs
More cowbell!	Hike
Gentian flower	View from top

After a couple days in Gstaad, we once again boarded the train and headed south to Zermatt, home of the famous Matterhorn. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and we arrived in the rain with no sign of the giant mountain obscured by the clouds. So we put off our hiking plans and instead spent the afternoon at the Matterhorn Museum (see pic), learning about the history of climbing attempts on the mountain, and then went across the street to the climbers cemetery (see pic) for a sobering look at how many lives have been claimed by the 14,700-ft peak. It was while walking through the cemetery that we heard a car crash - an awfully strange occurrence for this supposedly pedestrian-friendly "car-free town". It turns out that "car-free" is a bit of a misnomer, as vehicles were actually everywhere - little electric taxis (see pic), construction vehicles, delivery vehicles, everything but tourist rental cars. We actually came closer to getting hit crossing the road here than in any other town we visited, which is pretty ironic.

Rainy Zermatt	Matterhorn Museum
Climbers' Cemetery	Zermatt Taxis

The next morning the rain was still coming down pretty steadily, so we did some shopping downtown, purchasing a little Landert Swiss fondue set as our souvenir to bring home. We were both a little down, wondering if we'd ever get a glimpse of the Matterhorn before we had to head on our way the next morning, or if this would be another "Waimea Canyon" and "Cotopaxi Volcano" experience where we'd try in vain but never get to see the main attraction. Not to worry though, by afternoon the clouds had started to clear a bit, and we took the underground Sunegga Funicular to the top (the highest trail open) and hiked down through the small hamlet of Findeln. The top was still covered with snow and mud, but as we descended the mud cleared to grass and wildflowers, and we were surrounded by cute mountain marmots just waking from hibernation, and a few herds of sheep. And the best part was that we were treated to FANTASTIC views of the Matterhorn all the way down - eventually even the last wisp of clouds cleared and we had a perfect view. :) It was a great way to end our couple days in Zermatt before hopping back on the train and heading to Grindelwald.