The Matterhorn
I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my previous Switzerland posts, but after our first night in Zürich where we stayed in an Airbnb with a very quirky, but friendly host, we were fortunate enough to visit our friend Veronika in Bern and stay with her for two nights before heading off to Greece.
A little backstory: When I first met Adam, he was living in this huge house with roughly 10 or so other people in the University District of Seattle, aka college town. The place was like a museum. Even though there were a lot of people living there, you would have never guessed it because of how quiet it often was. It was crazy! I had never been in a house that big before; they even had two refrigerators in the kitchen! Anyway, Adam's housemates were all such wonderful people, but it was Veronika who initially made me feel welcome in their home and who always greeted me with open arms, making sure I felt included and comfortable there. She was like the mother hen of the house and sort of took care of everyone, but I had just moved to Seattle and didn't really know anybody other than Adam, so this was such a kind gesture and I appreciated it so much! She's just one of those really sweet, thoughtful people you don't meet every day and even though she lives in Switzerland now, I'm so happy we still keep in touch. It was great spending some quality time with her again, even if we were all a bit under the weather.
The night before we visited the Matterhorn, Adam and I did a load of laundry together in her apartment and the three of us stood side-by-side and hung our clothes to dry on her drying racks, "the European way" as Veronika called it. She was kind enough to sleep on the couch so Adam and I could have her bed, and she made sure we were drinking our tea each night and staying hydrated in order to speed up the healing process. She even made us breakfast each morning, a beautiful spread of cheese and bread and vegetables and eggs.
She's the best! Veronika had a bunch of recommendations for us while we were in Switzerland, and one of them was to visit the Matterhorn, even though she did warn us that it might be too foggy and clouds could be blocking the view. We figured it was worth the risk though and decided to give it a shot. Plus, after riding the Matterhorn at Disneyland earlier this year, we had to go see the real thing!
The train ride from Bern was long but scenic. This was actually the same day we explored Zermatt. From Zermatt, you can take the Gornergrat Bahn up to the Matterhorn viewpoint. We got lucky and only had to wait three or so minutes for the train to depart! We were also the ONLY people in our car, so that was fun. On the way up, we kept our eyes peeled for the Abominable Snowman...
We were in heaven. Switzerland really was so beautiful and we both agreed this train ride was by far our favorite part. The views were woooowwwie wow wow. At one point I was looking down, messing with my camera and as we turned a corner Adam shouted, "AMANDA, LOOK!" and BOOM there it was, right in front of us... The Matterhorn; looming and eerie, poking out between the clouds.
"The Matterhorn was studied by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in the late eighteenth century, who was followed by other renowned naturalists and artists, such as John Ruskin, in the nineteenth century. It remained unclimbed after most of the other great Alpine peaks had been attained and became the subject of an international competition for the summit. The first ascent of the Matterhorn was finally made in 1865 from Zermatt by a party led by Edward Whymper which ended disastrously when four of its members fell to their deaths on the descent. That climb and disaster, later portrayed in several films, marked the end of the golden age of alpinism.
The account of Whymper's attempts on the Matterhorn occupies the greater part of his book, Scrambles amongst the Alps (1871), in which the illustrations are engraved by Whymper himself. The accident haunted Whymper:'Every night, do you understand, I see my comrades of the Matterhorn slipping on their backs, their arms outstretched, one after the other, in perfect order at equal distances — Croz the guide, first, then Hadow, then Hudson, and lastly Douglas. Yes, I shall always see them...'The north face was not climbed until 1931 and is amongst the three biggest north faces of the Alps, known as 'The Trilogy'. The west face, which is the highest of the Matterhorn's four faces, was completely climbed only in 1962. It is estimated that over 500 alpinists have died on the Matterhorn since the first climb in 1865, making it one of the deadliest peaks in the world." (source)
Well, this post went from happy to dismal really quickly. I'm sorry! So anyway, when you finally get to the top, you can walk around and snap some photos, head inside the hotel (yes, there's a HOTEL up there - Switzerland's highest hotel actually!), or simply enjoy a meal at the hotel restaurant. We settled on a cup of hot cocoa.
Nobody was there... Seriously, we were the only ones at the restaurant. I can't imagine how packed that place must get during peak tourist season. It's just breathtaking. Once again, we felt super lucky because it seemed as though we had Switzerland all to ourselves.
The sun even made an appearance for a little while! There's nothing better than being outside on a chilly day and then all of a sudden having the sun peak through the clouds to say hello. Those warm rays on our skin felt so nice.
There was a small church up there with a bell that you could ring by pulling on this giant rope, so Adam had some fun doing that. We weren't paying close enough attention to the train schedule which meant we didn't realize how far apart the departures were... We missed the train we wanted to take, so we ended up having to wait about an hour for the final train back down. It wasn't so bad breathing in that fresh mountain air for a little while longer.
I'm soooo glad we took this trip! I can definitely see why it would have been such a bummer if we had come all that way just to have thick clouds blocking our view the whole time. We really can't complain about much when we talk about our honeymoon. Everything just went so well and the weather's awesome cooperation played a huge part in that. As always, thanks for reading! xo