Matterhorn

It's not often you wake up and desire three to four glasses of tap water.  The last time I (L) had that I was in Mt. Shasta. This was the first thing I did early in the morning, after opening the window to see the Matterhorn.  When you open the window first thing in the morning with a street sweeping machine under you and all you smell is the aroma of good, fresh bread, where are you?  Perhaps Zermatt.  That's where we were.  Perhaps, we will all soon realize that wealth is having clean air and water and excellent organic food.  (In France, organic is called biologique.  All over France and Switzerland we found very wide spread recycling – except, oddly enough, in Paris.)

Switzerland is just as I imagined it from song and movie and stereotypes.  I wanted to take pictures of everything because it's all so cute!  Swiss Chalets all over the place with cute window boxes full of flowers.  It is clean.

There is an energy of order in Switzerland that did not exist as soon as we crossed over the border into Italy; more on that later.  We felt it coming into Switzerland - not a girdle exactly, but more like biking pants.  The Swiss will hold you in place and keep you well-behaved, but you can still have fun.  There were no abandoned buildings I saw anywhere in Switzerland.  Even very old buildings were functional, cared for and well kept.  Repairs were neat and orderly and made to fit the décor.

Everywhere you looked there were flowers – not on every building, but on most.  The stereotype Swiss Chalet is everywhere - even in France before you come into Switzerland there are very sweet chalets and bistros dressed up as chalets.  Zermatt is home to several ski resorts; in fact, we saw people heading for the train up the mountain with skis - in August!

Lederhosen – where are my lederhosen when I need them?  If you come to Zermatt in the summer, lederhosen would be quite at home.  Shorts, a plaid shirt, a backpack that comes across the chest like lederhosen straps and a walking stick or two – that's the costume of preference, although I did see a few Parisian women in their finest version of  “casual” – one walking two of the most fashionably trimmed and obedient poodles I've ever seen.

Do you think she's the Wilde Hilde? 

A couple of observations about the railways that climb the valley from Visp to Gornergrat, above Zermatt:  how someone could put any railway through there, much less an efficient, well-traveled one, is a testament to great engineering and sheer determination.  By necessity they are narrow gauge (1 meter), but the cars seem wide enough, and are very comfortable.  Several stretches operate as a cog railway, with gradients of up to 12%, possibly more on the line from Zermatt to Gornergrat; 3% grades are considered difficult for normal railroads.  Even after riding on it, I'm reminded of a comment from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: 'Prove it to me and I still won't believe it”. The trains, as expected, depart exactly on time.