Day 16: Gornergrat, Switzerland - Highest Cog Railway & Cutest Sheep

 

Sunday, July 16, 2023

Zermatt, Switzerland

The next morning in Zermatt Switzerland, we took our time in the morning, enjoying breakfast outside on the patio.  

We walked down the streets to a bus stop.  As we crossed a bridge, we took a family photo.  The same bridge my dad and I stumbled across after finally finishing the Haute Route after 12 days of hiking.  Now, I was here with my family… my wife… my son. 

We took the bus and made our way to the train station.  We bought tickets to take a train to Gornergrat.  I think Zermatt.ch says it best:

With its sunny observation platform accessible all year, the Gornergrat, at an altitude of 3,089 m, has been one of Switzerland’s top excursion destinations since 1898. The Gornergrat Bahn was the world’s first fully electrified cog railway. Today it is a modern, eco-friendly railway, equipped with a regenerative braking system that generates electricity on the descent and so saves energy. Thus the energy for one to two new mountain drives is won by three downhill drives.

Cog railway to the sky

Europe’s highest open-air cog railway brings passengers direct from Zermatt station (1,620 m) to the summit of the Gornergrat, 365 days a year. The ride takes 33 minutes and requires a vertical climb of 1,469 m. The line leads on 9.4 kilometers over dramatic bridges, through galleries and tunnels, across forests of larch and Swiss stone pine, and past rocky ravines and mountain lakes.

Panorama for the photo album

The panorama is among the finest in the world. The views take in the Monte Rosa massif with Switzerland’s highest peak (Dufourspitze, 4,634 m); the second-largest glacier in the Alps, the Gorner Glacier; and a total of 29 mountains above 4,000 m, including, of course, the Matterhorn in all its glory. (https://www.zermatt.ch/en/Media/Attractions/Gornergrat) 

The train climbed and climbed, while the views expanded and expanded, revealing more mountains and valleys as our elevation rose. It was a cloudy day, but only the upper 2/3 of the Matterhorn was veiled in clouds.  We were hoping she would reveal herself today.  

We arrived at Gornergrat after, what we thought were the best photos we’d taken in Switzerland, but that was just the appetizer.  Now, the panorama that spread out in front of us, all around us, was mesmerizing.  Multiple glaciers, mountain ranges, huge valleys, and above it all, the Matterhorn, robed in misty clouds, hiding her full stature. 

We took an elevator up to a restaurant patio and took time to enjoy the view with food and drink. We climbed trails up to a lookout area and walked along steep ledges and cliffs, taking it all in. 

A man discreetly flying a drone caused a pang of regret in my stomach.  I’m thankful for all the great drone footage I had gotten before the crash in Grindelwald, but I also thought about all the places I missed due to a broken propellor.  

Along the 360 trail, there were plaques showing Bible verses in German.  We stopped by a tiny chapel and said a silent prayer.  

"Oh sing to the LORD ya new song,

for he has done marvelous things!

His aright hand and his holy arm

have worked salvation for him." Psalms 98:1

Next, we went to an interactive experience called, “Zoom the Matterhorn”.  We watched a 3D projected video of the Matterhorn.  Then, we waited in line for Zoom, a VR experience that lets you paraglide around the Matterhorn.  Seats suspended from the ceiling and paraglider chute handles to grab give you the floating sensation, while a VR headset (Vive) with headphones gives you the visual and audible experience of flying over the huge Matterhorn mountain.  Both Jonas and I got to try it — and it was AMAZING!  Such a cool idea.  It was Jonas’ first time with immersive VR.

After this amazing mountain top experience, we boarded the train and rode it down two stops to Riffelberg.  We got off the train and wandered down to the cablecar and were surprised to find a flock of sheep hanging out in the shade.  We were drawn in by the calm,  cuddly presence of these gentle animals.  We wandered into the hills, to an old church, and had a picnic.  

We got back on the train, and got off at another stop, where we had seen a small train taking hotel guests to a hotel in the mountains. We took the train on a short ride to the hotel that had a playground, gardens, trampoline, and restaurant with live music.  We stayed there a while, watching Jonas play with some of the Swiss kids there.  

We walked back to the train station, Jonas and I exploring some trails while we waited.  The train took us the rest of the way down the mountain, back to Zermatt’s main train station. 

We were going to go on a search for a great restaurant, but since the group was hungry, we just got pizza at a restaurant right next to the station.  The owners were Italian and the pizza was incredible. 

We walked along the main street of Zermatt, stopping by a chocolate shop, but resisting the temptation for hopes of something better… something cooler.

As we walked South along the street, it was very busy with tourists.  But up ahead, there was a huge crowd surrounding something we couldn’t see.  As the crowd grew and got closer, we could hear the sound of bells, almost like the cowbells we had heard in the mountains.  

Then we saw what the commotion was.  It was a goat herder and his assistants, herding 40 or 50 long-horn goats through the middle of the street. It was a really incredible experience. It was so funny to see the shepherd get frustrated with the crowd slowing his progress, taking photos, and blocking his path.  

But it seemed kind of ridiculous that he would guide his goats through the busiest street in town.  But we later found out from a local, that he brings the goats through the same street in the morning and evening.  Street cleaners will wash the street in the early morning for the next goat parade.  Also, the girls who were assisting the Shepard in traditional Swiss custom, we had seen later in regular clothes catching a bus.  So it was a big tourist ploy, but, it worked because it was so cool and memorable. 

We carried on through the streets until we got to the square of the Parish church of St Mauritius. The earliest record of this parish was in 1285.  However, we didn’t come to go to church,  we came for a little spot across from the huge church called, “Gelato Italiano”.  There we ordered gelato— authentic Italian ice cream and it was so good.  

We stopped by the church for a quick prayer and then made our way back to the apartment. We needed to start packing up already, for the biggest event of the trip…