As if we do not have enough of these... right? Anyway... Melinda had always wanted to see a big tennis match like Wimbledon or the French or US Open, and so when we moved here, I heard from a colleague at work that the Swiss Indoors is an annual Pro Tennis tournament, and it is hosted at St. Jacobshalle in Basel, which is only about a mile from our Apartment. Plus, with Roger Federer being from the Basel Area, the chance of seeing him play is worthy of buying some tickets, even if I had never heard of the Swiss Indoors before in my life. I gave Melinda two tickets to the Quarterfinals for her Birthday (in June, of course), but the game was not until October 26th. Can you believe she chose me to go with her? Man, I'm so lucky! Wait, it gets better, the games were on a Friday, so of course I had to miss work to see them. All day even! Nice. It’s not everyday you get to see #7, #15, #22, #27, or even #1 in the world play tennis. Now we can see why Federer is so good. Oh yeah, and he won his match over Kiefer 6-3, 6-2 (best of 3)
On Saturday, we headed for the hills (actually, to the tallest Alps in Switzerland). It would not be a complete, or truly “Swiss Weekend” without a visit to the Matterhorn, the pinnacle of the Alps, the mountain symbol of Switzerland, and by the way, a type of branding for my company (it is an IT controlled image on my desktop). Anyway, we had heard from people that a trip to Zermatt was special, and that the Matterhorn was big, and yeah, yeah, yeah, so we booked a hotel.
Uhhhhh, it was ridiculous. So on the way up the valley, the valley to Zermatt, is was a fantastic 45 minute train/funicular through winding gorges, grey-green rock mountains, multi-colored trees of fall, with a turquoise-serpentine river flowing through it all. We could not see the Matterhorn until we left the train station in Zermatt. At first glance it looked like it had fallen on the town; the base of it seemed to be just down the block. We caught the next train to Gornergrat, where our hotel was, and it was another 40 minutes away, up a steeper section of geared rail car tracks. The only thing there is the train stop, the weather/observation station turned hotel, and, oh yeah, the ridiculously incredible views!! (Which include some of the highest peaks in Switzerland ~19 of them, and almost as many glaciers)
On Saturday, we headed for the hills (actually, to the tallest Alps in Switzerland). It would not be a complete, or truly “Swiss Weekend” without a visit to the Matterhorn, the pinnacle of the Alps, the mountain symbol of Switzerland, and by the way, a type of branding for my company (it is an IT controlled image on my desktop). Anyway, we had heard from people that a trip to Zermatt was special, and that the Matterhorn was big, and yeah, yeah, yeah, so we booked a hotel.
Uhhhhh, it was ridiculous. So on the way up the valley, the valley to Zermatt, is was a fantastic 45 minute train/funicular through winding gorges, grey-green rock mountains, multi-colored trees of fall, with a turquoise-serpentine river flowing through it all. We could not see the Matterhorn until we left the train station in Zermatt. At first glance it looked like it had fallen on the town; the base of it seemed to be just down the block. We caught the next train to Gornergrat, where our hotel was, and it was another 40 minutes away, up a steeper section of geared rail car tracks. The only thing there is the train stop, the weather/observation station turned hotel, and, oh yeah, the ridiculously incredible views!! (Which include some of the highest peaks in Switzerland ~19 of them, and almost as many glaciers)
Alright, I’ll quit typing now and get to the pictures. If you see some strange text on the panoramic images, it is ok, I was trying out a photo-stitching tool, which seemed to give good results, but the demo version saves it with the embedded logo…
Melinda and her new boyfriend!
On the way up the valley to Zermatt
The Trees of Fall and the Grey-Green Mountains
Zermatt and the Matterhorn
Hansel and Gretel... and the Matterhorn
Gornergrat 3100 (The Hotel) and the Matterhorn
Sunset (looking away from the sun)
The Restaurant in the Hotel (From the outside)
Gornergrat 3100 (notice the Grey-Green Rocks)
The Moon Setting over the Matterhorn
Gornergrat Train Station (look closely for Hansel and Gretel)
Downtown Zermatt
The Trees of Fall and the Grey-Green Mountains
Zermatt and the Matterhorn
Hansel and Gretel... and the Matterhorn
Gornergrat 3100 (The Hotel) and the Matterhorn
Sunset (looking away from the sun)
The Restaurant in the Hotel (From the outside)
Gornergrat 3100 (notice the Grey-Green Rocks)
The Moon Setting over the Matterhorn
Gornergrat Train Station (look closely for Hansel and Gretel)
Downtown Zermatt
We, unfortunately, picked up some provisions at the market... Not the Stübli
Zermatt
Hey Look Kids.... Its the Matterhorn
Zermatt
Hey Look Kids.... Its the Matterhorn
One of the cutest baby sheeps in all of Switzerland...
The view from our Zimmer...
The View above Gornergrat 3100
One of the glaciers below...
Sunset
Sunrise
Here are some Matterhorn quick facts...
- 4,478 m (14,692 ft)
- First Summit Climb, 1865 by Edward Whymper (Britain)
- AKA Monte Cervino, it shares a border with Italy
- 11th Highest Peak in Switzerland
