Monday, June 4, 2007

June 4 ~ Zermatt, or The Matterhorn

I think the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland was the first time I remember being scared enough to lose bodily fluids. My oldest brother Aaron talked me, the unsuspecting 5-year old, into going on the ride with him. Needless to say, my brotherly trust ended there, and has been missing since (just kidding Aaron). So these were my thoughts leading up to this morning. We took the 3-hours worth of trains to get to the town of Zermatt. Check out this link of a video I shot of the train going up the mountain here. We were going thru a tunnel type of thing, with wooden boards as support, with occasional gaps, giving it that effect. Surprisingly Disney-esque, right?

So, Zermatt is a sort of base for Matterhorn hikers, and serves as a Jackson Hole type of shopping experience for the tourists, etc. (an average of 20 people die hiking the Matterhorn EACH YEAR). There's a cemetary dedicated to these people at the bottom. Interesting.

We forked out an extra 45 bucks and got a ticket to take the tram all the way to the top. We were fairly level with the Matterhorn in the end, and the view was well worth the extra cash.

I brought a couple cameras. One 35 mm, which I'm keeping loaded with black & white, and the other is a Sony Digital. So, to see how the 35 mm turned out, you'll have to wait a week or two after I get back and get it all processed. So, I got a lot of great photos with the 35 mm, and some decent ones with my Sony, which you can see below.

The food here has been good. No complaints yet. I'd heard great things about the brats in this area, and have been determined to test a few out here. Thankfully, there was a brat stand on the corner in Zermatt. They came in 2 flavors, veal and regular beef. The baby cow turned out excellent (see below).

One thing that has also struck me as unique, is the city fountains. Every city we've visited, as far as I can remember, has a city fountain. I'm assuming it's spring water. There's usually a little sign next to it informing you of its potabilty. Hikers and the townspeople use it to wash their hands, get a drink, etc. So the one in Zermatt had these bronze beavers standing on it (see below). The water really is excellent. Tastes amazing in every town.

That's it on the Matterhorn. One of the more memorable days so far.

Links to photos:
Downtown
Brat in Zerm.
Matterhorn from the Tram
Beaver Fountain



4 comments:

beth said...

... LOVING this! Hopefully you have pictures with you in them as well, right? Don't mean to whine, but I'd love to see you too.
Love you, MOM

Unknown said...

Nitro - great pictures. I'm guessing you're really in Nevada and these are actually images from postcards. You've even 'photoshopped' Spencer into one of them (who, by the way, is your swiss traveling partner vs your switz traveling partner). More later, Scott

nate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nate said...

Layne, I'm glad you posted that video. I remember that...it looked friggin cool. Check out this rough (EXTREMELY rough) flash re-creation of it:
http://myftp.natesdesign.com/paralax