Zermatt

Sunday July 27

We left Andermatt on the 10:30am train for Zermatt - it was a local train stopping many times but we only had to change in Visp. We arrived at 2:30pm and Gerald met at us the station. The town was bustling. We settled in and did some shopping and went out for dinner at Pollux - which was fine but not outstanding.

Monday July 28

We did the "big" shop and explored the village.

Tuesday July 29

We took the Gornergrat to Rodenboden then walked to Riffelalp via Riffelsee and Riffelburg. We stopped for lunch at the Alphutte at Riffelalp then continued onto Zermatt. It was a total of 11.2 km and 5 hours walking. We went out for dinner at Julen and had a great dinner - a shared rack of local lamb.

Wednesday July 30

We walked to Zum See (https://www.zumsee.ch) for lunch then home for dinner.

Thursday July 31

We took the train to Sunnega then the gondola to Blauhard and did 3 of the 5 lakes walk - a total of 10 k's. It was the eve of the Swiss national day and there was a massive street party - we walked around soaking up the atmosphere then had dinner at Schwitzerhof Kitchen - 2 salads and a shared pizza - great atmosphere but not really outstanding. We were expecting a lot of noise into the early hours of the morning (as we had been in Zermatt before on the national day party) but it did not eventuate.

Friday August 1

We had a lazy day - just walking to Blatten (via Zum See) for lunch. My foot (toe) was hurting so much I could not wear my hiking boots. We had sambos for dinner.

Saturday August 2

After some great sunny days - it was drizzling so we lazed about in the morning. We opted for a village self-guided tour in the afternoon then stayed home for dinner as our favourite restaurants were fully booked. We had rack of lamb with roasted potatoes, carrots and onions and a stir fry of mushrooms.

Sunday August 3

Off to Zurich and then home. We took an earlier train from Zermatt to Visp as Gerald picked us up to take us to the station earlier than planned - so we had to wait an hour in Visp for our direct train to Zurich - the train was a bit of a zoo - we got seats but everyone's luggage was piled up in the isle.

Zurich airport was a total zoo due to the reconstruction of the shopping area - we were all checked in to the Radisson Blu  by 2:30pm in time for Dieter to watch the F1 from Hungary at 3pm. We had a bit of happy hour in the room then went for dinner at the hotel restaurant.