Zermatt

We took the train to Zermatt this morning. It was a beautiful ride.  

Here is our route today. We will travel through a U-shaped valley and a V-shaped valley, the latter deeper with steeper sides. Our elevation will rise 5,000 feet.

 

The rivers here are also turquoise-colored from the glacier silt which reflects the sun.  That's our red train below winding around one of the many bends. 

 

 Rock slides happen occasionally despite how they monitor the mountain sides. A recent one stopped just before a school at the bottom of the slope.

 There are no cars allowed in Zermatt, only electric buses which transport visitors to hotels and other sites. They are so quiet, and the streets so narrow, I had to be careful one was not creeping up behind me as I walked.

Our lunch was Cholera. No, that is not a misspelling. It was a potato, apple (these were hard to find), and cheese tart like a quiche. It was very good. And the salad was a welcome addition.

Next came the funicular up to the Matterhorn. This one was "underground" as it went up through a tunnel. 

It was freezing in the funicular, so I assumed it would be very cold at the Matterhorn site. 

It wasn't. It was in the 70's!

Some info about the Matterhhorn area:

There are LOTS of hiking trails at the top of the funicular. Throngs of hikers populated the town. Another option was to take a cable car further up the Matterhorn. Only a few from our group chose this as there really wasn't enough time to go up and come back down.