das matterhorn

As you now know, our very first visitors from the US crossed the pond - Andy, Debbie, and the pearl that is Libby.  Here we all are at the Gare de Lyon in Paris, about to take, oh, about 20 minutes to board a TGV train to Geneva.

During their stay there was a lot of this sort of thing, aboard many a train.

As well as a whole lot of this sort of thing.

It was good and easy to merge the worlds, to have those dear faces from Chicago slip right into the scene here.  It was reassuring to remember how friends can just do that...

Don't they look good in Geneva?  

We used them as an excuse to discover a piece of our new country - we decided to visit the ski resort town, Zermatt, near which resides the Matterhorn mountain.  Some of you (me) were first made aware of the big M via Disney.  Viewing the Matterhorn with our own eyes was a mission met with obstacles...no, an obstacle.  We took a train to Visp, then changed into a cog wheel train into the valley to Zermatt.  As we began our train ascent, our concern was doing its own little climb.  Although we didn't dare discuss it, intuition alone told us that we were surrounded by beauty, for all we could see was spooky, dank fog.

Zermatt is German-speaking a ski resort town, nestled in the mountains.  Typical cars are not allowed, so we stepped off the train into the pedestrian village.  Zermatt has strict building restrictions, so its many, many hotels and stores have some of the chalet charm that maybe you've got in your mental stereotype of Switzerland.  

We reached our hotel, secured dinner, and pretended like we could enjoy the view.  

No one brought up the Matterhorn, who was there, dominating the scene even with her absence.  No one mentioned the fact that we had just schlepped three small children and their abundant accessories 

so that we could see what all the fuss is about.  Ok, maybe Tim started to say something, but the look we shot him made him stop.

In the morning, she taunted us a bit more, but we held on, we persevered, I tell you.  We bought tickets for another cog wheel train, gosh darn it, this time to Gornergrat, where we'd be a lot closer.  

Jude indicates our trajectory.
His finger is on Zermatt - follow the red track up to Gornergrat.

The rack and pinion track.

Note the incline.

And you know what?  The sun broke through, revealing...

Yes.