We stepped onto our balcony this morning, and this is what we saw; note the absence of any clouds at all!
We grabbed an early breakfast, checked out of our room, and asked the hotel to hold our baggage for the day while we went out exploring. Taking advantage of the sunny skies, we took the lift up to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. This area is essentially a smaller mountain, near the Matterhorn, which offers great views and also the opportunity for year-round skiing.
Before reaching the top, we got off the gondola and explored the area on the last stop before reaching the top, which is Trockener Steg at 9,642 feet. Below is a photo looking down at Zermatt from the Trockener Steg station.
We walked down and to the east to Theodulgletschersee, to see the Matterhorn reflecting in the still waters.
Here is a panoramic video with the mountain behind the alpine lake.
After hiking around the area for a couple of miles, we returned to the station to take the lift to the top. The image of the glacier below was taken from the gondola ride.
It didn’t take long, and we arrived at the top, at 12,739 feet.
Here is the Matterhorn from a different perspective.
These are lifts to take skiers to the slopes on the glacier.
We left the viewing platform and walked out to the ski area. They even have a small snow tubing area set up, which I tried. It’s not big, but it’s the first time I can say I’ve been snow tubing in the summer!
Before returning to the lift, we visited the Glacier Palace, which is a series of tunnels and caves built down in the glacier, which features a series of ice carvings on display.
After a nice temporary trip back into winter, it was time to take the gondola back to Zermatt.
Back in Zermatt, we returned to the hotel to get our luggage, and they gave us a lift to the train station, as it was time to leave this mountain town for another. We were heading to Mürren, which would take over 3 hours and about 6 train changes. The first train took us down the valley to Visp. From there, another train would take us to Speiz, where we connected with another train to Interlaken Ost. Another train took us up the valley to Lauterbrunnen, where we transfer to a cable car up to Grütschlap, before taking a final train to the end of the line in Mürren.
The views heading down the valley leaving Zermatt were stunning; much more than they were on our arrival 3 days earlier. The train today was newer, featuring panoramic windows, and it was also a bright sunny day, which changes the perspective completely. I wish I could post some photos, but there was just too much reflection in the window glass on the train. The older train with the smaller windows may have been preferable, because at least I could open them slightly to get a camera lens through them!
Upon arrival in Lauterbrunnen, we changed to the cable car that would take us up to a different line. Below is a picture of Lauterbrunnen, and the cliff you see on the right is where Mürren is located, but a few miles further up the valley from here. Like Zermatt, Mürren is not accessible by car.
The trains up on the cliff were much older and smaller than the other Swiss trains which we have taken, but they did the job. Here we are at the Mürren BLM station.
The village of Mürren sits on top of a cliff, approximately 2,300 feet above the valley floor below. I would like to have seen how they got the train cars up there!
We checked into our hotel, explored the village a bit, and had a nice dinner before heading to bed for the night.