Thanksgiving in Zermatt, Switzerland!

If someone had told me last year that we would get to spend Thanksgiving in Switzerland, I would have laughed. Then I would have suggested a lovely rehab program, because obviously they were taking some kind of mind altering substance. Life is crazy sometimes. Anyway...the opportunity came up for us to take a trip from Spangdahlem AFB, Germany, to the lovely little town of Zermatt, Switzerland, for Thanksgiving weekend...and we jumped on it.

We got up bright and early on Wednesday morning, loaded up the van, and headed out on the 2 1/2 hour drive to Spangdahlem, Germany. We lucked out, and made good time on the trip. After an early lunch, we loaded our gear onto the tour bus with the rest of the group, and headed out to Switzerland. To say it was a long ride, is a vast understatement. I think it took about 12 hours to get to the little town of Tasch, Switzerland. You can't actually drive into Zermatt. They don't allow any motor vehicles in the town, so you have to drive into Tasch, and then take the cog train up the mountain and into Zermatt. We made it to the train station at just before midnight. The men on the bus loaded all of the bags, suitcases, skis, etc., onto 3 closed luggage carts, handed it over to the train employees, and we shuffled onto the train. It only took about 20 minutes to get up the mountain on the train. Not too bad. Then someone realized that the train employees didn't load out luggage carts onto the train. "It will be on the 1 am train," they assured us, so we checked into the hotel to wait.

Hotel rooms are smaller in Europe, so Jess and I took one room...And Russ and Brandon got the other. The men let us choose, so of course we got the bigger room with the balcony and bath tub. The fellows got the shower. The kids relaxed and Russ and I went to the train station with a few others from our group to meet the 1 am train and get our luggage. Our bags didn't make that train either (the last one for the night), so we just went back to the hotel and climbed into bed. Russ woke up, went down, and got the luggage at 6 am and brought it up to us. Then we went back to sleep. At 6:45, the church bells chimed out what sounded a lot like "3 Blind Mice", and I went to the balcony to see what the town looked like in the daylight. Wow! Is that a view, or what? SOOOOOOOO worth the long drive. I can't believe that I am staying in a room in Switzerland, and I am staring at the Matterhorn. Don't pinch me, because I if I'm dreaming, this is the coolest dream EVER!

I called the guys over to check it out. How awesome is this? The weather was beautiful, too.

This is the view from Russ and Brandon's window.
We stayed at the Hotel Aristella, and it was a great little hotel. There are only 27 rooms in the whole place, 16 doubles and 11 singles. We were on the top floor, and the views were awesome. The brown section on the left is the hotel's Restaurant, the Grill Room Spycher. We had dinner there every night, and the food was fantastic!This is the bar on the first floor. The breakfast cafe was just to the right of this. They also had a lounge with a bunch of couches and tables, so you could relax and play games if you wanted. The town of Zermatt is beautiful, as well. We spent a lot of time just walking around, exploring, and shopping. This stream ran through the center of town. It's fed by the glaciers on the mountain. Don't you just love this crazy cow? They were everywhere. Apparently they are a big collectors item. Of course, most of them were anywhere from 4 to 12 inches tall. This one was an over achiever. We just had to have lunch here on our first day. Now the kids can say that they've eaten at McDonald's in Switzerland!
You can see this beauty from just about everywhere in town.
This fountain was near the church. Marmots are a big deal here. Apparently they have a lot of them. I never saw a live one, but I saw lots and lots of stuffed animal ones for sale in the stores. This is the Matterhorn Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed during November. It has a lot of history concerning the mountain and those who have climbed (and attempted to climb) it. We decided to head up to the very top of Little Matterhorn (just to the left of the Matterhorn) on Friday, so we headed over to the ski lifts. We had to take 3 different ski lifts to get to the very top, but it was worth it!

Almost there.....I have to admit, when I saw that little concrete building balanced on the tip of the mountain, I got a tad nervous about this whole thing!
Once you reach the top, you have to walk through a cave through the mountain.
Then you climb a LOT of stairs to get to the observation stand on the top. By the way, that's Italy straight ahead in this picture. Some of the people in our group skied over there for lunch, and then back again.
Finally, the top. There is a big cross attached to the top of the platform.

The views are amazing! In the center of the valley ahead (just above the shadow) is Zermatt. We are very high up...12, 736 feet to be exact!

That's the Matterhorn in the back right. Not quite so big when you are this high up!
There was a gift shop up on top. Jess had to check out the styles.
We climbed back down the stairs to the main level, took an elevator down into the glacier, and entered the Ice Caves. They had some ice carvings inside. As well as a place to sit down and relax.
There was a spot where visitors had been placing their hands against the ice. Brandon is now a part of the glacier's history.
Time to head back down the mountain. Watch out for that first step. It's a doozy!
The views of the glaciers were amazing. This place really reminds me of Alaska!
These are the skiers at the second level.

This is the second ski lift, and time to change cars to get back to the base of the mountain. We made it back down the mountain in time for lunch, so it was off to Restaurant Stadel for some fondue!They had a Christmas Market in the square beside the train station while we were there. It was pretty cool to check out, and I got to try the traditional Christmas mulled wine, Gluhwein. It was pretty good. The older buildings were built up on platforms with round, flat rocks separating them from the the base. This kept the mice from getting up into the house and eating the food.

Brandon and I went ice skating. That was a lot of fun. Very quickly, it was Saturday night, and we had to start packing up to leave in the morning. We had to say goodbye to Hotel Aristella.
And goodbye to the lovely town of Zermatt, in the shadow of the Matterhorn. It was a trip of a lifetime, and we won't forget it! If you ever get the chance, visit Zermatt, Switzerland. The people are friendly, the sites are amazing, and the food is fabulous. Ahhhh.