Day 9--Switzerland

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Last night we had an overnight train from Florence to what we thought was Visp at 7:07am. However, it ended up that we had to get off the train at Brig at 4:35am—Brig is only about 10 minutes form Visp. Once we arrived at Brig we needed to change out of our warm weather clothes and into jeans and sweatshirts because we had gone from 75 degree weather to 35 degree weather.
Once we in more weather appropriate clothes we were able to figure out what train and when we’d be able to get from Brig to Visp. We arrived in Visp and tried to buy a bus ticket to Saas-Fee to go tobogganing at the Feeblitz—which is the only summer toboggan ride. We tried numerous times to buy a ticket from the automated machine but could not because we didn’t have a PIN number for a credit card. Because of this we needed to wait around for the teller to open up. Finally it opened at 7—the bus was in just 5 minutes. We were buying our bus tickets and just as we were finishing up paying the 7:05 bus to Saas-Fee pulled out of the station—we had to wait until the 7:40.
We got to Saas-Fee and through our bags into some lockers and started to walk for the Feeblitz. We got to the Feeblitz and it wasn’t open. There was a sign on the door that we were unable to read because it was not in English. We looked at other signs around the door and window of the place trying to figure out what the sign said. Finally we typed it out onto a cell phone and walked back to the train station and ask someone to translate for us. The translation was…..”On Holiday, Closed until June 6th.” Just our luck, just a few days after we were visiting.
We then looked a bus that would take us to Stalden so we could take a train to Zermatt (our final stop in Switzerland for the day). When we made it to Zermatt we decided to check we could check into our hostel, Hostel Matterhorn. Unfortunately check in wasn’t until 4, so we had about 4 hours to kill. Luckily there were lockers in the train station again and we were able to leave our bags there and go visit Klein Matterhorn. This mountain is across from the Matterhorn and has an ice palace at the top carved into the mountain.
To get to the top of the mountain we had to take three separate lifts up. And even then we were not all the way up. We were able to climb a set of stairs up higher to get to the top and be able to see all around us. By the time we got to the top we were over 3000 meters up. Once on the top you could really feel that there was a pressure difference because we got a little altitude sickness from climbing all the stairs. After taking a moment to catch our breath, we were able to start taking even more pictures. From the top you are able to see the Matterhorn and the city below. While up there I built a miniature snowman on the ledge of the viewing area—it’s just too bad I didn’t have anything for eyes, nose or mouth.
After climbing back down we were ready to go to the ice palace. However, we did not see a sign on how to get there. So we decided to get something to eat at the restaurant. We split a plate of spaghetti and a plate of chicken and rice. There was so much food that we both entered into a food coma for a little while—luckily there was a good view to look at while we just sat after eating so much.
We then looked again for the ice palace. It turns out that that we needed to take an elevated down into the ice palace where you are then able to walk into the glacier. There were mats lining the floor to help you walk over the ice—which Justin quickly learned when he stepped off the mat and almost slipped down the pathway. After entering the ice palace there are sculptures of different things, some where the statue of David, a large bottle, and a couch. Unfortunately this ice palace did not have a bar in it like others have.
After the ice palace we walked around a little more—even going outside into the snow. I couldn’t stay in the snow too long because my shoes were starting to get when and that would have made for an uncomfortable walk later.
We took the last cable car down from the top. At this point my batteries were starting to die and all the picture taking was left to Justin (seeing as he’s taken over 1700 pictures in the first week, I’d say he’s doing a pretty good job). By the time we got down from the mountain we were able to check into our hostel. We collected our keys from the hostel then walked over to the train station to collect our bags then headed for the hostel. On the way to the train station we when into the different shops looking for our souvenir or the day.
We dropped off our stuff and headed back to the train station because we had learned earlier that there was internet there. We caught up on the past posts we needed to load to the blog and finally added a picture or two to the past posts (these just being a few of the many pictures we’ve taken so far).
After this we dropped off the computer and walked around Zermatt for a little while longer before heading back to the hostel and writing today’s post.