Summary: On this travel day, we journeyed from Interlaken to Zermatt, with a stop in the town of Adelboden. The Swiss roads are well-maintained and easy to navigate. Be careful with your speed, as unlike some neighboring countries, speeding tickets are issued for even the most minor infractions, such as going 1-4 km over the speed limit! Once on the road, we enjoyed the stunning drive through some of Switzerland's famous mountains. In Zermatt, we explored the central district, visited the intriguing Mountaineers' Cemetery, and collected our equipment for the next day's Breithorn climb.
[This blog is part of a 10-days in Switzerland Trip].
Road trip to Zermatt. From Interlaken, we decided to take a chill drive to Zermatt, stopping along the way in the town of Adelboden. We chose this town (a little off the main road), because of some picturesque sites like this giant swing but had no idea the town basically shuts down mid-week. Whoops! No lift to the mountain tops for us! Still, we enjoyed a quiet walk through town.
Before heading out again, we stopped for coffee and sweets at Bäckerei Michel. The apple streusel was so dang good. I'm still thinking about it.
Lötschberg Tunnel. A somewhat unusual experience was taking the Lötschberg tunnel train. Here, you drive your car onto the actual train and then sit tight while the train pulls you and all of the other cars through the tunnel. Opened in 1913, this surprisingly long tunnel is 14km (~9 miles) in length.
Train Depo and the Car-free City of Zermatt. Cars are not permitted in Zermatt so when driving there, you have to stop in the town of Täsch, park in the train station lot, and take the 12 minute train to Zermatt. In hindsight, renting a car only to have to park it for three days, may have been less than ideal. On the balance though, it was nice to have it in Interlaken so unless there was a point to point rental option, we probably would have done it this way anyway.
Where to stay. As a popular, high-end resort town, Zermatt can be quite pricey. We visited during a shoulder season, which helped. We also stayed at this great Airbnb that sits on a hill and had a view of the Matterhorn from the living room (photo below). The only downside was that it was about a 10-15 minute walk to central Zermatt, which was fine with us but if you're not able to walk this distance, there's virtually no way to get transportation in this car-less town.
After grocery shopping and getting settled in our Airbnb, we walked back to central Zermatt to pick up our rental gear for the next day's Breithorn adventure.
We also walked through the downtown shopping and restaurant area, which was filled with tourists even though it was very early season.
The Parish church of St Mauritius and the Mountaineers' cemetery. We also stopped to tour the graves outside of this over 700 year old Church. Here, we were reminded of the dangers of the Matterhorn as graves of hikers and skiers, old and new, lined the outside of the Church.
The Matter Vispa flows through central Zermatt. Incidentally, we were in Zermatt just days before the town suffered devasting floods due to rapid snow melt. Fortunately, this wealthy town area recovered rapidly and all reports indicate that tourism is in full swing again.
After walking the central district, we went back to our Airbnb for a quiet dinner in our apartment to rest up for our big mountaineering day.
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