SwissMinns

Zermatt, March 24, 25 We traveled by car to Zermatt, which is only about 80 miles by air, but is a 4-hour drive by car.  The car ride goes west through Montreux to the south side of the Swiss Alps. Zermatt is accessible only by train from a nearby town of Tasch, which you can see from above, in the far end of this valley: There are very fancy chalets in Zermatt, and some very simple authentic ones, like this one: We stayed at the lower end of the cost spectrum, but the place was cute and homey, and had this great view of the Matterhorn: I took this shot of Zermatt from the gondola : This is a the river flowing through Zermatt: We took a gondola up from Zermatt, to the base of the Matterhorn, Matterhorn Glacier, elevation 12,800ft.  The air was noticeably thin.  The view was fantastic.   The Matterhorn: This is looking west (Italy) This is looking southwest, over Italy into France.  That dark, tallest peak on the right is Mont Blanc, in France,

On Sunday, March 4th, we looked at another foggy, cloudy day in Langenthal and decided to take the chance it would be better weather at the higher elevations in the Jungfrau area. We drove through the fog, almost to Thun, where the sky started clearing.  By the time we got to Lauterbrunnen, the sky was clear, and we got on the gondola up to Grutschalp.  Grutchalp is about 5000 ft of elevation, opposite side of the valley from Wengen.  This is what it looks like down in Lauterbrunnen: From Grutsalp, its a 1-1/2 hike to Murren, at about the same elevation, on a wintry trail that was pretty well traveled and seemed to be occasionally plowed. Murren is a very cute little city of restaurants and tourists/private chalets. It is only accessible by gondola.  We took another gondola from Murren to Schilton, which is about 10,000ft.   First, there is a stop at Birg, which is about half way to Schilton.   At the Birg stop, there are some catwalks to get a good view and a bit