Thursday 26th August - Montreaux to Zermatt.

Had a slowish start, didn't rush to catch the first train...

Over the next four hours or so we experienced more totally stunning scenery, for mile after mile.   Most of the journey was along an amazing valley, and this seems to be the food bowl of this part of Switzerland.   Crops of many varieties planted, and creeping up the mountainside as well - it seemed that not one square metre of arrable land was not growing - something....  There were also dozens of apple orchards, all heavily bearing fruit, and amazingly to me - most of the trees had been espaliered;  I guess it allows more productive trees to be planted per acre, and I imagine it would make harvesting the fruit much easier as well.  Wonder why we don't do it in Oz?

We finally arrived in Zermatt, and again, this town is fantastic, and the setting is amazing.  VERY international, very friendly, and no cars....   We were picked up from the train station by a wee electric car and delivered to our gorgeous (very Swiss) hotel...

We had planned tomorrow to take a ride up the mountain, on the longest/highest cog-wheel train in Europe - to look face-to-face (almost) with the Matterhorn, but decided to go today as there is so much to do here in such a short time....

So, off we went...   Again, stunning scenery - click, click, click - how many photo's are too many???

We arrived at the summit of "Gornergrat" which is at an elevation of 3136m - we thought possibly almost nose-bleed territory, but it was absolutely wonderful.  Arthur bravely walked down to a nearby lake, which was a breeze, but coming back up is SO much more difficult - the altitude makes breathing very different from sea level - really difficult to get enough oxygen into your lungs;  and as I could hear him breathing from far away, which was a bit alarming,  I thought he was going to have a heart attack!!!  I chickened out because I had done a slight 'down' walk earlier, and knew about coming back up!

We had been looking towards the Matterhorn on and off all day, and the cloud seems to wrap itself about the face of the mountain most of the time - coming and going a bit, but ever present.  So, finally, after watching two insane men arrive at the summit of a nearby VERY high mountain, and then appear to proceed down our side - disappearing somewhere in the mist, we decided to call it a day.

Eventually we dragged ourselves back down to Zermatt, in our sturdy little cog-wheel train, and wandered off to browse the shops and find somewhere to eat.    Was going to leave my camera at home, but decided to take it.....

Just as we were going off in the other direction, we gazed once more up at the summit of the Matterhorn, and there she was in all her glory, not only was there no cloud, but the late afternoon sun was shining on her face!!!!   Yay...   What a wonderful end to a magical day.....

Dinner, early to bed......