2 years and 78 days since the start of the 1st lock down in March 2020
Not exactly too early a start as we were recording from yesterdays exertions. Once out we headed into town with the intention of visiting the Matterhorn museum and then to take a trip up to Klein Matterhorn. In the event, the museum was not opening until 3.00pm so we continued walking to the lower cable car station. We had to take three individual cable cars to reach the summit of Klein Matterhorn at 3,883 meters. It took nearly an hour to get to the top but it was worth it.
We headed to the Glacier Paradise which I feared would be rather naff but in the event was brilliant. We were able to walk into the centre of the glacier and touch the blue ice walls. It was cold and the ice crystals that had formed glittered in the light. There were a few ice carvings but they were very good and tasteful. It was hard to believe where we actually were and it was as a long route.
Once we had walked through part of the glacier we headed back to the now much less busy viewing platform. There were great views of all the mountains in the area and of course the Matterhorn. One of the most distinctive in shape was the Breithorn Mountain with its curved dome peak and we could even see people roped together climbing up and down.
We had worked up an appetite so headed to the cafe. As in our other experiences of this sort of venue, the food was very good and compared with restaurant prices not too bad. I went for roost with Swiss cheese and ham and Colin had sausage and chips with onion sauce. Very good (not necessary on the waistline).
Having spent a couple of hours upon there we decided to head down before the cable cars got too busy and hopefully get into the museum. Our plan worked and after a brief stop for an ice cream and sit down we headed in. It was very interesting and we learned a lot about Edwards Whymper - an English mountaineer who was the first to scale the Matterhorn in 1865 but on the way down four of his team were killed in an accident. I have always been quite proud that a blue plaque for Edward is on a property in Waldergrave Road. However the museum displays suggested a different side to Whymper
We were now definitely flagging. We hadn’t done that much walking but the altitude was taking its toll. We stopped via the Co-op for both dinner, replacement fruit for breakfast (fridge was too high and made our fruit rather mushy) and finally a posh picnic for our trip on the Glacier Express tomorrow. My main worry now is whether the taxi driver turns up at 9.00am - we have given the same driver that brought us here details and he had promised to be outside at 9.00am.
We finished our evening (after some packing) with dinner on our balcony watching the sun change the colour of the peak of the Matterhorn. The last two places have had stunning views… not sure whether St Moritz will be quite the same.
