Zermatt

On the road again.
A shower, coffee, baguette , Liam makes me organize our van again.
Stop at the store for TP and other essentials,
Sometimes the campgrounds don't supply tp,
We haven't had to resort to the left hand yet,
Probably cuz Liam has tp attached in everypocket hidden in his sock  and some behind his ear.....just in case....
We travel east into the mountain pass between France and Switzerland it's gorgeous, rushing water,  trees small little villages up up up, then down we descend for a long time........into view is the lo ng and narrow Rhone river valley, there are extensive vineyards plastered on the hillsides,  old ancient castles and lots of new stuff too. We drive check or 2 hours and start to head up the side valley for another hour through villages and the narrow valley ascending slowly and winding up. We stop overlooking a massive land slide site. Liam has prepared chicken sandwiches on a baguette with brie. A train track a small river, old Swiss farm houses, a beautiful site for lunch, as the tourists hurry by....
We're back on the road to Tasch.
Here  we wait for the tourist office to open after lunch....
We decide to buy an all mountain pass for thhe lifts and head up to the massive " matterhorn".
We have to take a train to zermatt,( the end of the road)  it's a car less village...
We arrive, it's overrun by tourists and tourist shops on the main street. All the chalets are 4,5,6+ stories high, there's lots of golf cart vehicles driving around, and lots $$$
We head up the mountain 4 gondola lifts  later were at 4,500 meters,  breathing thin air and completely in awe of the matterhorn and the massive Swiss, Italian alps and the countless glaciers .
We watch a movie up here about alpine rescue,  heli skiing, alpine area wildlife....then I walk down into another glacier ice cave, cold and beautiful, millions of year old ice...

A view of beauty surrounds us it's 1°C outside..
We plan on skiing up here tomorrow. We go into the cafeteria where a Hamburg is 28 Francs , buy a beer, and ice tea and plan our ski attack tomorrow.
Down the 4 gondola s , the bus across town up a cable car, another gondola. We start a 4 mile hike to 5 alpine lakes, it's a great hike,  ending with 600 meters up hill a short tram ride and back down the cable car to check into our hostel.

Here we meet our 2 roomies for the nite, a medieval literature professor from Barcelona, a chinese  global sales mgr from San Fran. We have great talks eat in the hostel cafeteria. Liam takes off exploring, I sit!
The view out our window is the matterhorn !

Up at 630, breakfast in cafeteria, cheese, meat,bread, yogurt, espresso, espresso, more espressso...up to the ski rental shop skis,boots,poles goggles, gloves ..in the que and second gondola up the lift, finally to the top, out on the snow, it's a little crusty,  but we're skiing in the alps in the end of June!!!!!
The snow gets soft quickly, it's partly cloudy ,the only lift open is a T bar. We ski, we ski, we ski. The air is thin,  I get light headed, the lift has problem, but we ski. It's 12:30 the snow is soft, we can't ski down it's too soft, so they start taking us off on ski mobiles ..back in the cafeteria at the top of the world, a beer takes care of my head
Down we go gondola s 4
Check out of the hostel
A bus ride
A train ride
In the van 2 kilometers
Campground
Staring up at glaciers the valley is about 200 meters wide here, and straight up.
Home cooked meal by chef L'iam
Just another travelling day....
G nite
What a grand day