DAY 108 - A Day at the REAL Matterhorn! (Not Disneyland)

July 5 - Swiss Pass Day #3 - Can it get better?

Up at 6 a.m. to catch the funicular back down to the bottom to go on our 3^rd day train excursion.  A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rail moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.  Won't you go with us down the hill from our Swiss chalet?  We were in the very front row of seats.

  It was a beautiful, sunny day, so we took off for Zermatt to see the Matterhorn.

NO, NO...not the Matterhorn in Disneyland

Looking down at the city of Zermatt from the top of one of the hills.

 On the way to Zermatt, we took some photos from the window of our train.

Our first view of the mountains that include The Matterhorn

"High on a hill was a lonely goatherd - laydee-odl-laydee-odl-laydee hoo"

The Matterhorn is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 meters (14,690 ft) high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps.

One of the first glimpses we saw of the Matterhorn as we also noticed the vehicles are all electric-operated.

I love cute little bird houses.

 There was tour bus after tour bus and so many Japanese tourists.  They were all going on the special Glacier Express Panoramic Train, but it was outrageous what they were charging.($350)  Since we wanted to travel all over Switzerland with our special Swiss Pass, we opted to walk as far and as high as we could to get as close to The Matterhorn as possible.. and we did it for free.

 We had a nice lunch as we sat and looked at this magnificent mountain.  I also sang "The Sound of Music" song, but I'll post the clip of that later.

Our favorite lunch - Bread and cheese

Shari's water bottle, brought from Idaho

We saw many wild flowers along the path.  I just had to take pictures of my favorites.

Looks like the Colorado State flower - the Columbine

The Glacier Express Train goes by about every 10 minutes.  That's a lot of passengers up to the top.

   Time to board our own train and on to some more sight-seeing. 
                                 

We opened up the window and enjoyed the BEST day ever!

We had this whole train car to ourselves - it was GREAT

Everything is always so neat and tidy - the gardens are lined up perfectly.

The color of the water is the most beautiful gray-blue.  I've never seen anything like it.

Bye bye Matterhorn - thank-you for your beauty and majesty.

Rich thought the roofs were very interesting and unusual.

Many of the roofs had grass on top of them.

OK - this really is good-bye this time.

  We switched train connections and went through the Italian Alps to Domossola in Italy. This train ride was the slowest ever, but we did see some amazing scenery.

We worked our way back to Bern by going through Lucerne, arriving at “home” about 8:30. Our hosts were out for the evening, so we relaxed and went to bed.