When we signed up for this trip, we were intrigued by Viking’s own Zermatt extension, but it was two days in Geneva and only two days in Zermatt. So we decided to do it on our own.
I hired a planner to look over what I had put together, and that one conversation changed the whole shape of the trip. Instead of moving every day or two, the way my initial itinerary had us doing, we decided to plant ourselves in one place and go deep on Zermatt. Best call we made.
Jan also talked me out of the hotel I had picked. It had no view of the Matterhorn. She said to spend a little more and stay somewhere you can see her, because some mornings she only comes out for a few minutes while you are getting ready, and if you are down by the train station, you will miss it entirely.
She suggested the Welschen Hotel. There were plenty of options in Zermatt for a lot more money, and this one landed in that perfect spot of just right and worth it. Third-generation family-run, and still in the family that built it.
We traveled as five couples. Three we have been friends with for decades, and one we met five years ago when we first moved here. Not one of us had ever been to Switzerland. We were all coming for the same thing: that first look at the famous Matterhorn.
All we knew was that she is a shy lady and we probably would not get to see her at all. Six days and five nights. I was just hoping for a glance.
I volunteered to figure it out.
Thankfully, I had help. Debbie made all our dinner reservations. Steve put together our hike plan, with Tim reviewing it. I pulled it all together into an itinerary, plus the packing lists, what to expect at high altitude, and what became our coveted bible on exactly what to do the day we landed.
Each couple got their own step-by-step sheet, from getting off the plane all the way to Zermatt, in case we got separated. I even made a sheet of words to say in Swiss German. I hand-delivered the packets to the Florence folks and handed Debbie hers when we found each other at the airport. We were prepared.
The altitude.
We were all basically coming from sea level, so even Zermatt at 5,310 feet was an adjustment. I was careful about this because Tim and I went to Cusco, Peru, last year and struggled badly. Dizzy, headachy, just felt horrible, and Tim ended up needing oxygen. That trip taught us altitude is nothing to mess with, and we passed that along to everybody.
The rule that stuck was no alcohol for 48 hours before going above 8,000 feet. Our first mountain day was over 10,000 feet, day three was over 12,000, and we might go back up on the last day. I did the math, and there were not many gaps. Better safe than sorry. Everybody decided for themselves.
The Glacier Express.
Debbie and Steve are the reason we had tickets to move us from Zermatt back to Zurich via the Glacier Express!
Before I left for Europe, I emailed about group tickets, and early in that trip, the answer came back: impossible. As a group of ten we could have reserved months earlier, but that window had closed. Now we had to fight for seats like everybody else, on exactly one release day, while I was sitting in Italy without a single computer.
I panicked.
Debbie and Steve saved us. In the middle of my own trip, I got on a conference call with them to walk through the assignment, and it was not easy. Summer seats sell out in seconds, and you cannot book ten at once. So on release night, the two of them sat side by side at two computers, nine tickets on one and one on the other, entering all our birthdays and the names exactly as they appear on our passports, racing the internet. I was texting them the whole time. The site kept glitching, and every time it did, they had to re-enter all ten names and birthdays.
Steve ended up on the 7:52. Debbie had the rest of us on the 9:52. One phone call straightened it out, and we ended up together, which meant we got to enjoy our hotel that last morning instead of rushing out the door.
They DID IT.
One more perk of being ten people: we could order our hot lunch on the Glacier Express in advance. The catch was paying for it. It had to be a cash transfer from my bank, neither too soon nor too late. Somehow I figured that out too.
The suitcase problem.
The packing was its own puzzle. We were going to walk into a glacier, so we had to be ready for the cold up on the mountain and the warmth down in the village, sometimes on the same day. I told everyone to bring one carry-on and one backpack for Zermatt, and a second medium suitcase packed for the twelve days on the Viking river cruise, which meant warmer weather and dressier clothes.
Two completely different trips. Which left one question. What do we do with the medium-sized suitcases?
Tim came up with the answer. Take them to the hotel we would be staying at for the cruise anyway. I called, and the gal I spoke with suggested I book a single night and that she would tie it to our other reservation. That one night bought us a place to stash ten medium suitcases for the entire week we were in Zermatt.
Brilliant, Tim.
The tickets.
The hardest part of the whole thing was the train tickets. What to buy, which pass, which fare, and none of it works the way you would expect. Steve and I went through it carefully and sorted out the arrival day between us.
That is also when I went down a rabbit hole on pickpockets and learned that Zürich Hauptbahnhof is known for them. So I reworked the plan around it. Rather than doubling back to the airport to catch our train, we would board at Zürich HB and not stand around that station a minute longer than we had to. That change bought us something else too. It gave us time to sit in the hotel lobby, charge our phones, and just breathe before the next leg.
It was GO TIME.
Happiness is Possible 