All ten of us left home Sunday morning and met at the gate in Atlanta. One couple flying in from Albany, three out of Charlotte and Tim and I from Savannah. Five nights in the Alps ahead of us before the Viking river cruise.
We met at the gate and loaded on the plane. First dinner, then lights dimmed. The theory is to sleep but boom, six hours disappear, and the best you can do is four hours max.
We landed at 8:05 Monday morning, and it was breakfast time in Switzerland, and we were simply expected to participate.
The first thing that happens at the Zürich airport is that you get on a little underground train to reach the main terminal, and it plays cowbells and yodeling at you the whole way. All ten of us started laughing.
Then came passport control. There was a long line of agents and a bank of empty machines right there, so I pulled everyone over to the machines. Most of us sailed through. A few of us had issues. So I asked for help, and a woman came over, took one look at our group of ten, and moved us to a different set of lanes where every one of us went through without a single issue. What a win!!
Everything was moving super smoothly. Next stop, grab the suitcases and get change, because we needed to be ready for tips. Here is something we learned fast: you want small bills in the local currency, fives and ones, and all of us had shown up with big bills.
We did the whole thing together. Nobody wandered off, nobody got separated, nobody had to be found.
Two taxis to the Renaissance Zürich Tower, where they welcomed me by name. The room was ready, ten people had a place to use the bathroom, and we had the lobby to sort ourselves out and move things between bags. Then the hotel took all ten medium suitcases into storage for the week. Winning. Woohoo.
Then we parked ourselves in that lobby, charged phones, and waited. That was on purpose. Zürich Hauptbahnhof has a reputation for pickpockets, and I did not want ten jet lagged Americans with luggage standing around a busy station any longer than necessary. Better to sit somewhere comfortable and show up when we actually needed to be there.
The train.
Here is where I earn my organizer stripes, or lose them.
We taxied to Zürich HB and found platform 31. Don asked one person which side to wait on. I asked another. Both told us the same thing, and both were wrong. So there we stood, ten Americans and our luggage, watching the wrong side of the platform.
Trains everywhere are marked with their final destination, not the stops along the way, and I remembered that trick. So we were not looking for Zermatt or even Visp. We were looking for a train that said Brig. Then I glanced left and saw it. Brig, right there on the front of a train sitting on the other side, and the display said IC 8, and my stomach dropped, because that was our train.
Now I needed our car. There were numbers on the outside and numbers inside, some meaning class and some meaning the car, and in my jet lagged state I picked the wrong one to follow. So we went rolling along the side of the train hunting for it. Then it hit me that we were about to watch our train leave without us. I hit the green door button, the door flew open, and I used the best mom voice I could muster.
GET ON THE TRAIN NOW.
Quick headcount, we ALL got on the train!
What followed was ten people hauling backpacks and rolling carry ons through a moving two story Swiss train, up stairs, down stairs, through aisles, past other people’s luggage and other people’s legs, apologizing in English because we were jet lagged and doing the best we could. Every car change meant lifting a bag up or down a staircase. We were sweating. We were laughing in that slightly unhinged way you laugh when there is no other option. Thankfully we stored our big bags!
We had boarded around car 8 and had to work our way through 5 cars. When we finally got there, other people were sitting in them. Our reservation window had technically expired. But they looked up, saw the reserved sign, and got up.
We fell into those seats! We did it!
Then we went looking for food, which we found, and which was an adventure of its own because the menu choices were genuinely peculiar and the train was moving in a way that made Lisa feel sick and sent her back to her seat.
Before we got to our destination, we went through the beautiful Interlaken, Switzerland.
Visp, and the good train.
I had arranged for assistance to meet us for the connection, and she turned up expecting one of us to need a wheelchair. We were all fine. She just smiled, walked ten tired Americans down the ramp, across the platform, up the other ramp, and put us on the Zermatt train. Exactly what we needed.
We sat down. Another quiet car. We are not quiet people. Don turned to me and said OMG that was brilliant, and we cheered right there under the quiet sign.
The scenery was beautiful, mountains but not the Matterhorn, you cannot see it from the train. We saw mountains, waterfalls, river running alongside the track, that unreal milky gray green that only comes from glacier melt.
Everyone finally went quiet on their own and just looked out the window.
Zermatt.
No cars in Zermatt. The Welschen Hotel electric cart collected us at the station and drove us what felt like a genuine distance, around a block and up and around, and we later discovered the hotel is essentially right there. He was just doing the loop.
And the second we hit Zermatt I felt a huge sense of relief.
The hotel was absolutely fantastic, and Jan was right.
When we checked in we walked straight out to the porch and there she was. Clouds moving around her, but mostly showing. On day one. Standing on a porch with our bags barely down.
There it is, The Matterhorn, the shape you have seen your whole life on chocolate bars and postcards, right there like it was normal. It wasn’t 💯 visible but almost!
We got settled into our rooms and met back in the lobby to go explore.
Tim was going to rent hiking poles, we wanted our Peak Pass, and we wanted a look at the main street, one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world.
Walking into town, Lisa and I ended up standing right where the bus pulls in. It came up behind us without a sound, because it is electric, and we both had to leap onto the sidewalk, then stand there looking for Velda who was on the other side of it. Zermatt is like Five Points in Florence, South Carolina. Everything comes at you from every direction and you just have to get used to it.
On the way to get our tickets, we saw this vending machine, it caused a lot of discussion and then when someone was seriouly going to order some, it was out of order!
The shoppers posed in front of the most expensive Main Street in the World, I believe we feel a challenge coming on!
We had decided months earlier not to buy any mountain tickets ahead, because Zermatt clouds in and out and you want to pick your weather rather than be locked into a date. Standing there, the Peak Pass was an easy yes. We knew we wanted to be on a mountain every single day. Then a little shopping, and back to the hotel.
While we were waiting to place our order we found out there is a bar/hotel up on the mountain that is actually OPEN! I zoomed in and took a photo.
Then dinner at the hotel, which was delicious, and I need to tell you about the butter. Swiss butter, from cows that spend their summers eating alpine grass, and it tasted like something I did not know butter could be.
Why didn’t I take a photo of the BUTTER?
I did take a photo of my burger, she laughed and said Americans make the best burgers why did you order this?
We went to bed, and I looked out one more time, and the Matterhorn was there in the night sky.
What a day.
Happiness is Possible 