Switzerland 2018: Day 8

October 17, 2018

We woke up to another beautiful clear view of the Matterhorn from our bed. I had ambitious thoughts at 6 am when Flynt woke up to go photograph the town at dawn as the sun started to light up the Matterhorn but it was cold and I had a hard time climbing out of bed. By the time I got moving the light was changing and I was still looking for a good place to take my pictures. I took a couple of shots in good light with a crappy location and a couple of pictures with crappy light in an ok location. I think I’ll be a better photographer when my kids are teenagers and want to sleep in so I can take a couple dawn pictures and go back to bed, lol! The pictures really aren't worth sharing.

We actually got out the door and moving at a reasonable hour and headed through town to the Winkelmatten gondola lift and then up to Furi and Schwarzsee. The plan was to hike down to Hermetje where there was a restaurant that was recommended to me by a Swiss family I met at a playground and then down to Furi and take the gondola back down to Zermatt.

The lift up.

The view at Schwarzsee was amazing! I was getting my phone set up for a family selfie. I took one photo and was getting ready for a second shot when someone offered to take our picture. I handed him my phone and didn’t bother to check the picture. He somehow didn’t take our photo at all so all I have is the cruddy first attempt selfie. So much for the frame-able Matterhorn family picture. It was my fault for not checking. I am learning that it is hard to take the time to do things like check photos when I have Flynt complaining that he is in the pack and we aren’t moving and Wren wandering off and generally not appreciating my photo attempts. There were a few times that I have messed up picture opportunities in this way on the trip. As stated earlier, I think my photos will improve as my kids age.

Here is the slightly out of focus, meh, family selfie.

Anyhow, back to our day. It’s impossible to tell which trails are kid friendly versus, rocky with 200 foot drop-offs next to the trail. Yesterday I hiked on several trails that were really easy hiking (maybe that is just because I didn’t have a toddler pulling on my hand the whole way?) that were “medium” trails. The trail today was also a medium trail but it was much rockier and there were many places where I was really glad to be holding on to Wren. There weren’t too many places with a drop-off right next to the trail but there were many places with a really steep slope and then a drop-off. Enough that if Wren took a tumble and rolled just wrong it could be bad. So I held her hand the whole walk. She was a real trouper. The walk was a total of 2.7 miles plus the .6 miles to and from the hotel to the lift. Her little legs went a long way and there was very little complaining. Flynt was great too.

Hiking with Wren. This was pretty much the whole way down.

Looking at the glacier valley to the left of the Matterhorn. Beautiful! It also shows the rocky switchbacks which was most of the trail.

So amazing!

This was a typical signpost. The trails were very well signed.

More mountains and glaciers.

There were several benches along the way. We pretty much took a break at every one. It helped little legs stay happy.

Another break with the Matterhorn peaking over the hill.

The only problem came from the restaurant that we promised her being closed and she was hungry. We had some snacks with us and filled her pocket with peanut butter pretzels that we brought with us and have been slowly feeding to Wren. That perked her up for the last 3/4ths of a mile until we got to food. She is such a sweet little thing!

Fortunately there were sheep which did a lot to make Wren happy.

Lunch was amazing. We sat out on a patio and put Flynt in his pen in the grass so he could roll around. He likes to wiggle after being confined in the pack for a long time. The ground is slightly sloppy and he figured out that if he went to the low side he could roll the pen over and roll out. He had a ton of fun with this game. He eventually wound up deciding he was hungry and went between Jeff and my laps. We had fantastic sandwiches and a huge pile of fries and an amazing ice cream sundae for dessert. It was a nice reward for Wren for being such a good little hiker.

With our late, massive lunch, we decided to keep things simple for dinner and I went to the grocery store and made nice salads with a bottle of local wine. It really hit the spot and Wren was happy to have a night in.

Below is just some pictures of my beautiful kids having fun playing in the afternoon once we got back to the apartment. I love my wonderful, exhausting family!