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Today was our last day in and around Zermatt & the famous Matterhorn.
I woke up with virtually no discomfort in my knee; however, John had already decided no hiking or excessive walking. As a result we were going to do all the mountain peaks that we could access.
The first was the Matterhorn Glacier experience. After getting off the train at Zermatt, we caught the E-bus then took a short walk to the gondolas which were followed by the cable car to the top. All went well until the cable car decided it didn't feel like docking & decided to swing in the breeze about 10m from the top. We hung there for a solid 5 minutes - that seemed like forever - before the driver managed to reverse and slowly dock the cable car in place. All on board were relieved, particularly John who developed sweaty palms in the 5 mins of hanging.
We went through to the Glacier experience and this time took it in fully. The experience involved us walking through an arched walkway that was carved into the glacier. We saw ice carvings, crevices and beautiful natural ice formations hanging from the top of the tunnel. Of course there was no heating (as the glacier would melt away) and we felt half frozen. A wee stop heated me up - the toilet area was highly heated and when I sat on the seat it was cold but warm air seemed to come out of the bowl - why I don't know but it all helped me warm up again.
The panorama view point was closed so we didn't get to do that again, but, we had access to the snow fields & the kids toboggan run. We walked through the snow, took photos, and watched skiers in action and people climbing up the snow covered mountain. When the attendant offered toboggan runs to the adults - I couldn't resist, wow what a hoot.
We went into the panorama picture theatre and watched a few more extreme skiing films whilst being seated in heated egg chairs. Apart from completing great engineering feats, the Swiss manage to think of all the comforts.
The next mountain was the Rothorn. This was the funicular followed by gondola rides & then the cable car. Once again we took in the views & also analysed the routes we walked yesterday that caused my knee to falter.
The day ended with a final trip up to the Gornergrat Mountain. The cog train trip is relaxing and the scenery is great. Again we saw alpine marmots and the grand Valais & Berner Alps. They looked whiter in the bright sunshine. The Valais Alps included glaciers that were still partially covered in snow.
We got home at 8:30pm, cooked & ate tea and decided that we would pack in the morning. Sleep & rest were a priority in order to travel into Italy tomorrow.
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