As I checked the weather forecast last Thursday, I was delighted that after 2 weeks of bad weather, the Saturday promised to be a sunny day. This revived my “travel itch” and I discussed with friends as to where to go on that Saturday. We decided that we will go to Schilthorn, which is one of the mountain peaks in central Switzerland. But it turned out to be a totally different day than we had planned.
We planned to meet in Bern(the capital of Switzerland) and I left early in the morning and got a one day unlimited train travel pass(for 54 Swiss Francs = 54 USD) . As I boarded the train, I got the message that some of the friends didn’t really get the communication about our travel plans. So, there would be a delay of about a few hours from our original plan. Since I didn’t want to waste that much time waiting in a railway station, I felt that I could go a little further and come back before continuing our planned trip. So, I decided to go to Matterhorn, which is on the Italian border of Switzerland and is also one of the most popular Alps skiing resorts.
From Bern, I took a train to Brig, from where there was a mountain train to Zermatt, which is the base for tourists and skiers going to the different locations surrounding Matterhorn. As I arrived in Brig, there was a morning chill but the sun was already going up and I could see some snow covered mountains.
When I came out of the main train station, I saw another station for mountain trains and a train waiting for departure for Visp and then onto Zermatt.
The one hour train journey was quite an exciting one and climbed close to 1000 meters – from 670 m above sea-level(asl) at Brig to 1604 m asl at Zermatt. This route is also used by the famous train “Glacier Express“, which travels from St.Mortiz in south-east Switzerland to Zermatt which is south-west, along the Alps. The Glacier express is also known as “The slowest express train in the world”.
When I reached Zermatt, the sun was already shining and the climate was quite pleasant. Zermatt is a beautiful little town and had some excellent views of the mountain. 
As I walked through the town towards the cable-car station, I got my first glimpse of the Matterhorn Peak. And what a stunning view it was!!
From Zermatt, one could take another train to a peak called Gornergrat, and cable cars to 3 glaciers including “Matterhorn glacier paradise”. I chose to go to the glacier paradise and took the cable car. On the way to the top, I had to move twice to another cable car. These cars were taking me to the peaks that had an altitude of close to 4000 meters. From the cable car, I could see snow, and more snow.
So, after close to one hour from Zermatt, I reached the destination -“Matterhorn glacier paradise”. And paradise it was. It was all covered in snow. There were almost zero cloud, bright sun and the snow reflecting the sunlight. It was very windy though, and the temperature was about -10 deg C.
On a clear day like this, one could see a lot of peaks with altitude above 4000 meters asl. And many of them are in Italy. The picture below shows the Italian peaks of the Alps.
There was also the glacier. Could there be a more beautiful view than this?
Skiers were having a fantastic time and there were loads of them, many from USA, Italy and UK.
Here is a closer look at the skiers.
On the way down, I could a get a great view of the majestic Matterhorn peak.
So, after the unplanned visit to Matterhorn, I talked to my friends about our original plans. By this time, it was already close to 2 pm and it didn’t make sense to go to Schilthorn. So, we decided to postpone it for later and to meet at a place called Spiez. As I arrived there and went out of the railway station, I was swept aside by the beauty of this small town along the Lake Thuner.
As one of my German friends told me, Spiez has a special place in the heart of Germans. The reason was that their football team was accomodated in Spiez during the 1954 World Cup and this team went on to win that year’s Football World Cup, held in Switzerland.
Soon after, my friends arrived and we all spent some time in Spiez before leaving for our homes.
The beautiful day was yielding to night, but I am sure I will go back to Matterhorn again.
