Zermatt
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5 Dezember 2021 - Suisse
I awoke this morning in Geneva after a good night's sleep. I always sleep well the night after a race. Iwona picked me up a Tageskarte for Friday and today, which lets me ride all the trains and busses and boats in Switzerland. The plan is to meet in Visp and then go on up to Zermatt which, like Wengen, is only accessible by train. Ergo we are taking trains not a car this time.
The northern shore of Lac Leman provides a spectacular view of the sunsrise in the Winter.
We made it to Zermatt just after noon, but the sun never completely came out around the Matterhorn. It's strange that seeing this most impressive mountain is such a priority when it is just one among many, but even catching glimpses of its shadow shrouded in cloud was impressive. Taking the funicular railway up to Gornerglat we caught open views of many peaks and glaciers but not this one.
Amazingly many people take the train up to the top and then ski much of the way down. The train filled up with such people on our journey down. Iwona noticed the woman sitting next to her speaking Polish and the woman noticed her noticing. So we got to talking to them and it turns out she lived in Atlanta for a time after college. Sitting next to me was her Columbian best friend from college - the College of Charleston actually. Her an I had both been in South Carolina last week! And now here in Zermatt. What a small world we live in.
Back down in Zermatt we hit the Matterhorn Museum to see relics related to the climbing of the mountain including the infamous rope for the first ascent in 1865. It was probably a good museum a one point, but it has since been taken over by feminists of the worst sort who affixed plaques to many exhibits complaining "where are the women?" It reminded me of the otherwise excellent paleontological museum in Fort Hayes, Kansas where the lastest curator had taken to displaying photos of his own travels as if the interest in them was on par with the remains of Cretaceous sea creatures.
