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Post by auntieannie on Mar 28, 2010 16:03:22 GMT
On a grey winter morning, we took the red carriages of the Brig-Visp-Zermatt train line to meet friends at its terminus. It all started at Visp/Viege station:  |
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 28, 2010 16:10:50 GMT
 The train slowly started its journey:  |
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 28, 2010 16:15:51 GMT
You will excuse the strange angle of some pictures. The only open space in Valais being the sky. Vineyards. The little buildings are sheds where the owners of the vineyards leave their tools.   A frozen rivulet:  |
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 28, 2010 16:17:15 GMT
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 28, 2010 16:18:43 GMT
A glacier:  |
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 28, 2010 16:25:13 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 28, 2010 17:04:35 GMT
Stunning, Annie! You all were quite high up, weren't you? The town is so busy. Is that because of Christmas, or because it's just very populated? So pretty! I adore that last photo.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2010 5:21:21 GMT
I think those villages are quite calm when it is not ski season, although of course the Matterhorn does attract tourists at all seasons (particularly Japanese and Indians). I went to Saas-Fee (near Zermatt) in October once, it was completely asleep -- no more summer tourists and ski season not yet started.
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Post by mockchoc on Mar 29, 2010 7:32:29 GMT
I've booked a hotel here for a couple of nights!  |
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Post by spindrift on Mar 29, 2010 8:38:58 GMT
I know Zermatt intimately. I used to take my family there to ski every year and stay in a chalet owned by the Julens. For me it's one of the best places to ski; there are few easy (blue) runs and lots of challenging stuff. It's nice to take a cable car up to the top of the Kleine Matterhorn and ski down to the glacier and/or ski into Italy at Valtournanches for lunch before taking a lift back to the top of the glacer to ski down to Zermatt for the night. It's easy to get lost in these mountains. There are also a few scary moraines up high with frightful drops on each side and quite a few well-known 'walls of death' for the brave.
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 29, 2010 21:18:49 GMT
You definitely stayed with the locals, Spindrift!
The families in Zermatt are mostly called Julen or Zurbriggen or such.
I've skied down a few "walls of death" in my youth, but I am not sure I will ski again.
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Post by spindrift on Mar 29, 2010 21:21:39 GMT
It was Margrit Julen who taught me, and my children, to ski...and we stayed in her mother's house. About half-way up the main street on the right (looking up the street from the station) , not far from a bakery (also in the main street).
One year I broke my left leg at the top of the glacier. It was shattered. I had major surgery in an old doctor's clinic in the main street. (I'll try and think of the clinic's name) but it wasn't successful. I might put up a picture if I can get the scanner to work.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2010 6:55:05 GMT
A picture of unsuccessful surgery?  |
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Post by spindrift on Mar 30, 2010 9:03:44 GMT
A picture of the Matterhorn on a clear bright day!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2010 17:04:40 GMT
Oh.  |
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Post by gertie on Apr 15, 2010 5:48:47 GMT
What interesting discussion, those are lovely pictures. It does look positively chilly, though! Love all the pretty Christmas, doesn't look near so silly among snow somehow as here where normally it is quite warm and even green at Christmas. Spinny, I assume you had further surgery elsewhere to get everything fixed up?
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