Following
another delicious breakfast in the hotel at 7 am, we boarded the blue
bus headed to Zermatt. Unfortunately, it was a cool, drizzly, and
cloudy day. The ride to the train station took about 1.5 hours but
the scenery was wonderful. We saw glaciers, too-numerous-to-count
waterfalls, and made our way to the Matterhorn terminal in Tasch at
around 9 am. The Zermatt bound train was very nice and the ride
wasn't long at all – probably less than 30 minutes.
As
with all of our stops along the way, we had been given a briefing
about what to expect in Zermatt. We would meet as a group in the
town square where the bathrooms (WCs) were located. The store right
on the square that would have a “Welcome Oklahoma” sign was the
“preferred” store and would give OAM a store discount. For those
who wanted to buy a Swiss knife and have it engraved, it was
recommended to order one before we took the funicular to Sunnegga.
The brat stand was highly recommended (6 Euros each) and would be
opening up at around 11 am along the main street just a few blocks
from the town square. We would all meet back up in the town square
at 11:15 am to receive our tickets for the funicular to Sunnegga.
We
explored the main street and went into a few shops looking for our
usual souvenirs: magnets for our magnet board at home and
country/city stickers for our suitcases. We found the “brat guy”
and although he didn't look like what I pictured in my head (an old
Swiss gentleman with a big beard), the brats were worth it. He had 3
kinds: veal, beef, and chicken. We tried the veal and beef which
were both very good but I think the beef was the best.
We
got done with our brats just in time to get back to the town square
to meet up with our group. We walked for about 4 or 5 blocks to the
funicular station and were given our tickets to board immediately. I
was really impressed how quickly the funicular went up the hill. We
started at around 5000 feet and it took us up to about 7500 ft.
So
because it was so cloudy, we couldn't actually see the Matterhorn.
We were divided up into our respective bus groups and they took us
down by bus color to have a group and individual pictures in front of
the Matterhorn (which they would photoshop in) with one of 2 st
bernards. Pictures could be purchased from the Ambassador store in
the town square.
After
having our pictures taken, we took the funicular back down and headed
down the main street to find someplace to have some lunch. Google
maps was very confused in Zermatt and although there were a bunch of
restaurants recommended on Trip Advisor, they were tough to locate
with all the odd street names. We decided to try the restaurant at
the Schweizerhof (besides liking the name of the hotel), but when we
walked in to the restaurant, there wasn't anyone around to seat us so
we left. We wandered around a bit and into a restaurant called
Zermatterstubli. This worked out great because not only did we have
some “authentic” Alpine food but we also sat by the window
looking out over the street where a parade of different bands from
all over Switzerland were marching. My pork sausage (bratwurst) with
rosti (was the same as hash browns) and onion sauce was delicious.
We got a chuckle out of the 2 types of mustard that came in a tube
like toothpaste. The nice German speaking couple sitting next to us
were sweet in helping us decipher some of the words.
After
lunch, we went down the street to a chocolate store we had seen and
bought a sampler pack of chocolate which we sampled while on the
train back to Tasch. While we were waiting in the square to re-board
the train, I snapped a picture of group picture complete with the
Matterhorn photo-shopped in behind us. They had forgotten to get a
picture of the green bus while up at Sunnegga so that bus posed
outside of the store for a group picture which they quickly
photo-shopped too. The choir did an impromptu song in the
town square – another “sing and run” that were becoming
familiar to us.
 |
| picture of someone's photoshopped picture |
 |
| green bus |
We
made our way back to Crans-Montana and when we returned to the Hotel
Spendide, our laundry was ready for pick up. This service was
perfect for about the half way point of our whole trip.
We
were to meet up at the town tent that evening for a fondue party but
had been instructed ahead of time that we needed to form groups of 8
and 16 to be seated at the tables. There was one fondue pot per
group of 8. I had always wondered what the etiquette was when we
were eating at the Melting Pot in OKC or Tulsa because we were always
given a fondue fork in addition to a regular fork. Do you eat
straight off the fondue fork or do you put it on your plate first and
then spear it with your regular fork? Since we were only given a
fondue fork, I'm going to say the answer is to just eat it straight
off the fondue fork and dispense with the extra work of using a
regular fork.
We were instructed prior to the fondue party that no outside food or drink was permitted or we would be charged 20CHF. We were also only to be provided bread and cheese which made us wonder whether that was going to be enough for a whole meal. There was water on the table but other drinks had to be purchased at the bar and you could also purchase meat but I didn't see that anyone had bought any.
The
fondue was really good. Once your group was out of bread, you just
waved your basket around and someone brought more bread. It didn't
take long for someone to “drop” their bread and then the
clapping, cheering, kissing, and laughing started up. The kids
really had fun with this part of the party although some tables
definitely had more than their fair share of slippery fondue forks.
I
saw the Alpine horns arrive and went outside to snap a picture and
before I knew it, one of the guys reached for my phone and wanted to
take a picture with me in it.
The townspeople of Crans-Montana
entertained everyone for the rest of the evening. The horns played
for us and then they held a contest between boys and girls to see who
played the Alpine horns the best. Hands down, the boys from the band
were better at it than the girls from the chorus. Go figure. They
also had one of the band directors up against the choir director.
That was no contest either. It was at this point that we decided to
call it an early night so Seth and I returned to our hotel room.
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