We had a slower start than we should have, with washing
machine difficulties. Trips to 2 shops
to get the required coins, then when it finished, there was still 5cm water in
the drum. Another trip to the bank, a very
long spin cycle, and we were done.
We walked to the cable car terminus, about 15mins at the
edge of town, and were whisked up to the first junction.
There we got into a large, standing only car
for the 2nd leg. Lots of
sweaty bodies, skis, hiking poles etc.
The 3rd leg is new, only opened last winter, and it took us
to Klein Matterhorn, at 3883m. It was cold
in the tunnels where the terminus was and we both found it difficult to
breathe. We went first to the topmost
viewing platform, where we did the obligatory photos. We could see groups of cross country skiers
up high on the next mountain, Breithorn, 4164m, and agreed they could have it on their
own.
Matterhorn
Breithorn
Mont Blanc
I am the highest
Then we went down to the lowest level, the Ice Palace dug
through the glacier. Here was a crevasse
you could see from the underneath, lots of ice sculptures, and a section were
various groups of scientists were working on projects that required cold – many
seemed to be connected with overcoming problems of living on Mars.
the crevasse from under the glacier
But it was very cold, so we didn’t linger,
but went to watch some short videos about the science projects, then caught the
cable car back one station.
strange tracks in the snow, up really high and going nowhere
Trockener Steg facilities had not yet opened for the summer
season (or maybe they don’t, they just do winter), but we sat in the sun on their
terrace and had lunch, and got too hot.
We found out that the standing cable car was just a fillin, and the
better one was now in use, so we got it, back through Furgg and got off again
at Schwarzesee. Here we found a small
flock of black-faced sheep, and took lots of photos of them and of the
Gornergrat Bahn on the opposite hill. So
then we rode down through Furi, and back to ground level.
We walked home, had a short rest and a change of clothes,
and went out again. Yesterday morning,
Rev John had invited anyone to come on a ‘marmot spotting’ expedition, and as
it happened, we were the only ones who turned up at 17:00. So an intrepid team of 4 plodded slowly up
the hill behind the town to the favoured marmot spotting field, and settled
down. We were lucky, and saw 3-5 come
out of their burrows and feed in the long grass. It was a bit hard to tell sometimes whether
it was one we’d seen before, or a new one, but we were happy with our tally,
and John and Caroline were pleased our trip was not in vain.
And we had a couple of bonuses, with a folk group in the church square on the way out, and an alpen horn group rehearsing in the school playground on the way back.
We called at the supermarket on the way home, and thought
only a little bit about packing.
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