Where to Switzerland - Day Five
I woke up before sunrise so that I could watch it rise over the French Alps and Lake Geneva with my coffee in hand. When I say that I could have stayed there forever, I mean it! I would absolutely love a little house that size with that kind of view to stare at in awe daily. Unfortunately, it was nearly time to go, so we finished packing up what we had pulled out the night before, and hit the road. Thank goodness we had rented a car, because it truly made having all our luggage so much easier than packing it onto a train. Even the trains can’t get everywhere, so we still would have needed to transfer to a car to get to our AirBnB. Renting a car for this trip was a great decision that we have zero regrets about.
So we left our beautiful AirBnB in Puidoux and started driving toward Zermatt, first stopping very shortly down the road at a French bakery Austin had found the night before. We had a 3-hour drive ahead of us, so needed to fuel up our bellies. We didn’t stop again until about half way when we finally needed to fuel up the car - the first time so far of the trip for us to do so. And the cool thing about the CoOp “gas” (most cars are actually diesel here) station we stopped at, was the connected CoOp supermarket and a whole shopping center. Of course we took the opportunity to explore and grab some snacks, something we couldn’t have done with a rental car. We grabbed some snacks and Swiss chocolate, as well as coffee and a Monster Mule energy drink, a flavor we had never seen in the States.
You may or may not know, but Zermatt is a car-free town. In order to get to Zermatt, in our case, we had to park in a parking garage at the train station in Tasch before taking the train up. For the next three nights, we would be staying in the quaint little village with the Matterhorn looking over us.
We had decided it wouldn’t be necessary to bring all of our luggage up (we literally brought one large checked luggage, two carry-on sized luggages, plus a backpack for Austin and one for me total for the trip), so before getting out of the vehicle, we packed the things we knew we would need for the next 3 nights into less and then of course, we brought our ever growing snack bag.
The Matterhorn greeted us, as well as someone from our hotel, waiting for us at the train station to shuttle us to our stay in an adorable little electric mini truck, these being the only type of vehicle allowed in Zermatt besides mini construction vehicles. Where we were staying? The Backstage Vernissage apartments, specifically the blue apartment, with a bit more room than we needed just the two of us but also with a jaw-dropping view of the Matterhorn. After setting our things down and settling into the apartment, we decided to go our to explore the village before our dinner reservation.
Our dinner was at the main Backstage Hotel building, closer to the train station and center of the village than our apartment. We had caviar, bone marrow, ceviche and salmon, to name a few delicious dishes; it was quite the fine-dining experience and a nice change from the traditional cheese dishes of Switzerland.
Where to (next), Meg?
