ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAIL WITH KIDS

Oh, well Zermatt was just a dream. The most idyllic little town hidden in the mountains; there are no cars, only electric buggies and horses, it's beautiful and small enough that you can walk around the entire place in one evening. The perfect little ski town.

We lugged our suitcases through the narrow streets form the train station up to our hotel, which was as traditional and old fashioned as they come but it had a balcony with a table and a few chairs overlooking the main street and you could peek up towards the mountains on the other side. I was *so* excited to be there, and so glad we were there for a few nights.

The evening we arrived, we explored and settled in our room, before heading out to find somewhere for dinner. Vivienne is a pretty good eater and had promised she'd try different foods while we were away; so we chose raclette with potatoes and some sort of jam, and rösti (pretty plain stuff for 'trying something new' but we both loved it!) I'd say we had an early night ahead of skiing the next day, but we ended up in PJs watching Friends on Netflix a little too late..

The next day we were up to have breakfast, collect skis, boots and poles and dragged our kit to buy lift passes to the starter ski slopes. I know I sound like a typical parent, but Vivienne did so well. She's always been a pretty cautious kid, but I was so impressed at how she took to skiing. we were on the baby slopes and practised snow plough and some turns, before going down a slightly steeper slope together (me going down backwards with her facing me). We skiied until about 1pm, then headed over to a different lift to make the trip higher and higher to reach the Glacier Paradise Experience.

The Glacier Paradise Experience (I'll link at the bottom), is at the highest point and has a viewing platform at 4000m, where you can see the Matterhorn on a clear day. Unfortunately visibility was zero they day we went up, which can't be helped, but we still visited the glacier experience while we were up there. It meant that we walked down a carved tunnel inside a glacier to a 'palace' which was full of ice sculptures, tunnels, slides, steps.. it was so bizarre. I think Vivienne felt slightly worried at the prospect of being in there too long "in case it collapsed on us", but loved it nonetheless.

Being so high up, it wasn't long before our hearts were racing and we couldn't catch our breath, we had some chocolate milk (Viv), beer (me) and frites before heading back down into Zermatt for our final night there.

We explored the chocolate shops (it's Switzerland, after all), grabbed some food and wandered around the beautiful town one last time. We wrote postcards, updated travel diaries, and packed up a little - the next day we would get the train to Zurich ahead of getting a night train to Vienna the following evening! We FaceTimed home and told Dav all about skiing, before falling asleep, exhausted, after what had ended up being a long and tiring day..

You can see a different variety of photographs from our time in Zermatt over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - ZURICH!

LINKS

HOTEL HELVETIA
GLACIER PARADISE

MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

Montreux is just so bloody beautiful. It's a small town at the other end of Lake Geneva to Geneva itself. Later afternoon/early evening Vivienne and I collected our bags after exploring Geneva for the day, and took the train for just over an hour around the lake to Montreux. We went wandering out on the evening before finding somewhere to eat, and unfortunately couldn't see much because of the visibility, but the town lights sparkling on the water were  still pretty beautiful. We found an Italian place and ate dinner (bloody pricey but I guess it's Switzerland..), before heading back to our room and watching Netflix in bed before falling asleep.

In the morning, we dumped our bags at the hotel reception and, I swear, I think I ran to the water's edge to fully see the mountains that were now visible on the other side of the lake. SO beautiful. We wandered and saw the Freddie Mercury Statue and a sculpture piece dedicated to him, and stood on the viewing platform that jutted out into the lake to fully see the amazing view up into the Alps. We grabbed some breakfast on the go, and walked for about an hour around the lake towards Chillon Castle, stopping to take photos and look at the view.

Chillon Castle was quite interesting - very Game of Thrones-esque. We definitely could have spent more time wandering around it; I think Vivienne enjoyed it more than me and there was a kid's guide book that she worked through - definitely worth a visit for a few hours. 

Mid-afternoon, after catching the bus back to the centre to save a little time, we trundled back up the hill towards the train station; stopping, again, for snacks from the Coop for our journey and for picnic-ing in bed later. 
 

We were both so, so excited to get up to Zermatt and have a look around before skiing the next day. The journey took a few hours from Montreux up into the mountains, which left plenty of time for writing in travel diaries and playing Rummikub..

You can see a different selection of photos from our time in Montreux over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - ZERMATT!