We thought about canceling the trip to Zermatt -- seemed a bit far away for just one night. But Hannah & Ray, world travelers since the '60s, had never really been to Switzerland, and we'd been calling ourselves the Swissy Six, so we had to go.
Zermatt is a car-free town. Between our OFII appointment, Jeff's foot injury and my parent's arrival, I didn't contemplae that fact until I was winding up, down & around the mountains between Lake Como and Zermatt -- a harsh wintry landscape that challenged my newfound manual driving skills.
Suddenly I wondered how I'd transport my parents, two teenage boys, Jeff on crutches, a large dog and all our bags from Tasch -- the town 5 km away where we had to leave our car -- to Zermatt. We'd had a difficult enough time making it from our rooms at Tremezzo to the car...
When we got to Tasch, we targetted Taxi Christophe where Dad and I ventured into the office to see what we could arrange on the spot. "Don't worry,"said the smiling man behind the counter. "We take care of everything."
Perhaps I didn't look convinced. He added, "Would you like a welcome drink?" Ah, yes. Please. Mom, Dad and I enjoyed a quick shot of grappa, to fortify ourselves, then loaded our family, bags and dog into a van that took us down the small mountain road to the entrance of Zermatt where an electric taxi ferried us to the hotel. Only electric cars and horse-drawn carriages are allowed around Zermatt, and even they struggle with the steep dirt paths to the town's attractions and hotels.
After a bumpy ride to our hotel, I started to wonder whether Zermatt was worth the hassle. Until we saw our room at the Hotel Hemizeus with a glorious view of the Matterhorn, one of the most famous mountains in the world, the iconic symbol of Alpine Switzerland. Was it worthy of the fuss, or was the pomp designed to keep the taxis and electro-car companies in business?
"Not a particularly good-looking mountain," my father remarked. "Doesn't measure up to Everest or K-2 or Kangchenjunga." He's right. The Matterhorn is a mere 14,692 feet high when the other peaks stand at nearly twice that height. "It's kind of vulgar looking," Jeff chimed in. My mother looked at the mountain solemnly. "It's lonely," she pronounced. The Matterhorn stands alone, the unicorn of mountains, while most of its kind clump together in a panoramic range.
Still, there's something to the unique four-sided peak and solitary position straddling the Italian and Swiss border. "It's mysteriously majestic," Anthony decided.
At least the Matterhorn is unlikely to be mistaken for any other mountain... which is more than I can say for Mt. Everest. My family flew from Bangladesh to Nepal the winter of 1983 for a short holiday. At one point Hannah, never a shrinking violet, stood up to announce to her daughters, and everyone else on board, that she'd spotted Mt. Everest out the window on the right. We all -- daughters and miscellaneous strangers -- grabbed our cameras and clicked away. About ten minutes later the pilot announced that everyone should look to the left as we were about the fly over Mt. Everest. We daughters shrank into our seats. As we explained to Luke and Anthony, this was back in the day when film was expensive to buy and develop, and most people didn't take more than 24 or 36 photos on any given trip.
Quite a contrast to today when my mother took over 500 photos on this trip alone, including this one of the morning sun hitting the Matterhorn.
Despite its critics, the Matterhorn's in the running to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. There's a contest going on that let's you cast up to seven votes to decide the new Wonders. The Matterhorn faces steep competition from the likes of the Amazon, the Grand Canyon and the Bay of Fundy. (The same organization recently came up with a list of the New 7 Wonders of the World which includes the Pyramids of Giza as an "honorary" Wonder. Apparently the Egyptians were not pleased that the Pyramids, the only surviving Ancient Wonder, were originally thrown in as just another contestant alongside upstarts like the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Sydney Opera House. I think they have a point.)
Cast your votes at the website below!
Finally, speaking of wonders, natural or otherwise, not only did my mother, Hannah, take over 500 photos, but she made lots of new friends between the flights, the Italian man at the AutoGrill, the three elderly English ladies in Bellagio, the Cuban tourists at the perfume factory and the owner of the hotel in Zermat, featured with her here. "It's hard not to talk to people," my mother explains. As my dad, a man of fewer words, might say, Accha.
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