We said goodbye to Ringgenberg, and our new friends Mark and David, two brothers who run the hotel where we stayed. Just delightful guys, they took a real liking to my in-laws, let them stay an extra day, and tried to charm their daughter at every turn.
Again, this was the view they gave us from our balcony.
(Click to embiggen.)
From the two of them we learned a lot about Switzerland, how the culture and the government and their sports work. So it became more than just the views. It became the sort of feeling that made you think: we’ll be back to this specific place sometime, soon.
Again, look at that view. Why wouldn’t you go back to a place like that if there were nice people there, too?
So we hopped on a series of trains — our last day with train changes, I think — and then headed two-and-a-half hours to the south, and into the mountains. It’s just basic views like this the whole way. No big deal.
And when you don’t see mountains, or small waterfalls, or the verdant nature of summer in Switzerland, you can see the rivers and streams and creeks that parallel the train tracks.
The closer you get to the snowmelt and the glaciers, the whiter the water gets, from all of the sediment and runoff. But no matter the shade you see in any given moment, it’s impressively, starkly beautiful.
Oh look, more mountains. So mountainous.
Which reminds me … we have seen several young people — on trains and at famous places — doing the things that people do these days. For days now the four of us have been saying “So preeeeeetty!” to one another after sharing a train car with five teenagers who were passing all of these beautiful sites and could not be bothered to see any of it because of all of the selfies they were taking. But their photos were “So preeeeeetty!”
Go ahead, I dare you, try to explain influencers to anyone that’s not chronically online. You sound like an insane person. And it looks ridiculous when you see it in practice. (To be fair, most things having to do with media look ridiculous in practice.)
Anyway, we have arrived at Zermatt. Here’s my lovely bride pointing out the chief attraction.
And here’s an artfully framed composition of that same mountain.
“So preeeeeetty!”
Also, I did that thing where you hold the camera lens up to the tourism telescope. So here’s a closer look.
And the view, no kidding, right outside of our hotel.
We are at Zermatt, and that’s the Matterhorn. The day after tomorrow, we’ll climb the thing. By which I mean we’ll take a train to an adjacent high spot and pretend like we’ve climbed the thing.
