Exploring Zermatt

When we finally woke up Monday morning, I ripped open the curtains and this was the view I saw and I felt like I was in heaven. I hadn't seen snow like that in a long time and I have never seen mountains like that. The village of Zermatt looked so quaint and it was so sweet to see all the smoke coming from all the little chimneys. The Matterhorn peaks proudly over it all with the sun gleaming off it.

After breakfast we all got bundled up and headed into the centre of town. The temperature was about -15 C and the hairs in your nose got pretty stiff when you took a deep breath. We finally got to test if all the clothes we bought for this trip would really keep us warm, especially the kids. What was pretty nice is that the full camo body suit that my dad got for Addison last year actually fit Harrison perfectly. We also found some of Addison's old long underware (non-pink) that fit Harry as well. And amazingly over a year ago my cousin handed down a full snow pants and matching jacket for Addison that was her size for this trip. We lucked out...on the otherhand, Kevin and I each had to buy snow pants, new snow boots, gloves, and hats.

Even with it being well below freezing this fast moving river that ran through down was full of ice but still flowing pretty well. It was about a 12-15 minute walk to get to the Co-op grocery store and other shops.

The main road through down town Zermatt. Really the only vehicles in town are all electric taxis or delivery trucks. Everyone walks everywhere. You honestly can't carry much more than a couple days worth of groceries if you have to walk around with it. Good thing we had four of us to carry, but hiking up hill back to the house on ice and snow was tough. I carried a back pack and a couple bags and I was knackered. Not only was I horribly out of shape but the cold air gets to ya as well.

Groceries and most foods in Zermatt is very expensive. A pound of hamburger cost 9.30 Francs, a small whole chicken was about 12 Francs, and 5 bananas cost about 3.20 Francs. Funny thing is that alcohol was pretty cheap - only 6-12 Francs per bottle of wine!!! The nice thing about this holiday is that the Swiss Franc (CHF) is that is about equal with the US dollar so there wasn't much to worry about exchange rates, but with the prices the way they were it probably wasn't much different than what we pay for our UK groceries after converting it. I think our first grocery bill for about 4 days of just essentials was over 200 Francs. Granted if we were to eat out we would spend that in one day, so going self-catered was great for us. Also being able to make what we wanted to eat whenever we wanted was great especially for the kids. It was very relaxing not having to corral them in a restaurant.

A few things about our apartment that were so cool that I have to mention. Our oven was also a microwave!!! I don't now how it works, but it worked really well. Once you figured out all the buttons it was okay. Luckily I've been cooking in Celcius for long enough that it was normal for me but I think it was throwing Sally for a loop.

I love their outlets. you can stick three different items in and it looks stylish as well. There are three prongs but you can stick in any standard two prong European plugs as well. The apartment was well stocked with appliance adapters, but everything is still in 220V.

Our "little" fridge was huge compare to the one I have at home. It is hard to stock up a kitchen for a week with essentials and cooking staples so we had to plan our meals really well. I brought along a few mixes for treats which was great. Once we accepted the sticker shock of food costs our next challenge was trying to figure out what everything was with most labels being written in German, French or Italian. I did a pretty good guessing job with items that had pictures on them, but it was like a big game after a while.

After our first day in Zermatt, we enjoyed a beautiful and amazing night view of town. The Matterhorn disappears at night but the town is so full of life. Eventhough it's was a little hike to get up our steps to the house, the views we have were so worth it.