it's a new record.

The number of blog posts I've managed to write in one day, that is. (Well, except that this one may have taken more than one to finish.) I've been inspired by my Dad, who has been typing away and writing all sorts of posts...as we've traveled, no less. It makes me feel that the least I can do is catch up on all the stuff that happened before we hit the road. With only a little further adieu, I give you...Zermatt.

I'm quite ashamed that it took us a year and a half to get down to the Matterhorn, but there you have it. Sadly, this was our last trip with Dave and Jen, at least while they were Zürich-based, but happily, it was Jen's birthday the week before, so Dave suggested that we should all spend the weekend in Zermatt. It was fantastic. Terrific food, great friends, ridiculous scenery...what more can you ask from a weekend outing?

Purty scenery from the train. There was lots of it.

And upon checking into the hotel:

The view from our balcony. Yup. Mike found a nice little place for us to stay.  :)

As always, when traveling with Jen and Dave, they've done the heavy lifting when it comes to finding amazing food. The evening we arrived in Zermatt, we had dinner at Schäferstübli, an insane sheep-themed restaurant in the cellar of a hotel. Seriously, the whole place is decked out in sheep and sheep-related decor, and on the menu--surprise!--is sheep. In many, many forms. Here was my dinner companion, right over my head.

I was dubious as to the fastness of whatever was holding him to the wall.

Regardless of threatening sheep, the food was excellent. We had some deliciously smooth (not too sharp!) raclette with potatoes for a starter, then sorta shared a plate of lamb three ways; a plate full of veal steaks; and my personal favorite (lucky for me, since it was my plate), a lamb and cheese sausage-wurst-y kind of thing. Yum, yum, yum.

The next day, we found some coffee, then headed on up the side of a mountain to have lunch at Chez Vrony. I really cannot overstate the sheer awesomeness of this place, the building itself (with its giant sun deck), the serious scenery, and the incredible food, all of which is locally sourced or house-made or organic or some combination of the above. 

Matterhorn the next morning. This thing really is as awesome as it looks; when it's in view, you can't focus for too long on anything else. It's mesmerizing.

Marmot on the walk from the Sunegga funicular station down to Chez Vrony for lunch.

Alpine wildflowers, everywhere!

The view from Chez Vrony at lunch.

Fresh, made-that-morning goat cheese, wrapped in house-made, slightly aged cheese, with house-made dried beef on organic greens. Heaven on my plate.

Another raclette starter, with some small potatoes and fig-raisin-cinnamon chutney. These Zermatt-ers really know know their raclette. Soooo good.

Summer salad with organic greens, olive oil, raspberries and raspberry sauce, and more fresh-that-morning cheese.

Jen and I had the same pasta: goat cheese ravioli with butter, sage, and caramelized pears.

Mike's dish of mountain goat with potatoes and veggies.

Dave ordered a hamburger on their reputation at Chez Vrony, but he wasn't too thrilled with it (overcooked), although the bun (sort-of a wheat "everything" bun) was seriously good. And at least we all got to finish the meal with some delicious digestifs (a Bailey's coffee and some awesome espresso with amaretto and unsweetened whipped cream and almond shavings...mmmm....). The food was superlative, the views unbeatable, and the service just delightful: the next time you're in Zermatt, YOU HAVE TO EAT HERE. I'd go back just for this restaurant alone.

After lunch, we walked back down the mountain into town. Being the giant history nerd that I am, I insisted that Mike and I roam the streets and look at all the wonky old buildings, which turned out to be hugely interesting. (In my humble opinion.)

Butterflies 'n flowers, all the way back down the mountain.

The climbers' cemetery around the church in the middle of Zermatt. Everyone buried here died climbing one of the prodigious peaks around the city.

Old stuff! Most of the buildings that look like this date back to the 16th or 17th centuries. The stilts with stone circles underneath the buildings were an attempt to prevent rodent invasions...wonder how well that worked.

You know this one was the fanciest, back in its day.

Some of these streets made me think of wild-west, gold-rush towns...only older.

Saturday evening's dinner was a bit on the crazy side, too. More sheep decor, but also vast amounts of craziness, at Chez Heini. The owner used to be a singer and made his money on records, then decided to open this restaurant, which was pretty fantastic, not only in the quantities of food they gave us, but also in the decor (celebrity photos! sheep! gold records! wagon wheels! candles! chandeliers! taxidermied sheep and goat heads! and more! call it "eclectic"...). 

The main sign. Yup, you pronounce it the way you think.

The menus were essentially scrapbooked photos and quotes sandwiched between two actual records.

The dishware either had the owner's name and likeness and was inset with crystals...

...or had this little backpacking sheep standing on a record on it.

It was fairly dim in there, so my photos of the food didn't come out terribly well. But anyway...we started with salad with prawns and scallops; then a pureed corn soup with broccoli oil, served with a slice of super tender pork cheek and tomato; then lamb three ways with a buttery vegetable medley and some seriously cheesy, crispy-topped potato gratin; then seconds of lamb, veggies, and potatoes, for those of us who were too stupid to quit; and finally apricot tiramisu and coffee mousse, served with vieille prune (a local prune liqueur, and quite tasty) and espresso. The food was pretty good, but the real attraction was the post-dinner show. Apparently, in high ski season, the show can run 45 minutes, and involve audience participation; ours was a measly 15 or so, including video and just a couple of songs. After everyone's been served dinner, the lights dim and a screen rolls down from the ceiling. Images of Zermatt, skiers, helicopters, giant mountains, and green valleys roll across the screen, and then our host, Mr. Dan Daniell himself, launches into a couple of his most famous songs, usually in duet with a waitress. Dave was hugely disappointed, as he's seen the full-length show, but for me, this was a level of kitsch (woohooo!) heretofore unseen. (Especially when viewed in the context of Mr. Daniell's own fragrance line, entire collection of CDs, and a cookbook or two, all on display downstairs near the sparkly-walled restrooms, and all available for purchase.) Sadly, it was dark, and from where I was sitting, the two singers were behind a column. But I definitely got to hear everything. Here's my crappy video. (And if you want to see some genuinely amazing videos, check out Dan Daniell's on YouTube.)

Sunday morning, the four of us hopped on a gondola up to the Matterhorn Paradise, a wee ski hill and restaurant in the saddle between the Matterhorn and the Breithorn (at 12,739 feet). We'd heard that there is actual year-round skiing at the Matterhorn, and it turned out to be true.

It may not be the steepest or the longest run, but it's still here, and still populated, in June. 

View from the gondola between Schwarzsee and the Matterhorn Paradise.

Dave and Mike summiting the "Matterhorn."

The Breithorn (13,661 ft). What looks like a line of ants is climbers on their way to summiting.

The view from the Matterhorn Paradise down towards Zermatt, in the valley on the left.

Looking over the back side of the saddle into Italy. The Matterhorn, naturally, is the peak entirely covered in clouds on the right.

The gondola cables from Schwarzsee up to the Matterhorn Paradise. You can just barely see the gondola terminus right under the pointy peak in the middle. From here, zoomed out, the Breithorn is on the left and the Matterhorn on the right. 

I am not going to kid you, despite the full sunshine, it was pretty chilly up there, and the snow was DEEP. But halfway back down the mountain, the wildflowers were in full bloom and we got to walk through fields of them in the course of our search for Zum See, the restaurant at which we were having lunch. It's a nifty little place, set in the village of Furi, which is a small cluster of 350+-year-old buildings in the middle of an Alpine meadow. The outdoor tables are scattered on terraces between the buildings, which makes it almost like you have the restaurant to yourself. WHAT A SERIOUSLY GORGEOUS PLACE. 

Restaurant Zum See.

My giant heaping pile of rösti with bacon and eggs. YUMMMM.

I opted for possibly the least sophisticated dish on the menu, and I have no problem with that at all. Highlights from the rest of our meal involved starters of shaved local cheese and dried meat, and a plate of octopus carpaccio (the side of an Alp is a weird place to eat that, I know, but it was DELICIOUS); veal steak with mushrooms and potato gratin; nettle and ricotta tortelloni with sage; and desserts of homemade ice cream with berries, and a super tart rhubarb tort with sweet meringue. And some fabulous espresso. 

Good food in a beautiful setting...and that's how we missed the train on which we'd reserved seats in the second-class section (which, in Switzerland, is usually sparkling clean and only slightly less roomy than first). We knew it was going to be crowded on the way back, so Mike decided to spring for an upgrade to the first-class section (which is usually empty), and BOY, WAS IT WORTH IT. Seriously. The second-class cars on the Bern-to-Zürich leg were a madhouse...children yelling, people sitting in the stairwell, groups of seatless nomads roaming the aisles, and a temperature of about 90 degrees plus humidity. It was all very un-Swiss. And once we'd fought our way into the first-class section we found ourselves in a nearly-empty, air-conditioned, cushy car and proceeded to play Words with Friends on Mike's tablet, all the way back to Zürich. This is the second time I've said this this week, and it's as true now as it was then: WE ARE THE CONSUMMATE YUPPIES. Life is good. 

A footnote to leaving Zermatt: in the train station, MY FIRST BRUSH WITH ACTUAL SWISS ALP HORNS. These guys were maybe not the most polished of musicians, but they were very friendly with all the tourists who approached them after they played, and then they COLLAPSED THEIR TELESCOPING ALP HORNS and packed them up. (Seriously, they fit into that little black case next to the horn on the left.) That was a lot of excitement for me.

I apologize for the video quality, but I was shooting on my phone, from the train. I was amazed at A) how many notes they could produce from an instrument with no valves, and B) what a lovely tone they produced. Ricola has been lying to us. These guys aren't so goofy, after all.

Well, it was a bittersweet way to finish our experience in Zermatt: gorgeous place, good friends, ridiculous food, interesting music...but it was also our last trip with Jen and Dave while they were still Zürich residents. I know they have plans to come back in the fall, and we'll do our best to get out to San Francisco to see them (Mike's supposed to go twice a year for work...  :), but it's so sad to have them leave. They're leaving a giant vacancy in our little group of friends, and we will miss them greatly, but I hope they have a fantastic time in San Francisco.

Up next: I start down the loooong, long list of places to which I tagged along with my parents on their European sojourn. Hope they didn't mind.