Page 540 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

Aletschhorn (4195m), the pretty and pink to dark of St Mauritius Church
glacier is just like a frozen and mysterious. Since the is sobering. Numerous
six-lane superhighway. mid-19th century, Zer- gravestones tell of un-
In the distance to the matt has starred among timely deaths on Monte
north rise the glisten- Switzerland’s glitziest re- Rosa, the Matterhorn
ing summits of Jungfrau sorts. Today skiers cruise and Breithorn. In July
(4158m), Mönch (4107m), along well-kept pistes, 2015 a memorial to ‘the
Eiger (3970m) and spellbound by the scen- unknown climber’ was
Finsteraarhorn (4274m). ery, while style-conscious unveiled to mark the
To the southwest of the darlings flash designer 150th anniversary of the
cable-car exit, you can threads in the town’s Matterhorn’s first ascent.
spy Mont Blanc and the swish lounge bars. The Matterhorn
Matterhorn. Meander main-strip Museum (%027 967 41 00;
Bahnhofstrasse with its www.matterhornmuseum.ch;
4 p539 boutiques and stream Kirchplatz; adult/child Sfr10/5;
The Drive » It takes one hour of horse-drawn sleds or h11am-6pm Jul-Sep & mid-
(56km) to get from Fiesch to carriages and electric Dec–Apr, 3-6pm Oct–mid-Dec)
Täsch via Rte 19 to Visp, then taxis, then head towards provides a fascinating
the winding rural road to Täsch the noisy Vispa river insight into Valaisian
itself. You’ll park the car here along Hinterdorfstrasse. village life, the dawn of
before boarding the train to This old-world street is tourism in Zermatt and
car-free Zermatt.
crammed with arche- the lives the Matterhorn
SWITZERLAND 37 THE SwISS ALPS
typal Valaisian timber has claimed. Short films
TRIP HIGHLIGHT granaries propped up portray the first success-
c Zermatt on stone discs and stilts ful ascent of the Mat-
You can almost sense to keep out pesky rats; terhorn on 14 July 1865,
the anticipation on look for the fountain led by Edward Whymper,
the train from Täsch. commemorating Ulrich a feat marred by tragedy
Then, as you arrive in Inderbinen (1900–2004), on the descent when four
car-free Zermatt, the a Zermatt-born moun- team members crashed to
pop-up-book effect of the taineer who climbed the their deaths in a 1200m
one-of-a-kind Matterhorn Matterhorn 370 times, fall down the North Wall.
(4478m) works its magic. the last time at age 90. The infamous rope that
Like a shark’s fin it rises A walk in Zermatt’s broke is on display.
above the town, with Mountaineers’ Cemetery 54 p539
moods that swing from (Kirchstrasse) in the garden

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