Interlaken

So we'd had a pretty good run with the weather in Zermatt, and then it'd been pretty shit really on the way to Interlaken, but, we'd made it and we checked into our place. this was actually harder than it sounds because by the time we got into town it was dark and raining/snowing, the streets are windy and full of impossible-to-tell-who-has-right-of-way intersections and, as usual, we didn't have a map. Despite these minor inconveniences and one incorrectly rung doorbell we found our place. The hostel was above a seedy looking restaurant but it did have a decent (and free) internet connection!!

The next morning (Easter Saturday) we awoke early, well alright.. earlier, because we didn't have any accom for that night and had to find some quick smart. Luckily the tourist office was open (almost our first experience with such an occurrence) and one of the first places we tried had room. the place was called Heidi's Hostel and presumably it was Heidi i spoke with on the phone. Heidi was a charming old bird although obviously deranged. She must of been 100 if she was a day and repeatedly informed us that 'she tells us the true, only the not-so-good room is available!'.



Well that was good enough for us, after a quick inspection of the 'not-so-good' room well checked in. So the shower was in a tin box in the corner of the room, the toilet was in a cupboard and there was something living in the roof, but the room was clean, Heidi was an old dear and there was kitchen facilities so I don't know what Sarah was whingeing about. We stayed 4 nights.



Unfortunately the weather continued to be cold and snowy so we were confined to low altitude walking, chocolate eating and reading for most of the easter weekend. After the fun and total enjoyment of skiing the previous week this suited Sarah just fine thankyou.



We had planned to go para-gliding in Interlaken but the weather defeated us, so we left (it was still snowing) and set course for Austria. We did manage to pick up some music cd's for the car and some awesome raspberry white chocolate before we left tho. We'd read somewhere that the town of Chur in East Switzerland was worth a look so we swung by there for lunch. hmmm, bum steer. The weather had picked up tho and it was a beautiful drive. it was getting to that time of day when we started wondering where we were going to sleep so we dug through our books and started ringing around. closed, fully booked, no answer.. usual story. we eventually found a cheapish place just off our route in a quaint little town called Unterwasser. Small ski resort is probably an overstatement but technically correct. There was a really nice sunset, a good view and I think we were the only ones in the hostel - and the whole town as it turned out. We hit the local bar (star bar??) to find that they were pumping out tina turner, accadacca, and a whole lot of other old school stuff. this was pretty funny cos the barmaid (and everyone else for that matter - which admittedly was about 3 blokes) didn't speak a word of english, but was singing along anyway.



we ate dinner that night alone in a fairly decently sized restaurant then headed to Innsbruck the next morning. While i was checking out, the owner asked if he could 'make picture of me' because I was carrying my pack and backpack and i think i was the first real backpacker looking guest they'd had (they only opened their hostel this winter).

Zermatt

Ok guys, currently in Munich hitting up the castles and beer halls and just about to head to Prague tomorrow night before Berlin on Saturday..

Well what can I say..? Zermatt was awesome!! We arrived in Zermatt late Sunday arvo from Tasch not having booked any accom. (as was to become our tradition) and quickly set about finding some. Unfortunately, every reception in Europe is closed between about 11am and 5pm so we had to wait around with our bags for a bit (we busted into the youth hostel to borrow their computer and warmth). Eventually we booked a couple of nights at the Matterhorn hostel which was cosy but nice.



We decided to spend our first day going for a walk in the 'hills' (read mountains) surrounding Zermatt. The walk was great tho the path was snowed under and slighlty difficult to follow in sections. Walking on the 1st day however turned out to be a great decision because the following 3 days were absolutely perfect weather and we spent them all skiing.



Sarah had never been skiing before, let alone touched real snow, so it was a pretty steep and spectacular learning curve. We started off catching the Gournegratbahn up to what we had been informed was the easy slopes. Well Sarah had never heard such lies in her life. The runs were wide and long and covered in fresh snow - which only served to give Sarah more ground to crash on. The views of the Matterhorn and surrounding mountains were spectactular and on the second day we caught the cable car up to one of the highest peaks. The cable car ride was slightly unnerving but definitely rewarding. We even discovered an underground ice cave at the summit.



Sarah also fared better on the 2nd day and we found a nice long baby run to get a bit more practice on. We'd reduced the crashes per day to about 4 by this point. This was down from about several thousand the day before however and Sarah was feeling almost everyone of them. To her credit she backed up for a 3rd day and we found a couple of awesome runs down from the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. We even 'accidently' skiied down a medium run which both parties survived admirably (except for a teary incident towards the bottom of the last slope). Sarah has just informed me she will tell the real story in a post of her own shortly...

So skiing was fantastic and the weather was brilliant so we had a ball in Zermatt. To aid in our recovery each day we decided to hit up the local 'apres ski' bar which was totally bangin from about 5pm to 9.30pm each night. Their lime margueritas (read tequilla slushies) were fairly potent and the bar was attached to an Irish pub. St Patrick's day just happened to fall during the week we were there so we were forced to attend. Massive. The dude on the piano was insane, like actually.





It seemed that the second we left the ski slopes the weather turned bad. We had intended to drive to Interlaken from Tasch on the Friday (that would be Good Friday) via the shortest route. The roads were completely snowed under, visibility was down to about 100m and our Peugot was equipped with neither chains nor winter tires. Well, we were first stumped by closed passes, then the road to the car train to Kandersteg was closed just as we got to the turn-off. By this time we'd been driving for about 3 hours and it seemed every car in Switzerland was in the same situation. We eventually had to go via Bern (which is 'slightly' out of the way for those without maps handy) and stuck to motorways, on which we were almost able to hold an average speed of 30km/h!! Exciting times. Our trip also included a particularly hairy moment trying to cross a fairly low level pass - think brakes fully locked, car still sliding..



Well we eventually made it after dark to our night's accom which we had actually managed to pre book. Unfortunately we could only manage to book the one night on the easter weekend so the fun continued...