Our European Holiday Day 11 - Zermatt

Zermatt is one of the most beautiful, romantic places that we have ever been to. When we were planning this trip, we decided to come to Zermatt because we both wanted to see the Matterhorn. Zermatt is difficult and expensive to get to. It’s far away from everything, which meant we had to make sacrifices for where we wanted to visit in Switzerland. It’s also very expensive, so it was difficult to find a hotel room. Once we had accepted that we were going to be spending more than we wanted on a hotel room, Eric suggested we spring for a really fancy hotel room. This surprised me because Eric is typically very practical when it comes to finances, but ultimately springing for the nicest room in the hotel wasn’t actually that much more expensive than a standard room.

This ended up being one of the best decisions we made on the trip. Our room in Zermatt was gorgeous and so romantic. Getting to the hotel was a bit of an adventure. We started the morning in Innsbruck and took a train to Zurich, then to Visp, and then to Zermatt. It was about 7.5 hours of total travel time. We enjoyed the time relaxing on the train. When we arrived in Zermatt, we went to our Hotel, the Hotel Bellerive. It was about a 10-minute walk from the train station. The hotel host was so nice when we got there. She took us up to our room and showed us where everything was and then we were free to enjoy Zermatt.

From our room, we had a balcony with an amazing view of the Matterhorn. We enjoyed relaxing in our room for a quick minute, then Eric changed his clothes and we headed out on the town. Zermatt has a main street that is actually very similar to Park City Main Street. We walked down the street and I bought a pair of gloves and we bought some chocolate. We spent about an hour walking around Zermatt and then we decided to find a place for dinner. We had our hearts set on Cheese Fondue. Eric had found a place that looked delicious and had great reviews before we came, so we headed there. Unfortunately, it was being renovated and so it wasn’t open. Most restaurants in Zermatt don’t open until 6:00 and it was around 5:15 we were hungry, so we walked around and found a restaurant on the main street.

Mountaineers' graveyard for the people who died trying to climb the Matterhorn.

We ordered cheese fondue with truffle oil. It was served with bread and fingerling potatoes. It was divine. We enjoyed dipping the bread and potatoes in the melty, cheesy goodness. At one point the waitress critiqued our form – when you eat fondue, you are supposed to stir it with your food, not simply dip it. We were grateful for the pointer and took her advice. We ended dinner with the most delicious crème brûlée I have ever had in my life. It was so sweet and the brown sugar on top was perfectly crispy. I could live to be 1,000 and I will never find crème brûlée that perfect ever again.

We ended the evening back at our hotel. We relaxed on the balcony and watched the sunset on the Matterhorn. The restaurant next door was playing live music, which we definitely enjoyed. They played Blackbird, Pina Coladas, and Piano Man among others. Our hotel room was definitely a highlight of the experience. We had amazing views of the Matterhorn that we could enjoy at all hours of the night. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night to see a full moon right above the Matterhorn. We loved our afternoon and evening in Zermatt!