Zermatt, Switzerland

Welcome to Switzerland!

Our first stop, in the land of chocolate was to the town in the foothills of the famous Matterhorn mountain. The native language has switched from Italian to German (secondarily French). This gives us an extra initial hurdle to deal with. We had months to prep for Italian before our trip started, but we've only spent a couple of weeks trying to get basic German sayings down. Bad planning on our part. Thankfully we have a wonderful translator device Emily's Dad gave us, which helps us out until we can get our feet under us.

Zermatt feels more modern than much of what we've grown accustomed to it Italy. Apparently it was a farming community until a British expedition "discovered" it in the mid 1800s. After word spread, many tourist facilities are built quickly and it's been primarily a tourist town ever since.Read more