Taking our Time

Okay so last night we had deer munching grass at the chalet above us and we can hear marmots whistling from the opposite side of the valley so today was all about getting to grips with local flora and fauna. After doing a serious shop this morning to avoid eating out (cost us about £50 last night for a pizza and pasta dish) and visiting the tourist information centre, we set out for a walk to acclimatise. We took the gondola up to Schwarzesee and walked back down to Zermatt. It took us several hours because we wanted to meander and also the alpine flowers are out in abundance. Tony has treated himself to a book of local flowers so we can identify them all. It was lovely to walk the paths surrounded on all sides by different ones - just shows what our hills would be like without sheep!

Orienteers were running around near the top gondola station as there are several training courses set out in readiness for next week, but we preferred to walk today. I did blip a couple of orienteering kites though. When Tony gets out his laptop I'll put on a link to Flickr for my flower and mountain blips.

On the way down we almost fell over a tiny restaurant in the forest, run by two young women, and they advertised homemade cake, so of course we had to stop. Our order lost something in translation so instead of a slice of lemon cake and a slice of apricot & chocolate cake to share, we ended up with two slices of each! We are enjoying the final slice with a cuppa now whilst Tony tries to spot the noisiest marmot - no joy yet!

On our return from walking we went down into Zermatt to register for our information pack for the event and to pick up some walking sticks for me as I couldn't fit mine in my suitcase and my knees need them on these gradients and long days. Would you believe, yes you would, that I left my camera behind and missed four bliportunities! There was a very grand horse and carriage belonging to one of the posh hotels, and a different era, then three young men in traditional dress brought their goatherd through the centre of the town to pastures new, all with bells clanging, then another horse and cart passed by followed by a band of alpenhorn blowers! So today's blip is of Tony blipping yet another alpine flower with a gorgeous backdrop!

Meant to say thank you to everyone for getting my Matterhorn blip into Spotlight yesterday, woo hoo!