Last week it was our fifth wedding anniversary and we decided to make something truly special to celebrate it. We spent the weekend in one of the most beautiful areas of Switzerland: Zermatt, a little town in the valley of Matter, in Canton Valais, surrounded by some of the highest mountains in the Alps and home to one of the most famous mountains in the world: the Matterhorn!

I know, for some people this may be a weird way to celebrate an anniversary. But I loved every minute of it! We spent three days doing what Swiss people do: sports in the morning, relax in the spa in the afternoon and a great dinner to finish the day! And repeat during three days! It has been exhausting and, at the same time, I feel that I have recharged my batteries in these three days!

To get to Zermatt, we got up very early to catch the train and arrive with enough time to hike that morning. Just arriving to the town is already a beautiful experience. From Visp, the train starts ascending 1000m altitude, running through a deep forested valley between some of the highest mountains in the Alps. And then, just before it arrives to Zermatt, you see it: the Matterhorn, dominating all the landscape around it.

Zermatt is a very beautiful town. It looks like all the buildings are as cuckoo clocks with their dark wood balconies with flowers… I might write a post just about the town! But we didn’t spend much time exploring Zermatt. Instead, we went directly for the first hike of our mini holidays. The chosen route was a combination of three different hikes: the five lakes trail, the marmot trail and the Alpine flowers trail…

We started with the 5-Seenweg Wanderung (the five lakes trail). As its name suggests, this route takes you along five different lakes, each one different in shape, color and size, and some of them even have reflections of the Matterhorn some days. I wasn’t very lucky with that, as the wind was lightly blowing and the mountain had clouds over its peak during the whole day (I started to think that the Matterhorn was a bit shy). Despite of that, the trail was beautiful! Everything was covered in colorful alpine flowers (we even found wild Edelweiss!!!) and hundreds of colorful butterflies were fluttering around us, while the Matterhorn was watching over us the whole day. We even saw a deer crossing our trail!

When we finished the 5-Seenweg trail, we took a small shortcut following the Murmelweg, the marmot trail. A short and very steep route where we were lucky to spot some of these rodents running around, while we enjoyed some of the nicest views of the Matterhorn and its surroundings.

After the Murmelweg, we started descending to Zermatt using part of the Blumenweg (the flower trail), walking through a forest covered in Alpenroses and other beautiful alpine flowers… And after a long day walking in the mountain, we arrived at our hotel, we enjoyed some relaxing time in its spa and we saw a beautiful sunset with the Matterhorn as main protagonist from our room… It was definitely a day well spent!! 🙂

Here are some photos I took during this first hiking in Zermatt. I have a lot more… But I think these ones are a good sample of all the beauty we saw that day. I hope you like them!

 

Mosjesee. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 28mm f/11 1/200sec. ISO200
Matterhorn from Mosjesee. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 35mm f/11 1/320sec. ISO200
Grünsee. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/640sec. ISO200
Grindjisee. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 33mm f/11 1/500sec. ISO200
Matterhorn reflected on Grindjisee. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 38mm f/11 1/500sec. ISO200
Grindjisee. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/400sec. ISO200
Hikers. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 50mm f/11 1/800sec. ISO200
Matterhorn from Stellisee. Canon 5d Mark IV 25mm f/11 1/800sec. ISO200
Marmot. Canon EOS 1200d 250mm f/5.6 1/1000sec. ISO100
Findelgletscher. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 62mm f/11 1/1250sec. ISO200
Wild Edelweiss. Canon EOS 1200d 152mm f/5.6 1/1600sec. ISO100
Wild Edelweiss. Canon EOS 1200d 250mm f/5.6 1/1600sec. ISO100
The Man and the Mountain. Canon EOS 1200d 55mm f/4 1/4000sec. ISO100
Matterhorn. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 35mm f/11 1/500sec. ISO200
Tufteren. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/400sec. ISO100
Sunset from Zermatt. Canon EOS 5d Mark IV 33mm f/22 1/2sec. ISO100

 

16 Comments

  1. Happy anniversary! This was the perfect way to celebrate it, though I have to say the man and the mountain picture made me feel quite giddy!

    • mercedescatalan

      Thanks a lot!!! Well, I’m sure for many people 3 days hiking around some mountain is not the most romantic plan… but for us was like a dream!! Hehehe we enjoyed every minute of this trip!
      The Man and the mountain photo is one of my favourite! My husband didn’t realize that I stopped to take photos of a marmot I saw and he kept walking… and when he stopped to wait me, I saw him like this, small in front of the great Matterhorn… I just loved that moment! 😊

      • You’re right – not everyone would like it, but the fact that you both do shows how well suited you are.

        • mercedescatalan

          When I tell my family or friends in Spain that these are my favourite weekend plans, they look at me as if I were crazy, hehehe. But yes, I’m super lucky for having a husband with the same passion for the mountains as me! 🙂 Specially now that we moved to Switzerland and we have all these incredible landscapes so close to home!

  2. Happy anniversary, and what a wonderful way to celebrate. It’s nice to see the Matterhorn in reality and not at Disneyland! Beautiful images.

    • mercedescatalan

      Thanks a mil, Anne!! 5 years is a small milestone and we wanted to make something special!!! It doesn’t sound like the most romantic plan for most people… but since we moved to Switzerland, we love the mountains so much that for us this was the perfect plan! Mountains and spa, hehehe 😊
      Oh, the Matterhorn… I didn’t think that it was going to impress me that much… but this peak is hypnotic or something!! You cannot stop watching it!! There’s magic in these mountains 😉

  3. Yes, you can call it magical, but I’ve found that mountains give off a certain energy. Mt. Hood in Oregon was awesome. It had a weird energy that I was drawn to. We were there in August and people were still skiing.

    • mercedescatalan

      You’re totally right! There’s an energy in the mountains that you cannot find anywhere else! And I’m from an island, so I love the sea too… But the last years I have found that I like more the cold than the heat, and there’s something in the mountains that drawns me more than the beach! hehehe
      Well, Matterhorn must be something like Mt. Hood then, because besides the glaciers, there’s always sky slopes open too… sky 365 days a year! For someone from Spain this is something unbelievable! Hehehe But it’s also the first time I see mountains of 4k metres altitude!

  4. I love the mountains in California. When we went across the US in our trailer, I met a woman from St. Louis, MO who said she visited Calif. and didn’t like it. I asked why, and she said because we had mountains! I think I’d go crazy living in flat lands with corn on one side and beans on the other side of the road!

    • mercedescatalan

      Wow, did she really say that? I mean, yeah, flat landscapes can be beautiful but also a bit boring… Maybe too minialist?? hahaha And it’s kind of the same with some coastal landscapes, with never ending white beaches and nothing else around…
      I’m more like you. I love rugged and wild cliffs and mountains, filled with rivers, lakes and waterfalls, with changing vegetation as you go up and a lot of wildlife!! My version of paradise, hehehe 🙂

  5. Yes she did! Have you ever seen a black sand beach? There are a few in Northern California and Oregon. Those coastlines are beautiful and rocky with a few flat sandy beaches. But, I agree, the mountains are the place to be.

    • mercedescatalan

      Yes!! I’ve seen black beaches! I’m from the Canary Islands, and there there are some volcanic sand beaches. And when I went to Iceland I saw some black beaches too!! But in Iceland they are more black pebbles than sand, hehehe. Actually, the famous Ice beach is black! With white and blue icebergs from the near ice lagoon (the Jokulsarlon). It’s quite a sight, the blue ice on the black sand!! 🙂
      Oregon is in my bucket list yet… I hope I can visit the west coast soon again! 🙂

  6. You are so lucky to travel and live in the places you have. What a gift. Enjoy it!

    • mercedescatalan

      I know I’m super lucky… I’m trying to make the most of it!! Going to the mountain every week! I think I never traveled that much in my whole life!! I just can’t get enough of these landscapes 🙂

  7. Great shots!

    • mercedescatalan

      Thanks a lot!!! This region of Switzerland is awesome, I really enjoyed hiking and photographing it 😊

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