Country #2 for our Europe Trip is Switzerland! We started in Krakow, Poland, and flew from there to Zurich. If you missed my blog post on our Poland visit, you can read it here! Our final destination for this stop was Zermatt, a cute little ski town at the base of the Matterhorn. If you’re not familiar with the Matterhorn, it’s the mountain that’s on the Toblerone chocolate! Didn’t even think that was based on a real mountain until Patryk told me about it when I mentioned I’ve always wanted to go to Switzerland. I obviously only cared about the chocolate part of the Toblerone. Haha. Anyway, on to the trip deets!
The Train Ride + Where We Stayed
So we flew into Zurich and took a scenic train ride to Zermatt. We would have stayed a night to see Zurich if the train station wasn’t so conveniently located within the airport. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity for less train transfers and less lugging around our suitcases! It was a four-hour train ride, and while it started with just tagged up walls and railroads, it eventually became fields of green with mountains in the distance. Over an hour later, the mountains got bigger and bigger until we started to see snowy peaks! That was pretty crazy because the mountains around us were all green, but the peaks behind them were white from all the snow. A couple waterfalls here and there, and rivers with light blue (almost white) waters I’ve never seen before. It felt like I hopped on the train to an entirely different world! The photos don’t even do it justice, at all.
Once we arrived in Zermatt, I was really anxious about our hotel room after our experience in the last two hotels we were just at. The only reason I mention this is that our hotel in Zermatt was one of our favorite ones in our entire trip! We stayed at the Hotel Allalin. Granted we splurged a little more on it to guarantee the view from our room, the service, location, and the staff were equally as wonderful. It was a bonus on top of our already great experience in the town. We were in Zermatt for four days, and the plan was those were going to be the most relaxing part of our trip because we’ll be nonstop once we get to Italy!
Zermatt: Day 1
Dinner
After checking into our hotel, we hung out in our balcony for a couple hours to enjoy the view of the mountains and took so many photos! In Zermatt, you never know when the clouds will be covering the mountains so take advantage of any chance it’s clear for photos.
Then we took our time to get ready for a dinner reservation at Alex Grill. It was at the Hotel Alex, at the end of the street of Bahnhofstrasse (the same name as the street in Zurich!), and up a little hill. We enjoyed the views before heading to the dark and moody restaurant where we had truffle ravioli and a steak. Guess who order what! The food was pretty good, and the ravioli was better than the steak. The wine was decent too, I don’t think I’ve every tried Valais wine until then. While I’m still an Italian wine girl, I did enjoy the wine in Switzerland.
We were so tired from spending all day traveling from Krakow. Once we got back to the hotel, we had some whiskey and I definitely fell asleep on the chair in the balcony – it was too cozy! The sun didn’t set until closer to 10:00 PM so it was definitely throwing me off too.
For my dinner outfit, I got a little more dressed up since I know I won’t have may chances to do so in our trip! I wore a blush linen crewneck shirt tucked into some light flared jeans, with a tan blazer and nude booties.
Zermatt: Day 2
Hiking up Z’Mutt
After a good night’s rest, we were ready for some sort of adventure! I say “some sort” because we did not want to do a full-on hike at all. I didn’t have the clothes and shoes for it, nor the energy or motivation. Besides, that altitude was no joke!
The hotel suggested we hike to Z’Mutt because it was an easy and “mostly flat” hike. We kept laughing through the hike whenever the “mostly flat” hike made it difficult to breathe. What did we expect an easy hike would be from someone who looked so healthy and fit?! But the hike was beautiful. It kept getting better and better, and more and more worth it the higher we got! We were told it was going to take less than an hour one way. That was not the case…
Once we got to Z’Mutt, we found this little town with maybe 10 little cottages and a couple bigger ones. I’m guessing they were mostly restaurants. Because it was off-peak season, most of them were closed. We ended up at this low-key and cute outdoor spot that had nothing in English on the menu. After ordering some wine, we saw that they had a special of lemon spaghetti from the little Swiss German we knew. We didn’t hesitate to order it. Bad idea (or probably not?) because when it arrived, we didn’t realize we ordered shrimp. We’re both allergic to shrimp… Reminder to translate the entire description and don’t stop at the first two words you know! We ate it anyway because it wasn’t a lot of shrimp. So worth it. To be honest, I was nervous about that because I left all our allergy medicine in the hotel!
The walk back down was a whole lot easier than the climb up, although Patryk disagrees. Haha. We also ran into a lot of sheep, and Patryk got to pet one of them. I was hesitant to do that because I’m not sure if I’ll have a reaction since I have a sensitivity to some animals. Just didn’t wanna risk it after also eating shrimp!
Switzerland Tradition: Fondue for Dindin!
After our “short” hike, we went back to town and picked up some random local snacks that my friend recommended I try while in Switzerland. I tried them when we got back to the hotel and had a little cat nap before dinner. That hike drained me!
For dinner, we went to the Swiss Chalet. I found the restaurant online when researching the area, but wasn’t too convinced I should try it until the hotel recommended them for a traditional food experience. So glad we did! We came hungry after that hike, and we were ready to treat ourselves.
For starters, we ordered the mushroom soup and a portion of raclette. Then we split two kinds of fondue: cheese and meat! The man serving us (I think he was the owner?) told us it would be a lot of food. Was he surprised when he came back to empty plates! Underestimating my appetite… and we still ordered dessert! I saw the table next to us ordered a creme brulee and it was served in flames, so of course I had to get it. Creme brulee is one of my top favorite desserts of all time. It was one of the best ones I’ve ever had! Ugh, food in the alps, man.
Outfit
What I thought was so weird in Zermatt was the weather. I never understood how to dress for it. It was always between 40-60 degrees but sometimes I was overheating at 50 and freezing at 60. For the hike, it was 50-ish degrees, and I figured I would be colder the higher up the mountain we got.
I wore my Spanx leather pants. I know they’re not the best choice, but they were my warmest pants. They were stretchy enough so they were very comfortable anyway. I paired it with an Express tank top and a button-up shirt from Target over it, and a Levi’s denim jacket for an extra layer. Didn’t end up needing the jacket, I was too warm! Brought my trusty Lululemon belt bag and hiked with my Allbirds. If I had known, I would have opted for bike shorts and a light sweatshirt for this hike!
Zermatt: Day 3
After the hike from the day before, we wanted to do something easier on the legs, but we still wanted to go to another viewpoint of the Matterhorn. It had snowed so much overnight, so the bigger mountains had a fresh dusting of snow while everything else was green! One thing to be prepared for in Zermatt (or really, Switzerland in general) is everything is so darn expensive. The cable car or funicular rides were so pricey we had to strategize the cost versus what we can do at the destinations and what we can see there. Long story short, we decided to take the Sunnegga funicular. It was a 15-minute ride up approximately 2,200 ft. higher to get a different view of the Matterhorn and the alps.
Once we got to Sunnegga, there was a restaurant where you can get some food and drinks. I quickly Googled the spot, and it had bad reviews so we decided to wait to eat when we got back to town. However, we figured we can always get a crappy cup of cappuccino and a pint of beer to kill time and enjoy the view! It was 50 degrees and I was so warm in my sweatshirt! Is it because we’re a lot higher up…? I never understood.
Lunch: Patryk had the best pizza of his life!
We went back to town after a couple hours in Sunnegga, and decided to walk around a bit and find a spot for a late lunch. We ended up at an Italian restaurant actually. Zermatt had a lot of Italian spots because it’s so close to Italy. I wasn’t too pumped about this choice since I refused to eat Italian food until we got to Italy, but we went anyway and it was such a good spot! We also appreciated that it was more affordable.
Lunch was at Molino Seilerhaus. I ordered a salmon because at this point I was already missing our Salmon Wednesdays, and like I said I refused to eat Italian until we got to Italy! I know, I’m stubborn… Patryk ordered a pizza all to himself, and he swears that was the best pizza he’s ever had in his entire life. Yup, better than Italy! I wouldn’t completely agree – the pizza wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but yes it was better than those we had in Italy… They also had pretty good wine. I had a glass of white, and Patryk had the red.
The rest of the afternoon, we walked around town to find some last-minute souvenirs. There was a really low and thick fog over the town, and it was so beautiful and honestly looked surreal. We went back to the hotel to relax for a bit, and finished off the last of our bottle of whiskey on the balcony before heading back out to dinner.
Dinner for our last adventure in Switzerland
We couldn’t decide where to go for dinner. We wanted to go to a Swiss place because there was a specific dish I was looking for. So we walked around town and decided to wing it! We ended up at Derby. It was a huge hotel restaurant, and while it was originally one of my options for a meal, I saw some bad reviews and decided not to go. Anyway, we ended up trying it that evening since we ran out of options.
Our entrees were average. Patryk had a truffle risotto and I had a veal sausage with rosti (which is what I was looking for!). My meal could have been pretty good if it wasn’t so salty. However, we loved the escargot we ordered for our starter! I’ve had great escargot before, but Patryk hasn’t and we were hesitant about the place (judging from the bread they served). We regretted ordering a small portion after our first bite. It was so dang good. We dipped the sad bread into the butter that it was served with!
We walked back to the hotel to enjoy the view of the Matterhorn for a couple more hours. Then we started on a little bit of packing so we don’t have to worry about it too much in the morning.
We didn’t have an early train ride so we were able to take our time and enjoy a nice breakfast. Even had time for a last minute souvenir stop visit to grab something I wanted for my sister! Just before noon, we hopped on the train for a 4-hour ride to Milan, our first stop in Italy.
Final thoughts
I don’t have much to say except I loved what I experienced and saw in Switzerland so much, I’m definitely coming back! I’m excited to see Zurich and the other towns too. It was the perfect visit to see nature, relax, and treat ourselves.
Up next: watch for the next blog posts on our adventures in Italy!
Made some reels for this trip if you wanna see our adventure in less than a minute!
