The hiking team was THRILLED with our departure time of 9 am - our first morning since starting the trip not leaving by 7:30 am. Oh, did we enjoy the extra time in the morning!
Kris and Tom had figured out all the logistics of our revised ending to our trip - we would do the "valley route" from St. Niklaus to Zermatt in two days staying at Randa for a night (about half-way to Zermatt). They found a place online in Randa called the Matterhorn Golf Hotel that had an excellent rating by Trip Advisor and very reasonable rates.
The first step was to hop on the bus in Gasenried to take a 20 minute bus ride down the steep mountain to St. Niklaus where we would pick up the valley trail to Zermatt.
Once in St. Niklaus, we spent a little time exploring this quaint little village - we were all liking the new leisurely pace!
Dr. Tom made a stop at the Apotheke to supplement his items for foot blisters while we all waited outside on a bench.
Chanda has been our expert group photographer - here she is setting up a group photo by the large "St. Niklaus" in a town square.
After this nice easy start, our first surprise was how difficult it was to actually find the trail for the valley route to Zermatt! We had several fits and starts and backtracked several times - we stopped into the Tourism Office in St. Niklaus and got some more directions. We passed several women who saw us looking confused and they pointed the direction - the direction lead to a construction site where the construction workers kept pointing to "a trail" leading right through the construction. Meanwhile, we didn't see any of our familiar yellow signs assuring us we were on the right track.
Finally we got past the construction and on to a path that we were fairly sure was the valley route. Our plan for our leisurely hiking day was to have lunch in a small hamlet called Herbriggen - we were ready for a lunch other than our trail lunches of bread, cheese, trail mix, etc.
Since it was such a beautiful day, we were hoping for a place we could sit outside. However, the only place that appeared to have a restaurant in this tiny town was at the Herbriggen Hotel. We went into the hotel and had a second surprise. Our waitress went and found a young man who explained the German menu to us in detail. Chanda and I chose a salad and the rest of the group chose variations of a traditional Swiss Rösti. It appears that a Rösti is a baked dish that generally includes potatoes, meat, cheese, and eggs.
We were so surprised by the beautiful presentation of the food and how good it tasted! Definitely a step up from a trail lunch.
After our "big lunch" we were surprised that the next portion of the "valley trail" seemed to start climbing - we were not feeling too energetic after the heavy food and beer lunch. Once again, there were a couple points where it wasn't totally clear which way to go.
We did find our way, however, and reached our hotel in Randa by 4 pm. We talked to Maurizio who checked us in and told him we would have dinner at the hotel. He told us this was the first day of the "low season." Soon it was apparent that Maurizio and his wife, Elena, filled all the roles during the low season - front desk check-in, room cleaner, waitress, chef, & maintenance man.
When we met downstairs for dinner, it was our group of 6 and one other table of 3. We were surprised to learn that Maurizio and his wife were from Italy - they and their 3 boys lived at the hotel. Their English was much better than our Italian - both of them made sure we had a dining experience that was spectacular!
The food was so good and the presentation was beautiful. On each course, there were flowers on Chanda, Kris, and my plates. See the photo of my salad that was wrapped inside lettuce leaves.
Kris and I had chicken that had been roasted in foil - so good. Here is a photo of the plate presentation of the lasagna and dessert.
Chef Maurizio
We were joking how on this day our caloric output had gone way down while our input had gone way up! We're all hoping to not totally undo all the body trimming we've experienced during our rigorous hike during our last few "soft days." :-)
The final surprise was the piano player who entertained us all evening - he played great music and then pulled up Tom to try some karaoke.
After Tom gave it a try, Chanda gave us a rendition of It's a Wonderful World. She insisted that Kris and I come up and join her - we "sang" Hey Jude. Well, this trip has been full of surprises and new experiences for me - I never thought I'd ever try karaoke, but it's been a day full of surprises!
P.S. I wanted to make sure to share a picture of Elena, Maurizio's wife. Here are the moms of boys - I have 4 boys, Elena has 3 boys, and Chanda has 3 boys.
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