Autumn in the Swiss Alps

The hills are definitely alive in Switzerland in the fall.  There really is no better time to head to the mountains.  The girls had off the last week for fall break, so we decided to visit two mountain villages for two long weekends; Verbier and Zermatt. 

Last weekend, we headed to a well-known ski village, Verbier, in the southwestern part of Switzerland.  We stayed in a chalet in the town of Le Chable, which is a ten minute drive from Verbier.  We spent the first day exploring the village and ice skating. 

The second day, we took a cable car up and did a hike along the mountain.  It was a perfect hike with the kids, wide and flat.  In the afternoon, we did a scavenger hunt hike that the kids loved.  We were in the forest area reading clues and answering questions.

Sculptures along the trail-

View from the hike-

Hooray for hiking!! 

Scavenger hunt hike-

On our way home Sunday, we visited Barryland, the museum of St. Bernard dogs in Martigny.  Since the early 18th century, monks who lived along the St. Bernard Pass kept the dogs to help them rescue people after bad snowstorms.  The St. Bernard Pass was the only way for people to travel through the Alps between Italy and Switzerland.  Over a span of 200 years, it is estimated that about 2,000 people were rescued because of the dogs.  The dogs were able to find buried travelers, and provide them warmth while the other dog would go back to the hospice and alert the monks.  Fast forward to today, they now have 18 Bernard dogs, that spend their time either at the hospice on top of the mountain, or below in the town of Martigny.  As for rescues, those are now done with helicopters.  We were lucky to be able to see the dogs and the new puppies that were just born in August. 

This past weekend, we visited another well-known ski village, Zermatt.  We had visited Zermatt once two years ago, but only for a day and it was cloudy and we weren't able to really see the true beauty of the Matterhorn.  The forecast was showing mild temperatures and clear skies all weekend, so we booked a last minute weekend getaway.  We are so happy we did.

The highlight of our trip to Zermatt was taking the Gornergrat train which goes from Zermatt to Gornergrat (10,266 ft) which offers up close views of the Matterhorn. 

Loving the snow! 

Hot chocolate with a view-

Natural beauty-

Admiring the reflection of the Matterhorn in Riffelsee.  Unfortunately, the lake was partially frozen, but still pretty amazing.

We decided to hike down from Rotenboden to Riffelberg, which turned out to be a very icy descent, but the girls did great and we were able to spend time in the open mountain air. 

Adalyn excited she made it down the icy trek! 

A perfect ending to our weekend-