Day 7 - Mountains and Glaciers.

This morning I am up early to get a shot of the sun rising on the Matterhorn. I had no idea when we signed up that a night in a hotel in view of the Matterhorn was part of it. The Matterhorn is the highest mountain in the Alps stands at over 4000 metres, only half the height of Everest but twice the height of Kosicosko.

Our third day on the bike was 260 kms and a bit shorter but we took that time up during the ride with some additional stops. Again there were lots of winding roads = that is what we came for. The highlights was the stops. The first a ferry ride across the lake that our hotel overlooked.  The next, a cafe beside a river from which you could see the snow melt rush by about 30 metre below you into a gap in the mountain. Next, we had a picnic by a stream. The temperature was well into the 20s and I took the opportunity to take off my foot and cool my feet in the stream. It was so cold that after a while you got an icecream headache in your feet when paddling. 

Our next stop was at the top of Furka Pass. This was the first time we have come into contact with snow. It was there on the side of the car park. The other miracle that happened here was that in discussion with one of the others about how loud our bike was, he came and gave the exhaust pipe a push. It wobbled. It was not the pipe that was loud, it was not connected. We had been running straight out of the catyalitic convertor. Some road side repair and our explorer now sounds great and runs even better. The sound of silence. 

From this spot we rode on about another 10 minutes to the Rhone Glacier. It was amazing but more amazing was that they have cut a tunnel in to it and you can walk through the glacier and see the ice from the inside.  Very cool, maybe even cold. 

From here we headed down hill and into the valley again winding through small towns and villages, past dairies and lots of people industrially raking grass for winter storage, until we came to a delightful cafe on just off the road. The building was like a lot of the building you see here about 4 storys and at each window, a window box overflowing with flowers. We settled on the veranda to cups of tea and coffee and icecream deserts. Robyn and I had an apricot  tart. It had a tart base and half apricots set into a baked custard layer with a glazing top. Seems to be a thing here we had a similar desert as part of dinner that night. If tasted good. A bit tarty like marmalade does. 

We probably sat here too long but it is what we needed and the joy of being in a group and the stories to tell was very enjoyable. Form here we made the run into Zermatt - well not really. You have to stop at Täsch here we parked the bikes in a secure parking and caught a taxi bus up to the outskirts of  Zermatt. This is a great Swiss money making plan that is working very well. 80 million last year according the the Taxi driver. The town of Zermatt does not allow cars. We changed from our taxi bus to a n electric taxi that took us to our hotel. One of the others came up with a Noddy car description that is pretty acurate. By the time we arrived it was 7pm. We agreed to dinner at 7.45. After dinner we went for a quick walk and caught the last of the sun on the Matterhorn. It was 9.30 and time for bed.

Our coffee stop in the afternoon with the house of flowers.

Jonas, our guide, and I in the glacier cave. 

Anna with her bike as we ferry across the lake.