The Swiss Alps!

And everything goes to plan! Arrived in Zermatt an hour ahead of schedule, but still arrived in the dark. The one thing i love about this little town is there are no cars, they have streets and the taxis/transfers/police all have little electric buggies, even the occasional golf cart. As you would've already read, and if your just starting to read, you've missed a bit, but I'm sure you can catch up, I'll wait......

I think my weather luck is staying with me, but the wet weather in awaiting me in Italy, according to weather reports. Before the big day in Zermatt weather said for the day I'm there it was going to be raining and snowing, not the best conditions for a scenic helicopter flight. As the song says, "always take the weather with you." so I did i hope no one was mad. Zermatt is a little bit chilly and opposed to norway I think I'm over the freezing part of my trip, and i was only cold cold when i was on the boat searching for killer whales, my feet and hands were very cold. The fact that you are standing or sitting for 3-4 hours doesn't help. So the thermals will get a rest for the next few weeks, maybe Cologne, Brussels or Amsterdam i might need them. And of course when I'm back in the UK when it officially winter. Temps in Italy are high teens low twenties, so i might have to break out a t-shirt!

Sunday morning arrives, I've been really tried lately so getting out of bed was very hard today, but i knew that i had to call Air Zermatt first thing to see how their day was looking and to see if I could get on flight that has a spare seat. I had emailed them twice before the day to see if there was any pre-bookings and to get my hopes up, but i didn't get a response. Check their website grab their number. Which i have been putting the country code at the start of the number but it keeps coming up cannot reach that number in four languages! But since I'm in the country and using their cellular network there is no need. Duh! I also needed to check plan B, the cable cars up to ski fields next to the Matterhorn. 9:30 i called Air Zermatt, great success, i have a flight leaving in at 10am. I need to get to the start of the town in 20 mins, remember i am in bed still :-/ so, grab all possible camera gear, grab batteries off their chargers, make sure I've formatted all memory cards, oh and get dressed, would be a bit chilly on the willy in just shorts!

The helicopter flight, wow, amazing, beautiful, shön, bella, beau, stunning, breathtaking..... You get the point. I knew this would be a really cool thing to do if all plans fell into place in Zermatt. And this time they did, i didn't get lost (hard to with only one real street). It cost 210 Swiss francs (CHF) and the CHF is very close to our value, mind you the price of goods is a bit more. The flight was for 20mins and it seemed like a lot longer. The pilot was very helpful and informative, speaking Italian and french for the other passengers and also pointing some things out for me too, even though i was snapping away and not saying much. I got dibs on the front seat too! Should have yelled shotgun! I couldn't understand exactly what he was saying but i could get an understanding of words and hand gestures got to stick the go pro on the side panel, and I don't know how the footage looks for that or the cogwheel cause my iPad doesn't support that video format, so ill have to wait until i get home. He warned me that the footage might be a bit shaky but i pressed my leg up against it to try and minimize the pretty severe vibration that you could feel in the chopper. I would have loved for the guy who buckled us up to say in his best Arnie impersonation........GET IN THE CHOPPER! That would've been hilarious! We first flew away from the town for noise reasons, and headed over the peaks that line Zermatt. Bank left and head towards this awe inspiring natural marvel.  The Matterhorn at 4,477.54 metres was the last of the great climbs in the alps to be conquered. It was conquered in 1865 by Edward Whymper finally conquered the summit on his eighth attempt. But it was tarnished with tragedy when after reaching the summit four of the party fell to the Matterhorn glacier. He also pointed out the popular route that they took in 1865 to reach the summit, the north-east Hörnli ridge is the most popular ridge used to reach the top. Apparently it's not that difficult, yeah in a helicopter its not! He also informed us that you need to plot your accent in advance and make sure you stick to it and not change your mind. Thats when climbers get in trouble. Over 500 climbers have died between 1865 and 1995. To change your mind halfway up isn't easy and you cant go back down a bit to alter your attack.  So I'll need to plan my accent very carefully next time im here! Haha, so many reasons why that's not going to happen. You could even see a small cabin on the edge of the preferred route up to the summit. Wouldn't want to be a sleep walker! It such a beautiful mountain, and if you could have a favourite mountain the Matterhorn would be mine. There is just something about it. It's shape, the terrain, the stories or the fact it has a relation to chocolate, and yes i did buy a toblerone! But I'll be careful, you don't want one of those sharp edges hitting the roof of your mouth!   
We hovered behind the Matterhorn and he pointed out the border of Switzerland and Italy. Some of the bigger peaks in the area like the second largest in the alps Monte Rosa at 4634 metres and in the distance you could see Mount Blanc in France at 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft) it's the largest mountain in the alps. And these were proper mountains, not what we have back home. He also showed us three glaciers, two were on the right hand side so i didn't get a shot but i did get one on my side. He prepared me for the gorgeous view coming back into Zermatt, the valley of the town, surrounded by mountains and the Matterhorn in the background, the centre piece, brilliant. That was worth every Franc! 

Afterwards, it was just after 10am, now what am i going to to. I had a date too....... With the TV, F1 last race. I have my priorities people. It was disappointing for Mark Webber not getting the championship, but he has had a great year. I'm not going to talk about it more or else i would re-cap the whole year and you'd be reading until i get back! Most of you would fall asleep if you hadn't already! So i had three and a half hours to kill, i was craving a vanilla milkshake, couldn't find one so I just kept walking. I had water, still no breakfast but i was buzzing from my flight. I took the Matterhorn trail and just kept walking. It had no distance to it or really a map, but i wanted to walk and discover. It's probably the first time I've ever been at real altitude and i could tell after about 15 minutes, the walk up was steeper than Neuschwanstein castle path and you get so exhausted so quickly. It only take 15-20secs before you're off again. And as soon as i ditched my big jacket i could walk for ages. You can really feel your heart pumping away trying to get that oxygen around your body. I didn't get to the end, i don't even know where the end was? I walked for about an hour and a half and for me that was plenty, i had a good workout, but I'm ready to eat! The decent was much much quicker and no stopping, air gets better and your almost jogging down. It's funny on the way down there are couples stranded on the paths, I'm not being sexist but the men were always standing and the women sitting on the various benches, mind you it just keeps going, if i had a packed lunch and more water id have seen the end, however far it was. On the way up there was a guy running up! He must be in training, apparently they have a Matterhorn marathon!!!

Kept my F1 watching pizza eating tradition. It was okay, they don't put cheese on the top (so the toppings fall off)  i think the no cheese on top policy is for presentation and it must also be why they don't cut their pizzas. The evening i just chilled out, organising my photos and watching some Italian tv. Get me prepared for what is to come! And in the middle of the night my sleep was disturbed at 2:50am, luckily it was Jodie, got to speak to DV, Dad (Cam) and a surprise cameo my Kyles! Great to hear from everyone. I know you don't like phone calls JP but i really appreciate it! I went back to sleep with a big smile after hearing from my friends. Slept for another hour and then back onto the train to Brig, Brescia and Desenzano Del Garda! 

Right now I'm in Italy, we've (the train and I) just left Milano train station heading to Brescia, then from there to Lake Garda, it's pretty grey and windy out there so obviously the weather didn't follow me, but I'll see that sun again soon! I have already used more Italiano in the few hours i have been here than German in Germany, Austria and Switzerland put together. But i knew more Italian in the first place. Nearly two weeks here. I still woke up with a big smile, because I'm in EUROPE!