Zermatt & Gornergrat - Matterhorn Day Trip

No car has driven into Zermatt since the 1960s. The village runs on electric taxis and horse carts, and at the end of its main street stands the most recognisable mountain on earth. The journey climbs the Rhone valley to Visp, where the cogwheel section begins, then up the Mattertal to Tasch, the last point a car can reach, and on into Zermatt by rail. The centrepiece is the Gornergrat Bahn, running since 1898 and the highest open-air cogwheel railway in Europe. It climbs 1,469 metres through larch forest and out above the tree line to a platform at 3,089 metres, ringed by twenty-nine peaks above 4,000 metres. The Gorner Glacier lies below, Monte Rosa stands opposite as the highest point in Switzerland, and the Matterhorn holds the middle distance. Break the descent at Rotenboden for the short walk to the Riffelsee, where on a windless morning the Matterhorn appears twice, once in the sky and once in the water. Back in the village, the Hinterdorf quarter keeps its sixteenth-century larch granaries, raised on stone discs to stop rats climbing in. Sit on the right-hand side going up. High altitude throughout, so drink water and move slowly.