Butterflies & Hurricanes

There must be a first time for everything so... a first post in English because of the non-Dutch speaking persons (possibly) reading this.*

Last weekend I spent in Wallis, a "Kanton" in the south of Switzerland bordering to Italy. I was invited by Anna, a colleague from the Engineering Geology group, living in Visp. Saturday morning I left in Zürich together with Fabian, boyfriend of Anna and on our way to Visp, Sarah (who comes from Fribourg) joined us on the train.

The four of us, one Belgian and three Suiss, went in the afternoon to Belalp for good old sledging. "Good old" is pretty relative, because it was the first time I did sledging without another one having to pull all the time (as is the case in the Ardennes for example). With at least half a meter of (fresh) snow, it was ideal to throw yourself into the white stuff...of course we had snow fights... who wouldn't with such a huge amount of it?

In total, we descended two times with the sledge. Fabian and Anna on the first one, Sarah and I on the second sledge. It must be said that we, without any experience, did it quite good...surely in curves, only the steepest parts we failed a little bit :). The next day I discovered some blue lines on my leg from the sledge going over/under/against us. But no problem at all, we had a great time and I'm sure I never ate that much snow before...

In the evening, we made the typical Walliser dish: cholera. It was a pity I could not enjoy the meal that much because I didn't heal 100% from my cold earlier last week... Anyway, cholera is a dish you must eat when you didn't eat for ages, because everything you need is in there going from cheese to potatoes and cabbage...

Sunday morning Sarah had to leave (good luck girl with your report!), so we were only 3 to go to Riederalp. We went all the way to the top at Moosfluh by funicular, where we had a magnificent view on the Aletsch Glacier at one hand and the Matterhorn at the other hand. On a prepared track (this means that a machine has compacted the snow), we walked along the crest towards Riederalp again. On our way we enjoyed the spectacular view on the snowy mountains (of which more than 20 above 4000m) of which the Matterhorn took most attention because we saw it from more than 50km away.

Because it was only the second time I was in the Alps in winter, I felt like being in heaven all the time... I never saw that much snow and although the abundance of skiing tracks, it was very quite and silent. For the second day in a row we warmed our cold hands (and feet) with a hot chocolate at the end of the trip.

On monday Fabian had to leave, so we were only 2... We decided to go to Zermatt to have a closer view on the Matterhorn or as the Walliser people say: das Hooru. The fact that Zermatt is very touristic was pretty soon confirmed to me because a lot of "electrified" taxis drive through the street(s) and many "non-equipped" people stroll the shopping street... although Anna disagreed and told that there were only few tourists now. Together with a Japanese family on basket shoes and 3 photo cameras, we went up towards Gornergrat in the cog-wheel train. We got off at Rotenboden for a snow walk towards Zermatt. Again the weather was brilliant and the view was exquisite/splendid/glorious/... (can I say more words to tell how much I liked it Anna?). During our walk we always had an outlook on the Matterhorn, dressed in snow. It was a pretty long trip and the last part was through the woods on a small path... which reminded me of the walks we make in summer in Austria only this time you walk about 50cm above the summer track...

We warmed ourselves with a hot chocolate and a glühwein before finishing the walk at sunset in Zermatt. Then we returned to Visp where I took my backpack and got back to Zürich... the end of a marvelous weekend and the beginning of my "love" for Wallis and his people!

Hereby, I want to thank Anna and her family for letting me stay at their place. I enjoyed the "warm" atmosphere in your house. Furthermore, I want to thank Fabian and Sarah for the great time we had together... unfortunately only one (or two) days. I hope to see you all again in Belgium!

*This will be the only post written in English, next time I go back to the good old Flemish!