We took a cog train to Gornergrat, a rocky ridge 33 minutes up the Pennine Alps from Zermatt. You could get whiplash turning your head from side to side to see all the remarkable views as the train slowly climbs upward.
And when you get to the top of Gornergrat, there’s a small train station, an observatory, a hotel and, of course, a shopping center designed to separate tourists from their hard-earned francs.
The remarkable thing about Gornergrat is that there’s a 360 degree view and you can see 29 mountain peaks over 13,000 feet. Pretty impressive.
I think most people think the Alps are, well, Alpine and everything looks like a virgin forest or a grassy meadow out of the Sound of Music. But as you can see, there’s nothing but glaciers and rock up at this altitude.
I just looked it up. The tree line is about 6,900 feet. Almost nothing grows beyond that point. It looks like the surface of the moon.
Us. Alpine peaks. An observatory. Nothing clever to add.
Jamie tested out the panoramic photo function on her iPhone. We’re not sure how many degrees around it’s supposed to capture, but we made a guesstimate that we got about 270 degree view.
Looks like a bunch of sand dunes.
O WOW!! It looks so amazing!!