The Matterhorn and Momma Bear

This is the last of our posts about our Switzerland trip last fall. It's a little embarrassing posting this so late, but this is our family journal and scrapbook and we wanted this experience documented. We spent a day hiking in and around Zermatt, which is the village just below the Matterhorn. It is a “car-free” village. There are several ways of getting there; bike (which Kevin really wanted to do, but it was deemed too dangerous by many locals....we even brought our bikes with us), train, or taxi. We opted for a taxi which was about the same price as taking the train for our family of five.

Upon arriving into Zermatt, we went straight to the information booth and asked how to get the best views of the Matterhorn. We were told that wecould take a train that went to the top of the mountain which provided an excellent view. It was called the Gornergrat Bahn. It was very expensive (around 170 euros for the whole family to take the train) but we rationalized the expense with, "How often does one get to Zermatt?" So we went for it. The views were beautiful and the weather was fabulous.

I have a little bit of an "Elastic Girl Hand" thing going on here...must be the wide angle lens.

Our feeble attempt at a family photo with a Matterhorn backdrop--thanks to a random hiker passing by.


There are hiking trails which will lead you all the way down to the bottom. We weren't sure that the kids would be quite up for that, so we took the train down couple of stops from the top and hiked around. They loved playing on the rocks and it was a gorgeous day.



Lauren is our little model and she loves to pose.



After we had our fill of hiking, we took the train down the mountain back to Zermatt. We enjoyed a little downtime at the local park. Our kids loved playing on the zip line. It was here that I had an unpleasant encounter with a 10 year-old French girl. She grew impatient of waiting for each of our children to take a turn on zip line before she was up. Giving up as she walked away, she muttered in English, "Stupid Americans".


I was shocked. Was she talking about us? Yep, we were the only ones using English as far as I could tell. We've heard rumors about the French general distain for Americans, but I had never expereienced it personally. Now, I'm not sure if she was French-French or Swiss-French, but my blood was boiling at this point. How kind I thought for her to use our native language to let us know how she felt about us. I just kept thinking....hmm....where has SHE heard that phrase before? (With hind sight, she was probably just being 10 years-old and wanting to look cool infront of her friends.)


However, at the time I was thinking, "If you mess with the cubs, you will see the Momma Bear." That is a promise. My children were completely innocent (this time anyways). So I followed that delightful little lady over to the swings and when she turned around to face me, I looked her right in the eye and said, "We are NOT stupid Americans." Brilliant I know. It was a surreal experience. I am not usually one to seek confrontation. In fact, I try to avoid it at all costs. But here I was, about to have it out with a fourth-grader.


I went on to tell her that just because she was frustrated and didn't want to wait her turn, that didn't give her the right to call names and use mean words. I seriously have to also add that it was not like we were hogging the zip line for any extended length of time. Each child took one ride and then ran the rope back to the next child waiting for their turn. After I let her know I felt, we went back to taking turns on the zip line...



Anyone else a Momma Bear?



Zermatt, Switzerland