We decided to walk from La Sage down to Les Hauderes (about a half hour walk) to the tourist office to get bus information. We found out we would need to take a series of buses and we had about an hour's wait for the next one out of Les Hauderes. We had coffee in a cafe while we waited, and got to play with the owner's cat while we were there. People regularly bring animals (dogs and cats ) into the restaurants in Europe.
When we went to get on the bus at 10:25AM, were we ever surprised to find out the fare for the one hour ride to Sion was 15.40 Swiss francs. We hated to pay it, but we had no choice. At Sion, we were able to take the train (free) for the short ride to Sierre.
Unfortunately at Sierre we found out it would cost 14.20 Swiss fancs for the bus ride to Grimentz. Again there was no choice so we bought tickets from the ticket machine.
Then the day really started to get interesting. Just after we bought the tickets, who shows up but John and Brian (2 of the Irish guys).They said George had quit two days ago and had gone to Zermatt, and they were on there way there too. So, we decided to skip the rest of the Haute Route (we had done 8 days of the 13 day hike) ands go to Zermatt with them. Luckily, we were able to get a refund for the bus tickets we had just bought.
We took a short train ride from Sierre to Visp and then got another train from Visp to Zermatt. Unfortunately, the last train ride was a railway called the Glover Express that runs from St. Moritz to Zermatt, and our rail passes were not valid for the ride. It costs 32 Swiss francs for the 80 minute ride to Zermatt, but there is no other way to get to Zermatt, so we paid the fare.
We got to Zermatt about 3PM and John saw George walking near the station, so the 3 of them went off to the hotel where George had been staying. Shari and I went off to try for dormitory rooms at the Hotel Bahnof. John, George and Brian are staying in Zermatt until Monday, so we figured we would see them around town before we moved on.
We really lucked out with our hotel. We got beds in an 8-room dorm for 30 Swiss francs per night, and best of all the hotel has a great kitchen that guests can use for cooking. We went down to check out the kitchen facilities before we went to the grocery store, and 3 British guys that we had seen in Arolla were sitting there in the kitchen drinking beer.
When we were in Arolla, Shari had left her wallet in the phone booth near the tourist office. When she realized she didn't have it, about 10 minutes later, we went back to the phone booth. One of the British guys had found the wallet and was going to turn it in to the tourist office, but he recognized Shari from her driver's license picture and gave her the wallet. So when we went to the grocery store, Shari bought some beer for the guys as a thank you for returning her weallet.
We bought good food at the store - sausages to go with the pasta we've been carrying, bacon and eggs for the morning, and I bought a bottle of Chardonnay and one big bottle of beer.
I went back to the hotel, took a shower and then went down to the kitchen/sitting room area to write notes and enjoy a glass of wine.
Well, as soon as I sat down, one of the British guys, Terry came over to talk to me and that was it for the night. Shari came down after a while and the other guys, Len and John, joined us and we just sat and talked and drank all evening. The guys are in Switzerland to do the traditional climber's Haute Route, but the weather turned bad and they had to give up, so they also came to Zermatt to wait out the weather. They are both due to go back to England until next Tuesday.
At some point in the evening some other guys joined us. John is a 20 year old from Denver and David is a 22 year old Australian. They met up a few days ago and decided to travel together a bit. Really interesting young guys. David has a job for this winter as a ski instructor at Whistler in Canada. He said that their ski staff is comprised of about 60% Austrailians. The Australian skiers are happy to come over and work for low pay for the chance to be in Canada and the US, doing what they love to do.
At some point Shari left to go to bed, and about 10:00 I cooked pasta and sausage and the guys cooked some dinner for themselves. Then everyone went off to bed.
9/10: Boy, I hadn't drank that much in a long time (I had the whole bottle of wine plus three beers), but I slept okay and felt pretty good in the morning. I got up about 8AM and made bacon and eggs for myself and talked to the guys for awhile. It is raining again today, and everyone who wants to hike or climb is discouraged by the weather. We are booked here for one more night and then we may just go back to Chamonix tomorrow. Len, John and Terry may also go to Chamonix tomorrow if the weather is supposed to clear there sooner than here. Then they can climb Mont Blanc instead of the peaks in Zermatt. All everone is doing in the kitchen is talking about the weather and the snow conditions high up in the mountains. It is too dangerous and difficult to climb here because the snow is not consolidated right now. Soft snow on top of hard ice is avalanche conditions.
It cleared later in the morning and the guys all went out for a hike up in the mountains. Shari and I just hung out in town. We walked for about an hour, did laundry and took a nap. We sat outside our hotel from 5 - 6:30 and David joined us for a while and then Terry, Len and John returned from their hike around 6PM. They made plans to meet up with George, John and Brian at 9PM, so Shari and I will join them for awhile. They are going to try for some climbing in the mountains tomorrow.
This town is so clean and our hotel is the cleanest place I've stayed in yet. They were up cleaning the kitchen (which was already very clean) when I got up this morning and then they cleaned it again later in the morning. They folded the blankets on all the beds (whether you were staying or not) and they vacuumed all the halls. I particularly appreciate the clean kitchen because some of the hostel kitchens can be pretty grim. We are always very careful to wash and dry our dishes as soon as we are finished eating, but not all people who stay in hostels are as considerate of others.
Shari and I ended up talking to a young Japanese woman, Junko, in the kitchen for about an hour. Junko is 25 years old and is originally from Osaka and now lives in Tokyo. She has studied nursing and education, and has done a lot of traveling (Asia, Europe, Australia), and in 2001 did a walk across the US from Washington DC to San Francisco. A group of 13 young people did the walk, and they were sponsored by and supported by a Japanese newspaper. It took about 6 months for the walk. As they passed through various towns they were joined by people from the towns to walk with them part of the way. The Japanese walkers interviewed the people they met, and wrote articles that were published in the Japanese paper. It was sort of a cultural exchange walk. Junko now works as a reporter for a Japanese newspaper and she enjoys traveling, meeting people and writing stories about her experiences. She is a lovely, bright interesting young woman and I hope she comes to visit me if she gets to Massachusetts.
After we talked to Junko, we went up the street to see the guys but we didn't stay long. We just wanted to say goodbye to John, Brian and George. On the way back to the hostel I dedcided to use up my Swiss phone card. I tried Joshua but he didn't answer, but I was able to connect with George Thomas and it was great to talk to him.
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