See Zermatt, and be back in Leukerbad by evening
The Matterhorn, the train and a village without cars. You leave early, you do one thing, and in the evening you are back in the apartment.
Zermatt is the Matterhorn, a village without cars, and a train ride that is already the outing for children. From Leukerbad you make it one day. You leave early, you stay with one thing, and in the evening you are back in the apartment. The children have their room, and you have the table.
The Matterhorn, close enough to wonder at
The train takes the slope. The Matterhorn stands behind it, lines cross the meadow, and the larches turn yellow. For children that is the journey: mountains, the rattle, and at the end a place where you simply walk on.
In the village the Swiss flag and the Valais flag hang over the street. Wooden houses, flower boxes, people on foot. You walk a little, see where the children want to stop, and sit down before the day fills up. On a weekday this street has more air. In late spring and early autumn too.
Up there a wooden heart frames the mountain. The frame says Matterhorn. That is the view you go up for: the peak, the valley, and you decide when it is enough. A ride or the village. Both on one day gets long. One of them becomes the day the children remember.
One day, then the evening at home
When the light hits the mountain, you are already on the way back or in Leukerbad again. The village in the evening light is the picture of the day, not a second plan. The evening belongs to the table.
If you go up, you see ice and rock. A glacier tongue wraps a dark island of stone, and the peaks sit above it. That is a big view for a short stop. Then the train down, and the day has had its highlight.
What the children take home
Children like the train, the mountain, and the lane without cars. A toy boat in a wooden trough, a path across the meadow, the playground with a slide and a roundabout: those are the things they can touch. One thing a day. Then food, and in the evening the children’s room. Two singles, and the living room is yours again.
Back in Leukerbad
The gondola carries the name Gemmi-Bahnen. From the apartment it is five minutes on foot to the cable car. The village lies below. The baths are ten minutes on foot, the bakery at the La Boheme stop two.
From Alpine Siesta check-in is from 15:00 and check-out until 11:00. You put the Zermatt day between arrival and departure. In the evening fondue goes on the hob, or you walk to the warm water while the children are still pleasant. Six beds: the double room, the children’s room, the sofa bed, and a cot that folds out.