Street Party in Zermatt

Zermatt is the place to be for skiing, mountaineering, para/hang gliding, alpine hiking, etc., etc., etc. - none of which appeal to us for holiday activities. We arrived about 6pm after our Glacier Express journey. After checking in and dumping luggage, we explored the town, wondering where to eat. I'm really not that into buckets of melted cheese. (Tubs of melted chocolate are more my style.)

The restaurants all seemed to be offering the same sort of thing - vastly overpriced grills or melted cheese buckets. Then we found the street party. This was a really lively overcrowded part of the main street with benches and tables taking up half the carriageway, and the rest filled with people selling grilled ribs and corn in polystyrene boxes, fruit punches, wine, and beer (also vastly overpriced). One singer/muso was enthusiastically rendering '70s and '80s covers surrounded by keyboards, but Switzerland no longer has a death penalty for such acts. He did add to the party feel - I mean, some parties are just like that: two or three people dancing and bumping people's drinks, loud songs that are old enough that we've forgotten how much we detested them when they were released, and the bass turned up on speakers making farty-flappy sounds like they've been wrapped in plastic garbage bags. (I looked back after we left the party street. The speakers were mounted high on outside walls of the shops, and they were indeed wrapped in plastic.)

Mmmmm. Ribs.

Back in the restrained elegant part of town.

Never mind the buildings. See the majestic peaks.

Up in these alpine areas there's more than just very attractive goats. They have marmots. Bundles of furry cuteness that spend about 3/4 of each year hibernating underground. Tough life. Probably only ever come above ground for a party.

Anyone else awake yet? No? Might try another month of snooze.