The Zermatt List

If you've followed my blog for the past few years, you already know how much I love Zermatt and have declared it numerous times as "my happy place"; therefore, it will come as no surprise that when Ryan's cousin Chris was here visiting us last weekend, we felt compelled to introduce him and some other friends to Zermatt.

I often send my favorite Zermatt recommendations cobbled together in an e-mail list to friends and family who visit, so below I finally decided to compile everything in one place for future visitors.  Follow these  recommendations and I'm sure you will have the time of your life in my "my happy place":

Restaurants / bars

1. If there's one restaurant on my list you try, make it Chez Vrony! It's on the ski slope in the "Sunegga" area (you'll see what I'm talking about when you look at a piste map). It's only open for lunch since its on the slopes, and you have to make a reservation early. If the weather is good, try to sit outside and catch the view. In the afternoon, they also normally have a bar set up outside and sometimes a DJ.
2. Restaurant Schaeferstube or Chez Julen is to die for as well (both restaurants share the same kitchen), they are known for their lamb dishes. It is in town.
3. Check out the après ski scene across the street at Papperla Pub, awesome live bands. In town.
4. Snow Boat bar is also fun après ski. Also in town.
5. Restaurant Whymper Stube has really good traditional Swiss foods (i.e. fondue) and ambiance. In town.
6. Champagne Bar near sunegga on the slope leading into town for a glass of bubbly on your way back down.  Forewarning, this slope is narrow and may be closed if there isn't good snow cover.
7. Cervo bar/restaurant which is accessible via the same slope down to town or also an elevator up from town.
8. Zum See restaurant in the Furi area - the food is debatably better than Chez Vrony and it is a bit quieter for the more serious foodie.

Areas / other info

1. There are four different ski "areas" in zermatt. 3 Swiss and 1 Italian. You have to pay extra to access the Italian area. There is more than enough skiing to do on the Swiss areas without paying this surcharge, so there is no need to purchase it unless you specifically want to check out the Italian side and/or if you are spending more than a few days here and you want to cover more territory.
2. Each ski area has its own form of transportation to the top, ie gondola, cog train, or metro inside the mountain. Sunegga metro is the fastest way to get on the mountain skiing in my opinion.
3. Glacier paradise area is really cool experience because it is so high and on a glacier, the skiing is actually quite flat on the glacier though, so don't expect anything extreme.
4. In my opinion the most beautiful views of the area are from the Gornergrat summit, where you can overlook the Monte Rosa glacier and the Matterhorn.
5. The pistes are always in fantastic condition and are big wide open cruisers! Honestly the best skiing in the world in my opinion is in Zermatt.
6. Check out the shopping on the Main Street in zermatt, "Bahnhofstrasse". You can get everything from touristy trinkets, to chocolate, to high-end designer clothing.
7. Don't miss wandering through the oldest street in Zermatt with traditional Swiss houses ("Hinterdorfstrasse"). You can also enquire at the Tourist Office in town for an official tour of the street. 
8. All of the above recommendations are for winter tips in Zermatt, but most are equally applicable for the summer. In fact, it's hard for me to say which season I enjoy most in Zermatt, both winter and summer are amazing.  In the summer, Zermatt has fantastic hiking trails and you can either hike up or take the various lift systems up to the various restaurants. I highly recommend doing the 5 Lakes trail in the summer.

Hotels

1. We often stay at the Hotel Tascherhof in the town of Tasch in the winter, it is much cheaper and easier to find a room here because it is outside of Zermatt. The train from Tasch to/from Zermatt takes only around 8 minutes and costs 8CHF round trip for half fare card holders / CHF16 round trip for tourists. It runs 24-7, but it runs less frequently later at night. 
2. If you want to stay in Zermatt and money ain't no thang, stay at the Hotel Post, which has a very unique style, many on-site restaurants/bars, and a sauna/wellness center.
3. If you want to stay at high-altitude and have a real Swiss alpine hut experience (in the summer), hike up and stay at the Fluhalp.

Posts from my previous WINTER trips for inspiration
My first trip to Zermatt
Holidays in Zermatt

Posts from my previous SUMMER trips for inspiration
Spending the night at a high-altitude alpine hut
Girl's trip to Zermatt
The 5 Lakes Trail

And because every trip to Zermatt results in beautiful photos that beg to be shared, here are some photos from our latest trip:

The snow cover wasn't great for off piste skiing, but the pistes themselves were in great condition. 

At the Champagne Bar

At Papperla Pub

Stopping for lunch at Chez Vrony

Viva Roma!

A few weekends ago, we went to Rome for the weekend.  We had both been to Rome before -- Ryan lived in Rome for 6 months when he studied abroad there and I went for a week vacation with my family when I was in college. Ryan and I had always said that we wanted to go back to Rome together, so that Ryan could show me all of his favorite places and we could experience the city together.

On our first full day in Rome, we took a free walking tour. It went from the Spanish steps, to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castello San Angelo, and Vatican City. I love doing free walking tours when you first visit a city, its a great way to get acquainted with the surroundings and history.

Pantheon

Pantheon

Piazza Navona 

Pantheon

During our walking tour we also came across a ceremony occurring in Vatican City. This was really special to experience because it is not every day you get to hear the Pope speak in person!

After our walking tour, we wandered to the Travestere area where Ryan went to school and had a leisurely lunch.

Lunch time feast

After feeling particularly full from lunch, we decided to walk it off by meandering all the way down to the Roman Forum where we listened to a Rick Steve's podcast walking tour while exploring the area (more on these awesome podcasts in a later blog post).

Overlooking the Coliseum

Touring the Roman Forum area

Roman Forum

Via Sacra of the Roman Forum

Listening to the podcast

The wedding cake

Viva Italia!

On our second full day in Rome, the weather was gorgeous and so we again walked all the way down to the Coliseum.

A tip for future visitors: buy your tickets ahead of time but wait in the "without" tickets security line. The "with" tickets security line is huge and artificially created by fake tour guides who try and use it to incentivize you to purchase EUR 20 "skip the line" tours which are apparently really bad quality.

Coliseum on day 2

Rome is definitely in my top 5 list of European cities, with rich history, great culture, and delicious food!

EAT: Da Gino for authentic, local Italian food
STAY: Gens Luxury Suites is in a great location near Piazza Navona
PLAY: So many!  Check out the main highlights (Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Coliseum, Vatican City). Rome Free Walking Tours is a great way to see the main sights.

Homemade falafel

Because food prices in restaurants in Switzerland are exorbitantly high, when we are home for the weekend, Ryan and I try to prepare 1-2 meals on Sunday that will last us through the week.  One of our frequent rotations for work day lunches is baked homemade falafel.  It is super simple to make, it makes a TON to last throughout the entire week, and it is healthy as it is baked and not fried.

The below recipe makes about 25 falafel. You can make the whole caboodle and freeze some finished falafel for future consumption or you can cut the recipe in half if you want to make less.

Ingredients:

4 cups of canned chickpeas

2 onions

2 heads of garlic (if you don't like garlic, you could do less)

2 teaspoons of salt

Parsley, stems and all (enough to fill 2 packed cups)

Cilantro, stems and all (enough to fill 2 packed cups)

1 tablespoon of baking powder

8 teaspoons of cumin

dash of cayenne

4 teaspoons chili powder

4 tablespoons of flour

Steps: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees farenheit (200 degrees celsius).  Put the onions and garlic into a food processor with the spices and salt and chop until fine.  Transfer the mixture to a big bowl.  Then put the chickpeas with the parsley and cilantro into the food processor and chop until you chunky.  You don't want to create a puree, but you also don't want huge chunks of onion or garlic in your falafel.  You may have to do several batches in the food processor depending on how big yours is.  Mix the chickpea mixture with the onion/garlic mixture and mix in the flour and baking powder.  Coat a baking sheet with a thin layer of olive oil. Hand shape the falafel into golf ball size balls and flatten them out a bit (so that they can fit into pita sandwiches!).  Bake them for approximately 20-30 minutes (flipping over once) until they are lightly browned and cooked through, and voila, simple homemade, healthy falafel.

You can store the finished falafel in a tupperware container for the week (or freeze them like this) 

I fill a tupperware for my lunches at work with 2-3 falafel, lettuce, shredded carrots, tomatoes, and feta cheese.  I bring along a half pita and stuff it with these ingredients to make a pita sandwich.  You can also make a simple tzatziki sauce to add to the pita sandwich (take plain yogurt and add a dash of olive oil, dash of lemon juice, chopped cucumber, clove of garlic, dash of salt and pepper, and dill to taste).

Lovely Mallorca

I realized that I never quite caught up on a few trips I have taken over the past few months. So without further ado, I give you the lovely Mallorca.

We went to Mallorca for a long weekend in August... hm, I guess I am more than a few months delayed posting about this, whoops... we were search of a relaxing Mediterranean beach get away and this island lived up to our expectations.  Mallorca is extremely busy with holiday-goers in August, so we purposely chose to stay in an adults only hotel in a small village on the western side of the island so that we could hide from the crowds (Camp de Mar).  We had an absolute blast in Mallorca, it has beautiful coastlines, wonderful hidden beaches, and scrumptuous food (Paella anyone?).

I would highly recommend adding Mallorca to any European summer travel itinerary. My only suggestion (as with any European beach destination) would be to avoid visiting Mallorca in August if possible as everyone else on the continent seemed to have the same idea...

The bay of Camp de Mar

The cliffs at Portals Vells

The beach at Portals Vells.

The cliffs at Portals Vells, you can take a walk from the beach up to these cliffs

Inside the cliffs at Portals Vells

On the rooftop balcony of our hotel 

Chilling on the balcony of our room overlooking the pool

Can we stay here forever?

The bay of Camp de Mar

The most amazing dinner (and table) at Flor de Sal in Camp de Mar

Dinner with a fantastic view

The rooftop balcony at our hotel

We went on a run past our hotel and up onto a neighboring mountain - what views!

Successfully scaled the mountain

EAT: Flor de Sal in Camp de Mar has beautiful views and fantastic food
STAY: H10 Blue Mar in Mallorca was a great adult's only hotel in the quiet bay of Camp de Mar
PLAY: So many options, but we mainly stayed and relaxed in Camp de Mar. We also spent one day exploring the beach and caves at Portals Vells which I would highly recommend - the color of the water was spectacular