Gianni and his beloved photo camera

If you live in the Netherlands for a year, you cannot help but falling in love with ‘Koningsdag’ (Kingsday); one of the biggest Dutch bank holidays. Although I am back in Switzerland for quite some time now, I normally fly back to the Netherlands each year to celebrate this day traditionally in a complete orange outfit with my friends in Amsterdam. However, this year we wanted to do something special and so we decided to bring ‘Koningsdag’ to Zermatt and celebrate in style in the mountains. Unfortunately, the “Horn” didn’t want to join us for the big party and so it came that we barely saw the old lady. Yes, unfortunately she can be real diva sometimes. Nevertheless, we had an unforgettable weekend and the Dutchies were convinced to come back as soon as possible hoping to see the “Horn” in full glory.

A few weeks ago, they decided to do so. The weather forecast predicted that the lady was ready for us, and especially for my friend Gianni and his beloved photo camera.

Even though I used to live in Amsterdam, speak the language and are quite into the Dutch culture, there are still things I don’t understand. As the Swiss primarily see travelling by car as a manner to go from A to B, Dutch people celebrate the journey itself. They love to sit all together in the car, singalong to songs, eat the sandwich they bring from home and stop at every nice location. With this in mind, it was of no surprise to me that it took them much longer to come to Zermatt. All in all, it took them an entire day…(normally it is around 8 hours). They went a long way around. Hence, the second not-surprise was that they were tired from their “trip” and we went to bed early. However, seeing the first pictures from their journey I was convinced that with the extraordinary landscape in Zermatt – Matterhorn, Gianni was ready to shoot some amazing images in the upcoming days.

Schwarzsee, Gili-Gili, Burger with truffle fries and promenade in the fog

Gianni did some research and knew exactly what kind of pictures he wanted to take in Zermatt. The first morning we went up to Schwarzsee as the small lakes, the chapel and landscape just look amazing there. Just have a look…

After a heavy photo session with perfect weather (and models!), clouds were about to hit Zermatt and we decided to go down to Blatten to have a drink. Just as we wanted to walk back to Zermatt a storm came in. Either we could walk down in the rain or we could have another drink inside the Bergrestaurant Blatten. As the Duchies never had one of the famous “Gili-Gili”, we went for the second option. A little tipsy, but happy and dry we got home in the early afternoon.

We changed and packed our backpack to start our next adventure; a night at the Fluhalp. But before we took the Sunnegga train and the gondolas up to Blauherd, we made a quick stop over at the CERVO Mountain Boutique Hotel. Yes, obviously we had the famous Burger including the distinctive truffle fries.

Invigorated we were ready for the transfer and the promenade to the Fluhalp hut. It goes without saying that the trip took us – again – much longer than normal as we stopped a lot to take photos and strike a pose. Even though we could see barely anything, Gianni took some amazing photographs.

After arrival at the hut we were sitting together for the rest of the evening and went to bed early for the second night in a row as the plan was to get up before sunrise the next morning.

Sunrise above the Stellisee, 5-Seenweg and live music at the Alphitta

The alarm went off at 5am. Still a bit sleepy we got ready to watch the rise of sun above the Stellisee. Already during the short walk down we were sure that the sunrise is going to be epic. And so it was! I think here are no words needed…

After having a great breakfast including coffee with a stunning view, we were ready to hit a part of the famous “5-Seenweg”. First stop was therefore Grindjisee. We almost couldn’t resist to jump straight in: the water was clear and sparkly. Gianni took some pictures and we hiked further…

Arriving at the Grünsee there was no more holding back and we all jumped in the water. The first seconds it was freezing but afterwards it was just magical. The green lake and the marvelous mountain panoramic view was the perfect setting for Gianni.

Refreshed, sun kissed and happy we continued our hike and went to the Riffelalp. As we all love live music it was clear that we would have lunch with Tanja and Dave at the Alphitta. I guess there is nothing better than sitting together with friends, listening to live music and eating delicious food with a dizzying panoramic view. That is why we didn’t move on and just went back home in the late afternoon. Tired from all the impressions and kilometres in our legs it came that we went to bed , nice and early

One of Gianni’s posts in the evening just summed it up perfectly:

“I can’t believe I’ve seen this with my own eyes this morning and still need to pinch myself looking at the photo right now.”

Longest suspension bridge

As it was Monday and I had work, the Dutchies decided to make an excursion on their own to the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge. Although I could not join them I can tell from the pictures that they had another memorable day in the mountains. Or what do you think?

The last evening we had dinner at a local pub with friends including some beers to celebrate an amazing weekend with unforgettable memories and phantasmagorical pictures.

❤ Follow Gianni with his beloved photo camera