whySquared: Zermatt

I stayed in Zermatt for 5 days, partly for the street party and fireworks in the mountains Swiss National Day and partly for my feet to heal from the blisters.

Zermatt is a pretty Swiss village near the Italian border.

It is a curious place where the well-dressed tourists, casual trekkers and serious hikers meet. I am really interested to know how the well-dressed tourists get there (as in, what is their route). For the casual trekkers, they would have come for the many beautiful, accessible and relatively easily treks around the village. For the serious hikers, they have almost one-third of all the 4,000 metre peaks in the Alps grouped around the village to explore. (Source: http://www.zermatt.ch/en/page.cfm/zermatt_matterhorn/4000er)

The village is combustion engine car-free since 1947 and the modes of transport around the village are electro-mobiles, horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. The only exceptions I have seen were the ambulance and the garbage truck, which still have combustion engine.

Swiss National Day (1 August)

Swiss National Day marks the alliance of 3 cantons on 1 August 1291 and the founding of Swiss Federation. There are now 26 cantons in Switzerland (the latest one was formed in 1979) and each canton has its own constitution, government, parliament, courts and law (Source: http://www.swissworld.org/en/politics/general_information/role_of_the_cantons/). Since 1891, the Swiss started to celebrate 1 August as its national day. (Source: http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/swiss-national-day-august-1st.html)

On Swiss National Day, there was a street party on the main street in Zermatt, with overpriced food (difficult to find anything less than €12) and performances by local bands and clubs.