The ground had been almost completely covered with deep snow last year and I couldn't hike from the station. There was still some snow left on the ground this year too, but it looked like there wasn't as much, so I felt I could do it. I started hiking from the station while looking in the direction of the Matterhorn that I was supposed to be able to see. Of course, the Matterhorn was just hiding in amongst the clouds, but it was a shame I couldn't see it.

After walking for a while, I was faced with a problem. The hiking trail was covered with snow! After worrying for a while, I eventually decided to take a detour to walk around the snowy parts of the trails.

There was a place with bad footing and I had to fight my way through an untracked rocky area!

I had a hell of a time coming here! I followed the green arrows, I've drawn in here.
It would have been better if I had crossed the snowy parts of the trails....

The famous lake finally came in my view. From here, there was a lot less snow, so it was easier to walk

I arrived at the famous lake "Riffelsee". The lake is a famous sight seeing spot and is well known for being able to see a lovely reflection of the Matterhorn in it. Of course, this occurs only if you have a cloudless blue sky and there is very little breeze.
Suddenly thick grey clouds began rolling in and the Matterhorn was completely concealed, so I couldn't even see it anymore, or even as it is supposed to be reflected in the lake.

After a 90-minute walk from the Gornergrat station, I arrived at Riffelbelg. I kept on walking and headed to the town of Zermatt.

From Riffelbelg, it's all downhill to Riffelalp, so it's hard on the knees. Since it's a 400m descent it certainly damaged my knees.

The weather was getting worse and when I arrived at Riffelalp it started raining. I had planned on hiking back to the town of Zermatt, but I cut short my plan and returned by train.

Of course, it was also raining in Zermatt. I stopped off at a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant had served a Japanese style curry for the past two years I had visited and I'd loved it. The curry hadn't been the same as a Japanese style curry, however it wasn't too bad.

But the menu changed this year and the Japanese style curry was replaced with an Asian style noodle dish called "miso ramen". "miso ramen" is a Japanese style noodle dish...I had a bad feeling when I read the word "miso ramen", because it is easy to cook a Japanese style curry by using store-bought Japanese curry blocks(which is also often used at home in Japan) and it is usually available from Asian supermarkets overseas. But it is nearly impossible to cook a Japanese style "miso ramen" without using store-bought stock cubes, noodles, and other ingredients specific to a ramen dish which are hard to get overseas.
Despite that I couldn't imagine it was possible to be made here, in the end, I took a chance and ordered "miso ramen"!

To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure that it could be called "miso ramen". I ate all of it but it definitely wasn't miso ramen!!

I had nothing to do but go back my hotel, where I drank two glasses of beer. There's nothing like a cold beer on a day where I have nothing to do....

My dinner was a big sausage and a bottle of German beer. It is popular German beer in Japan and also one of my favorite brands of German beer. It is priced at only 3CHF(400yen) and costs 3 times as much if you buy it in Japan.
I ate a great sausage while wishing for tomorrow to be a beautiful sunny day. Then all my plans for today were finished.