A cable car journey up into the Alps

The Matterhorn, as seen from Zermatt with the aid of the zoom feature on my camera © Ricky Yates

At the end of my previous post, I said that I hoped to go up into the mountains surrounding Zermatt and that there would be more photos. A little belatedly, here are the promised photos and a further blog post.

On Friday 27th December, my plan was to head to the mountains, once I’d successfully banked the collections from my Christmas services. But, by the time I had approved and responded to numerous, most welcome comments on my previous post and answered a couple of emails, it was just after midday when I reached the post office.

When I did get there, I discovered it had just closed for a rather lengthy lunch break that didn’t end until 13.45. Then, when I returned, just before 14.00, the lady at the counter kindly informed me that the paying in slip that I had was only for Euros. I needed another with a different QR code for my Swiss francs. By the time I had once more been up and down the hill to the Chaplain’s flat, found the correct form on the laptop computer and printed it off and then returned to the post office, it was too late to think of setting out into the mountains, allowing for the short hours of daylight in late December.

Standing on a bridge over the Vispa river in Zermatt © Ricky Yates

Therefore on Saturday 28th December, which had to be my last full day in Zermatt, I set off from the flat, straight after breakfast, and walked to the station from where the cable cars or gondolas leave. To get there, I had to cross the Vispa river. A young couple, who were busy taking photos of each other with the Matterhorn in the background, kindly offered to take a similar one of me 🙂

The Matterhorn from Trockener Steg © Ricky Yates

The first stage of my cable car journey took me from Zermatt (1620m), to Trockener Steg (2939m). Here there is a restaurant and a viewing platform from where you can see the Matterhorn at closer quarters.

Me & the Matterhorn © Ricky Yates

Out on the viewing platform, I got talking to three young American ladies who were in Zermatt for a skiing holiday but had decided just to go sightseeing that day. They were busy taking photos of each other and one of them kindly took this one of me and the Matterhorn.

View of the surrounding mountains from Matterhorn Glacier Paradise © Ricky Yates

View of the surrounding mountains from Matterhorn Glacier Paradise © Ricky Yates

Breithorn (4164m), as seen from Matterhorn Glacier Paradise © Ricky Yates

The second stage of my cable car journey took me to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. At 3883m above sea level, it is the highest cable car station in Europe. A Swiss couple from Basel with whom I spoke on the way up to Trockener Steg, warned me that because the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is so high, the air is thinner. I certainly did struggle a bit to breathe but that was a minor discomfort to endure. The amazing views made it more than worthwhile to suffer a little bit of breathlessness 😉

Appropriate liquid refreshment accompanying my lunch at Matterhorn Glacier Paradise 😉 © Ricky Yates


For the first part of my return journey, I had a cable car all to myself. This enabled me to get this photograph of the Theodul Glacier with its deep crevasses, as I travelled above it.

Theodul Glacier © Ricky Yates

Further down, Zermatt comes into view.

Descending to Zermatt © Ricky Yates

Zermatt © Ricky Yates

Then followed, the return walk back to the Chaplain’s flat, passing through the scenic heart of Zermatt.

Zermatt © Ricky Yates

Christmas in Zermatt

St Peter’s Church, Zermatt © Ricky Yates

After conducting a wonderful service of Nine Lesson & Carols in the Frauenkirche, Dresden on the evening of Sunday 8th December, I was planning on spending a quiet Christmas at home in Stará Oleška. My Christmas worship was going to be attending a service on Christmas Eve, in German, at the Lutheran Church in Obercunnersdorf, led by my good friend and colleague, Andrew Allen. I’m not due to officiate again at the Frauenkirche, until Thursday 2nd January 2025.

Then, early in the afternoon of Thursday 19th December, an email dropped into my Inbox. It came from Jim Perryman, who oversees what is known as ‘Seasonal Mission’ for the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS). ICS are the C of E mission society who supported me when in . . . → Read More: Christmas in Zermatt

Exploring the River Adour in South-west France

Les Gaves Réunis, a tributary of the River Adour, at Hastingues © Ricky Yates

Two & a half months ago at the end of my post entitled ‘A Blogpost about my Blog‘, I declared that I had a couple of future posts that I intended to write. The first, about how I became a hymn book smuggler into the EU, I published a month later. However, I am unsure whether anyone has ever read it as it has attracted zero comments 🙁 Despite that, here finally, is the second promised post.

In late August/early September this year, I travelled from my home in the Czech Republic, to South-west France, for a ten-day holiday. As part of that trip, I explored the course of a river I had first . . . → Read More: Exploring the River Adour in South-west France

How I became a hymn book smuggler into the EU

Smuggled hymn books in the boot of my car © Ricky Yates

As I posted here a year ago, since May 2023, I have been officiating at a monthly English-language Anglican service of Evening Prayer held on a Thursday evening in the Unterkirche of the Dresden Frauenkirche. This is in addition to the monthly Sunday evening service in the Hauptraum for which I’ve had responsibility since January 2015.

For my monthly Sunday evening service, the Pfarrbüro produce a twelve-page complete Order of Service based on the text I send them at least a week earlier. Hymns are taken from ‘Hymns Ancient & Modern New Standard’, published in 1983, with the melody line of the tune, as well as all the words, reproduced. As I understand it, the Pfarrbüro was given a copy . . . → Read More: How I became a hymn book smuggler into the EU

A Blogpost about my Blog

Sunflower & a bee © Ricky Yates

Despite promising to be more regular in writing and posting here on my blog, I must yet again apologise that over four and a half months have past since my last post. However, in the last couple of days, I have discovered that, even if I had written and posted a blog post, almost nobody would have read it. Because if you had put my URL into your browser, you would have received a message saying that it was unsafe to proceed because my website had security issues.

Back in February 2024, I renewed the hosting of rickyyates.com with Namecheap.com. Part of that deal was the provision of an SSL certificate showing that my website was secure. This should have downloaded automatically, but it didn’t 🙁 There was . . . → Read More: A Blogpost about my Blog