Jungfraujoch

Today was an exciting day as we travelled on the highest train in Europe to the Jungfraujoch.  I did this trip with Mum & Dad & Simon whilst camping in Interlaken, and although I couldn't remember all of it, I could remember the view from the top and a rather dodgy first attempt at skiing which ended up with a Belgian dude having to come and rescue me from being tangled in a fence as I was completely out of control!  Other than that my memory is pretty blurred, although I remember it as being a grande (and expensive) day out.

So there are departures all the time, and we weren't booked on any particular one, however, we knew it would be better to go in the morning and make a day of it.  We set our alarms for 8.15 and got up and showered (well I got showered - it was so hot I didn't sleep particularly well, and was sweating pretty much all through the night.  Then I had a bit of a nightmare which I wasn't sure was real or not and that was it - I was done for the night.  A shower woke me up!)

We went for breakfast - pretty much the same as the Hotel Bristol in Zurich - bread, cheese, ham, eggs and yogurt.  We then headed into town to the Co-op to get drinks and lunch for the day - we were assuming that to eat at the top of the mountain would be insanely expensive.  We each got a salad for the day - the boys were on pasta salad and I had a leaves, egg and tuna salad - still CHF7-8 each (about £6.50-£7.50) so not cheap as chips but cheap enough.  We then walked to Interlaken Ost where we got the first of 3 trains, it was jam packed - good job we got their early.  It took us to Grindelwald - such a great name that.  The scenery was magnificent, straight out of that children's series Heidi which was popular in the late 70s/80s.  Every house is made from wood in a chalet style and dotted around the countryside, they look so insanely picturesque and at last we found our first cows with bells - they sound so gentle and look cute.  So strange to see cows all over the hills rather than the sheep we are used to.

We got to Grindelwald Terminus where they said to get off if you are heading up the Jungfrau so we did.  But then we couldn't see another train up from their to the top, everyone was getting on a cable car, there was no mention of a cable car on our tickets, but we handed them over and were waved through - oh, ok then.  So we were on a huge cable car which sat 28 people for a good 20 minutes.  It was very very smooth (no rumbling when you go over the pylons) and obviously a lot more direct than any train. It was a very pleasant way to travel, we got quite close to the North Face of the Eiger, and just enjoyed watching the scenery pass us by.  In no time we got to Eigergletscher - the station where you get the train through the mountain to the top of the Jungfrau.  Everyone was queuing for the train and being British our instinct was to join them, however, there was a view outside to see, so we broke off and walked around the station to enjoy the views - they were magnificent too.  We were quite close to the big mountains of Mönche, Jungfrau and The Eiger and on the other side we had steep green hills with chiming cows and Grindelwald below, all with deep blue skies, just gorgeous.

We went back to the station, no queue, we just hopped on the train and it left almost immediately - we spent our time well! We then headed into the tunnel and up we went.  We stopped half way up for 5 minutes where there were viewing windows (apparently the developers ran out of money before they got to the top, so they carved out some viewing windows and charged passengers to go up for the view - they made enough money to continue up to the top - didn't take long either.  The journey was on the whole quicker than expected and we spent most of the time at quite an angle heading upwards.  When we got to the top and out of the train, it was noticeably cooler, however, it has been so hot recently that a day in the cool was welcome.  We got into the station at the top and immediately followed signs to the Sphinx which is the top most structure, we had to go in lifts to get up there, but were rewarded with awesome views of a glacier surrounded by rugged mountains on all sides.  I remembered the views from the childhood trip I did.  Luckily they haven't changed (although I'm sure some of the other glaciers have shrunk!)  

It was 2 degrees outside, but as it was so sunny and bright, it didn't feel like it.  We took jumpers with us and that was all we needed, we didn't get cold.  After enjoying the views, we headed in and had our lunches (our pack of crisps had almost burst as the difference in pressure between the shop where we bought it and the top of the mountain had made the bag swell significantly - made for a good science lesson!).  We then found a way outside and went for a bit of a walk - it was pretty slippery and the altitude definitely made it harder to walk, even Tom was huffing along.  I think the area we walked in was probably where I went skiing last time, there was no skiing now, there was a zip line and inner tyre tobogganing, but all a bit lame and pretty expensive, so we gave it a miss) We returned to the station and followed signs to an ice palace - this was built into the glacier: we slipped and skidded along tunnels to enjoy lots of ice sculptures: polar bears, penguins, wolves, even a soft toy Scrat from Ice Age which I thought was very funny.  A keg of whisky had also been frozen in - not sure why?  From there we walked the length of the station and out the other side where there was a nice viewpoint and some Swiss flags to pose with, someone also burst into song - doing some yodelling which was good.

By now we were flagging, it was mega bright outside, hard to stand upright and not fall over as it was so icy and the altitude was probably having an effect, so we had a quick look in the souvenir store which was surprisingly reasonably priced (Tom got a Swiss Penknife for CHF5 which was very cheap - it wasn't the real deal Victorinox but even so, he was very pleased with it), so we decided to head down.  

We thought it would be good to do a full loop of the railway, so instead of returning the way we came, we got the train to Kleine Scheidegg, then swapped trains to Lauterbrunnen down in the valley.  The trip back was much slower as obviously the trains were having to go slow to avoid getting out of control, the gradient was mighty steep too.  Once we got to Lauterbrunnen, we swapped trains again to Interlaken and trundled along the valley floor at a much quicker rate.  On arrival at Interlaken Ost, we got a bus back to the hotel, it was roasting hot and the thought of a longish walk in jeans etc was too much.  On arrival to the hotel, we jumped in the shower one by one and then collapsed.  We really didn't do that much but we were all exhausted.

At 6.30 we headed out in search of tea.  We had spotted a restaurant near the hotel, Bären Restaurant, where they did interesting rosti for CHF21 each (that is cheap by the way!), so in we went: a sausage one for Tom, a ham, cheese and egg one for me and a 2 cheese and onion one for Matt.  The waitress suggested a mixed salad to start with - I am so glad she did - it was delicious: leaves, beetroot, corn, radish, cauliflower, cucumbers, carrot and only 1 segment of tomato - we had a portion each and then I happily hoovered up what was left - I really needed that.  After we finished our rosti, we went for a quick walk to help aid digestion.  Tom ended up with an ice cream so he was happy.  It was still blazingly hot, hotter than yesterday, so in the end we gave up and headed back to the hotel to crash.

Another good day.