Day 2: Trip to Jungfraujoch, Europe's highest altitude railway station
The day second day of the swiss trip started with lots of excitement and anticipation..Before planning this trip, we had heard a lot about Jungfraujoch, seen pictures of friends and relatives who'v been there and it seemed to be a MUST in our swiss itinerary..the only concern I had was, would my parents like it and say that 'it was worth our time and money (it is an expensive trip!)..nonetheless, I was very excited and looking forward to this..since we knew it was a long journey ahead, we decided to leave as early as we could, and after having a nice breakfast to keep us full for few hours, and packing some sandwiches for the trip, we left at 9 am for Interlaken Ost.
There are two routes to reach the summit. One can either take the train southwest from Interlaken Ost along the valley to Lauterbrunnen, from where you pick up the mountain line which climbs through Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg; or take the train heading southeast from Interlaken Ost to Grindelwald, where you change for the climb, arriving at Kleine Scheidegg from the other direction. All trains terminate at Kleine Scheidegg, where one must change for the final lap to Jungfraujoch – the popular practice is to go up one way and down the other. We had also planned it this way and purchased our tickets for Jungfrau online. However upon reaching Lauterbrunnen we got to know that the trains from there have been terminated and so we had to go back to Zweilütschinen (station between Interlaken Ost and Lauterbrunnen) and take a train to Griendelwald. Trains run every 30 minutes and since we missed the previous train we decided to walk around the station.
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| Red cogwheel train to Jungfraujoch |
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| On the way to Jungfraujoch |
We reached
Griendelwald in about half and hour and from there we took another train to Klein Scheidegg, and thereafter we boarded a red cogwheel train to reach the top. We dashed out from one train to another, but the swiss railways staff was extremely friendly and helpful.The frequency of the trains and coordination of various connections is so amazing that changing over trains did not seem like a mountainous task. The journey was extremely scenic with swiss chalets on the way and beautiful snow peaked mountains all around..The final lap took around an hour and in between the train stopped at two intermediate stations- the Eigerwand (Wall of Eiger) and Eismeer, 3160m (Sea of ice) for five minutes each, so we could go out and enjoy the views. The last part of the journey is inside a huge tunnel carved out of mountains. This whole journey to the top of Europe is an extremely amazing feat of engineering of the last century and took around 16 years to be completed..
Finally after around 2.5 hours as we reached our destination, Top of Europe at 3454 m, it felt great, despite some tiredness...the place was packed with tourists from all over the world..as soon as we entered, it looked liked a resort, with people eating, shopping for souvenirs, some catching on sleep and others clicking pics..it was pretty warm inside and we were told to follow the blue signs to the
attractions there, which included the amazing ice palace, alpine sensation, sphinx (view point), snow fun..the moment we stepped out at the view point, we realised what is it to like at the top of europe..-13 degrees, extremely windy, it was difficult to keep our eyes open and stand...a piece of advice: dress warmly and wear sunglasses..and most importantly, keep your ears and cheeks covered..
Overall it was a great new experience, a bit tiring, but worth it!! My mom just loved the place..
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| Alpine Sensation |
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| Ice Palace |
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| View from Sphinx |
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| Ice Fun |
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