Europe Trip - Day 10 (20-Sept-2012)

Day 10 - Trip to Jungfraujoch - Europe's highest railway !

We woke up early to have a head start for our trip to Jungfraujoch which would have a heavy influx of tourists. Though there were trains by the hour, we had read that they were bound to be crowded. We had a quick bath and headed out towards the station. We ensured that we were dressed in layers as it was bound to get cold as we progressed in altitude. We also packed extra gloves, socks and mufflers in case we got wet. We bought a few buns and croissants at the Coop store near the station for breakfast and got some coffee as well. The round trip tickets to Jungfraujoch turned out to be expensive even with the Swiss pass at about 160 Euros per person ! ( Swiss pass holders were entitled to a 25% discount). This was the centenary year for the Jungfraugh Bahn or the Jungfrau railway, so they were giving away special Jungfraujoch passports along with the tickets. These red booklets contained trivia and details of how the railway was built over years by exploding out a tunnel through the mountains. We later discovered that we could stamp these passports with the date and time at the destination! That was cool. They even handed out a train timetable and the routes we could take. We had to change 3 trains to reach the top. Starting from Interlaken-Ost with the Bernese Oberland Railway, we could either go to Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald, and then change to the Wengernalp Railway. The next stop would be Kleine-Scheidegg which is the starting point for the Jungrfrau railway leading to Jungfraujoch.

Route map ( courtesy - Internet )

We had read that since the tickets are really expensive, its very important to have a good weather to enjoy the views and also the snow park, otherwise it would be a waste of money. Also the journey was an enjoyable experience with the various trains offering stunning views. We were blessed with a sunny and clear sky and were just an hour late from our plan of taking the train at 7:30 and we decided to proceed towards Lauterbrunnen. The train was filled with tourists and there were people at the station to direct the tourists towards the right train. It was all very well organized. We found that the snack tables in the train had the route map too! 

Snack table

All set !

First leg of the journey

From Lauterbrunnen, we took a train to Kleine-Scheidegg.

The second train

We were now ready for the last leg of the train journey on the Jungrfau railway from Kleine-Scheidegg.

The final journey through Jungfrau bahn

Most of this route is through the mountain tunnel. There are 2 stops on the way, where the train stops for 5 mins and tourists can get down for a restroom break and also to enjoy some mountain views through huge glass windows. The first stop is at Eigerwand is located at a height of 2865m ( Eiger Wall ) and from Wikipedia – "There is a window about 8 m long and a metre high halfway up the face. The windows have been placed in holes used to remove excavated rock from the tunnel during construction, and are also occasionally used as access points, by climbers, and also rescue parties. This window was used for one of the final scenes of a Clint Eastwood spy movie, The Eiger Sanction."

The next stop is at Eismeer (Sea of Ice) which again has windows for viewing the mountains. We found that these viewpoints were really cold as there were tunnels in the mountain with no sunlight. 

After about a 50 min ride, we finally reached Jungfraujoch which is the highest railway station in Europe and is also called as the “Top of Europe”. We were excited ! The temperature reading said it was -2.9 C. Brrrrrr !!! We also took a very much touristy Jungfrau picture at the entrance.

At the station

Brrrrr !

A "Must take" picture !

As we bustled into the main complex from the railway station, we saw loads and loads of tourists. And the restaurants and cafes were making brisk business. We decided to stop for a hot drink before starting the adventures for the day. We went to the first café and the guy at the counter asked us if we wanted “Masala Chai” !! Indian tourists are very popular in Swiss. We asked for a hot chocolate which made him smile. I was really keen on having only chocolate while in Switzerland. The chocolate was warm and yummy. We got a map of the attractions at Jungfrau and decided to visit the Sphinx or the observatory first.

From the Sphinx

A quick elevator ride took us to Sphinx, which had a viewing platform and the observatory. We read the highest radio station in Europe is installed here! Since the viewpoint is located at a height, there was a good cold breeze and we couldn’t stand out in the open for long. We took some pictures and headed back in. 

Our next stop was the Snow Fun. We had seen lot of pictures of this and were looking forward to our share of fun and frolic in the snow. As we stepped out in the open, we were hit by a blast of sunlight. We couldn’t have stepped out without our sunglasses. Thankfully we had rubbed sunblock on our faces. This was a flat expanse of snow with various snow rides like tyroliene, snow tubes, sledging, skiing etc. We took a few pictures here and also tried scooping up the snow. I even managed to take off my jacket and gloves for a while.

Conveyor belt

We didn’t try the Tyrolienne at first and headed towards the snow tubes. It looked like fun to slide in the snow on a rubber tube. We discovered that for 15CHF, we would get unlimited rides on the snow tube and also the sledges. We quickly bought 2 tickets and started the fun. They had a neat conveyer belt to carry the snow tube or the sledge back to the starting point.

The snow tubing turned out to be good fun with a couple of minor incidents. One was a head to head collision with another guy who was sliding behind me. I screamed at the sudden impact and he was so worried about me being alright! The next incident was that I flew off the sledge and fell on my face on the snow. Thankfully it didn’t hurt at all and I was more worried about my new sunglasses and bag being thrown away in the snow. After several rounds of snow tubing and sledging we were ready to head back. It was almost 1PM and we were hungry with all the activity. 

Snow tubes

Sledge

Hubby wanted to try the Tyrolienne now and I let it pass. I was too tired to enjoy it and was also feeling lazy about having to walk back from the drop off point. This was an adventure sport where you can zip across on a rope and land on the snow. ( Similar to river crossing, but we would proceed downhill in this case ). A one way ticket was 15CHF, but worth the fun and excitement. Hubby came back smiling after his first adventure sport!

Ready to fly !

Back to the ground

We then proceed to the Ice palace. On the way we came across the newly built “Alpine Sensation” which was opened newly to commemorate the centenary of the Jungfrau railway. Its 250 meters long and connects the Sphinx to the Ice palace. There is a moving walkway with the caverns depicting the history of Jungfrau railway and tourism. The Ice palace is a 1000 sq meters of area in a cavern cut out by hand using ice axes and saws. This needs to be constantly cut as the warmth of the visitors make the ice melt. The temperature is artificially maintained at -3 degrees at all times. We were greeted with various sculptures Polar bears, a new sculpture of Sherlock Homles ( just installed 10 days back ) and our dear friend “Scrat” ( from the Ice age movie series ) frozen in a block of ice ! We also took another “must shoot” Jungrfrau picture here as done by most visitors. The ice palace was really cold and it was tough to walk on the slippery ice but they had a railing built throughout the palace for support. 

Ice carvings

Ready to start the next Ice age !

Sherlock Holmes, who arrived only on 11th sept 2012 !

Another touristy picture to complete the outing 

The next stop was to visit the Plateau. An elevator took us to the Plateau which offers panoramic views of the swiss alps on a clear day. We saw that the exit to the plateau was a bit slippery ( old ice ) and we saw a few people skid and fall. Luckily we held on to a rope and got into the open snow. The Swiss flag marks this place and we felt that it was much colder and windy than the other regions – sphinx and snow fun. After a few pictures we headed inside, the wind and cold was too much to bear for long.

Swiss flag at the plateau

A picture postcard view

We headed in for a quick snack and found that the food was really expensive. We managed to get a vegetarian meal of noodles and spring rolls. I also got a huge bar of nestle chocobar called Mega and it was really huge and creamy! It was a great experience eating ice cream on the top of Europe. We made the mistake of forgetting to carry a water bottle, so we were very dehydrated. We picked up a small 500 ml bottle at a huge price of 5 Euros to survive the rest of the journey.

Mega bar !

We got our special centenary passports stamped with the time and date at a special machine kept for this purpose. We then decided to get some postcards to send home. This would be unique as there was a post office at Jungfraujoch itself, making it not only Europe’s highest railway station, but also the highest post office! We wanted to take the return train at 3:30 PM and had only 10 mins left. We quickly picked 3 postcards, and posted 2 of them to our folks back home. We just had time to board the train back. Due to the snow fun activities, we had wet shoes and socks and were eager to get rid of them soon. We decided to take the route through Grindelwald on the return to experience both the sceneries.  After we got to Interlaken Ost, we again checked if we could visit Harder Kulm as the last funicular back was at 6:20 PM and it was about 5:45 PM now. The lady at the counter said its too late so we were disappointed yet again. We got back to the hotel and freshened up quickly as I didn’t want to miss the watch shopping. We had seen on the previous day that most shops closed early. As we walked along the shops, we saw several parachutes return from sky diving.  We zeroed in on a watch shop and finished the watch shopping. We even got a tax refund, which we could never claim as it had to be done at a customs desk only. It had been a long day and we were too tired and hungry. 

We saw a pizzeria near our hotel and went in for a quick look. The place looked like a bar and was small and dingy, so we decided to pack the pizza and eat in the hotel room. The guy said he can make a custom made vegetarian pizza for us and it was delicious! We finally had a chance to open the bottle of beer we got in Bruges ( Brugse Zot ) and it was very delicious with the pizza. It was time to call it a day, after being at the top of the world!