There are two train stations in Interlaken: Ost/East is the main station, and we had arrived at West on the Deutsche Bahn. After breakfast at Balmers (single serve packets of Nutella!), we were headed to Ost to Jungfrau. First we would have to travel to Lauterbrunnen (or Grindelwald, either one gets you where you need to go, and I’m not sure which one we got) (I just translated those and got “loud well” or “standard forest” -- heh) on the Bernese Oberland Railway. Then we could get on the Jungfraubahnen which would take us from the Kleine Scheidegg station to Jungfraujoch. Or something. I am only going into this much detail because I like all the names.
We were going to Jungfrau because it is billed as the top of Europe (4,158 m/13,642 ft), and, as previously mentioned, my brother went there so I had to go also. Sibling rivalry. We made our way from Balmers down to the station, which was not a long walk, but not a short walk, either, especially as I was wearing wellies for the mountain expedition, hoping to see snow since I hadn’t yet. And there is eternal snow on Jungfrau so I was in luck.
We got almost to the train station, stopping to snap photos of a picturesque church, and that was when Lisa realized she had left her Eurail pass at Balmers. This wouldn’t be a big deal, because the Eurail pass didn’t cover the Jungfraubahn, BUT you could get a discount on the first two departures of the day if you presented your Eurail pass. Anyway, we were clearly going to miss the first one if we went back to get the pass, but we thought we could just make the second one, so we turned around (and my feet wept). We practically had to run to make it, but we did.
It takes about two and a half hours to get to the Jungfraujoch station so we made it up around lunchtime. There is not really all that much to do up on top of the mountain. On the train stops leading to the cog railway, there were skiers and snowboarders (making the cars SRO) but once you’re going through the mountain, there’s no skiing. The cars on the cog railway are neat, too, old-fashioned and quaint; we opened a window. There’s dog sledding, on the glacier, maybe; you can see people from the peak, but you can’t do it from the top. I think there’s more to do in the summer.
We wandered around the peak and took the obligatory pictures, ho hum, here we are in the Swiss Alps. It was a sunny day, beautiful and not too cold (though much colder than Interlaken) except on one side of the mountain, where the Swiss flag was flying, the wind was whipping and it was FREEZING. There were very few people on that side of the mountain. We had lunch in the little café at the station, and then hit the ice palace and sent each other postcards stamped with “Top of Europe.” We had hot chocolate and then headed back to the train for the return journey.
Once back in Interlaken, we had dinner at the Chalet Hotel Oberland. We had penne al pesto and truthahn schnitzel, and I bet Lisa had the schnitzel because I don't have any idea what truthahn schnitzel is. Then it was back to Balmers to rest up for the next stop: Munich.
