Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Train ride to the top of Europe - Jungfraujoch, Switzerland

We left at 9am for the Jungfraujoch - the Top of Europe tour.  This 100 year old train ride climbs 3200m up the mountain, through a few mountain villages along the way.  The first hour of the crowded train ride was beautiful.  Leaving Lauterbrunnen up the green grassy hill gave some excellent views of the valley.  I feel so lucky to be able to stay in this amazing valley (Lauterbrunnen).  The first mountain town we passed through is a famous ski hill called Wengen, it has an annual ski race that is one of the most attended in the world.

Then we went through a tunnel for an hour passing directly through Eiger mountain.  There are 2 stops mid tunnel that have viewing windows with spetacular views of glaciers.

As soon as we got to the top and left the train we found ourselves in the middle of a million tourists, in a very toursity tourist attraction.   We decided we needed to eat lunch before beginning, so we ate at the cafeteria and shared 3 meals for $63 - it was the worst meal of our trip, the bread was stale, the salad gross and the pork schnitzel was just nasty.  We were all pretty grumpy by now and I wasn't able to keep my cool this time!

The first stop on the Jungfraujoch tour was the coffee shop with $5 single espresso shots, followed by the gift shop.  Then there was a 360 degree film that just made me feel sick.  It was difficult to relax and enjoy the sites because of the jillions of people around.  We were then herded onto small elevators to the observatory where we had to wait for our turn to snap a quick shot in front of a mountain and squeeze through all the people to try to have a good look.

Things turned around for us when we went outside to spend time on the glacier.  It was amazing out there.  We witnessed some people walking on snow for the first time.  Christian did a zip line ride. We tried to get the kids into the tube park but they were too crowded they ran out of tubes.  We were outside just long enough for both kids to freeze their toes in their running shoes so when we entered the ice caves Blake was too cold and upset to spend any time in there.

We all felt a bit sick up at the top of the mountain - it could have been the crowds but more likely it was the altitude.  Either way, I do not recommend going on this tour especially with kids.  The 4 hours on the train drained us and I found the views from lower down to be even more special.  But we are glad we went now that it is over and we have some great pictures.

Christian had to dry our shoes in the morning because of our rainy monster scooter rides yesterday


Lauterbrunnen - our apartment is between the church and the falls


Lauterbrunnen valley down below

train ride through the Eiger mountain


view from one of the 2 viewing windows along the tunnel through the Eiger
view from the other viewing window along the tunnel
view from the observatory
Mt Monch
selfie Michele

selfie Christian

disappointed that the tubes were all taken

Chrisitan zipping over the glacier
Christian zipping

Ice cave hallway

Michele and Jaida in the ice cave - ice birds behind us

ice sculptures of wolves


2 hour train ride down the mountain

2 comments:

  1. Armadillowhipcream (Ami)August 13, 2014 at 2:30 PM

    Wow, that sounds amazing! I mean even if you had some crummy moments, such as; disgusting overpriced food, No tubbing, and freezing in the snow. At least the views we're spectacular. Eh? No? Well, too bad but the pictures look good !

    BYE!!
    AMI

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  2. I can so relate to those Not So Golden Moments of travel! HA! Ami is right that in hindsight, they are hilarious. We had this meal in the Eiffel Tower that was THE worst meal ever. And we were so hungry. And it cost like 8 zillion dollars. HA. Not funny at the time, but Sam still talks about his cold hotdog weiner lunch!

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