Day 21: Interlaken - Jungfraujoch

Today made Mary get out of bed at 6:30am. She was not very fun to be around at this hour of the day. The hostel here provides yogurt, granola, bread, jams, nutella, cheese, butter, coffee, tea, and orange juice. Jeff had a regular style coffee from the machine. Tomorrow, he is going to try out another type of coffee beverage. Mary had a black tea with breakfast, she indicated that it was weird (different) tasting. The tea was "lipton's yellow label tea".

By 7:40 we were ready to walk down to Interlaken Ost (East). We arrived at the train station with some time to spare and we were able to get our tickets without much hassle. The fare was slightly less (2.5fr.) than we were expecting, but it was still 250fr for the two of us to go up the Jungfrau "Top of Europe" mountain. The train station is the highest train station in Europe.

We boarded a train pretty much immediately. It took us into the Lauterbrunnen Valley. The area was beautiful. We're hoping to head over there tomorrow to spend some time exploring. From the Lauterbrunnen Valley, we transferred to the train that would take us up to Kleine Scheindegg.

The ride up to Kleine Scheindegg provided us with a view down the Lauterbrunnen Valley:

After we reached Kleine Scheindegg we had a short wait for the next train. Unfortunately, no good pictures were taken from this station. There was too many people, not enough time, and train power lines blocking the view. Eventually, we were able to board the train. It was confusing because some sections were reserved for groups. At one point we went to board and were blocked entrance by an employee because it was reserved. Yet, they had not marked the car as reserved. We managed to board and get a seat next to two Swiss people.

The entire trip to the Jungfraujoch station took roughly 50 minutes. There were two stops along the way where pictures could be taken. Jeff took some, but they are not amazing quality. Once we did reach the top we pushed through hoards of Asian tourists in order to keep our place in line as we headed up to the Sphinx (a peak that lies in the Jungfraujoch col, between the Moech and Jungfrau).

From the Sphinx we were awarded several amazing views. At some point we will take the effort to identify every peak. Here are the images we took from the observation post and nearby areas:

Looking south into a glacial valley:

Edge of the Moench looking roughly north:

Moench:

Jungfrau:

Looking North:

After we ate lunch, Bear decided to pose for a picture. Apparently, Bear does not like the cold since he would not pose for a picture outside:

We were 3571m asl. We even took an image of a sign to prove it:

In addition to the spectacular view, we walked through an a tunnel through a section of glacier. There pieces of wood driven into the ice in pairs. Mary and Jeff both suspect that the wood was there to measure movement. The actual ice cross section was very interesting. Unfortunately, most people seemed more interested in the ice sculptures that were on display. Air bubbles were visible. Thin layers of sediment were within the ice. Finally, The floors were not slippery, there must have been a coating.

After this experience, we headed down the cog-wheel train to Kleine Scheindegg where we connected with a train to Grindelwald. At Grindelwald we did some groceries and then connected with a train back to Interlaken. Jeff took several pictures along this section of the trip:

When 5pm rolled around we immediately got started on making dinner. The kitchen really fills up after 6:30. Tonight we ate some fried potatoes, boiled carrots, cervelat sausage with mustard, and a salad. We also drank some wine. Jeff did not realize that it was a 2010, wine label standards are not as strict in Europe. The 2010 was in rather small print on the back. Regardless of age, the wine was still reasonable good.

While Mary finished deleting bad photos, we took 253 today, Jeff took another 20 images of nearby Interlaken:

Tomorrow we plan on having a relaxing morning before heading into the Lauterbrunnen Valley. We plan on taking a train as far as we can go and then working our way back.