Woke up to a spectacular day in the valley. We went downstairs for breakfast and the friendly staff were telling everyone that it was going to be a perfect day. So we decided that today was the day.....for years I have wanted to take the trip from Kleine Scheidegg up to the Jungfraujoch. It's a cog train that goes right inside the Eiger and climbs it's way upwards. It's really a marvel of engineering and determination that went into service in 1912.
We finished our breakfast and made out way to the train station in Lauterbrunnen for the trip up to Wengen and then on to Kleine Scheidegg. We're here for a week so we decided to get special 6 day regional passes which are good on all the local busses, trains, cable cars and gondolas, and we've already gotten our moneys worth in the first few days. You do have to pay a bit extra to go up to the Jungfraujoch, but it is SO worth it.
The trip up inside the mountain takes 50 minutes from Kleine Schdeidegg with several stops along the way. The first is the Eigergletscher Station. It's the last stop before the train passes through big doors and enters the mountain. This is where you get off if you want to go and climb the Rotstock, which we did last summer, and it's also the starting point of the Eiger Trail for those that do it the easy way, from top to bottom.
Once inside the tunnel you make two more stops before arriving at the top. The Eigerwand Station is carved into the inside of the Eiger. The train stops here for 5 minutes so you can get out and peek through the gallery windows. They literally carved windows into the middle of the north face of the Eiger. From here you could see straight down to the foot of the Eiger. Just inside the gallery windows you could see anchor bolts embedded in the rocks. Every so often they have to go out through them in order to rescue climbers who have run into trouble on the climb. They are actually used in a scene in the movie The Eiger Sanction. The views are breathtaking and it was so cool to look out of a mountain from part way up. Here are a few pics:
Approaching the gallery window
Looking out across the valley to Grindewald
Looking down at Gridewald with part of the north face in view
We could have looked out the windows for a long time, but we had to get back on the train to carry on. The next stop is Eismeer Station where you look out a different part of the mountain....up here you're into glacier territory. The view was incredible:
From here it was only 10 more minutes to the top. Well you never really get to the top, the train station is completely inside of the mountain. There are a series of stairs and lifts that take you to the various things to see and do up there. You could really spend an entire day up there. Our first stop was the Ice Palace:
From here we headed out onto the Ice Plateau for some magnificent views:
Restaurants and shops in the building below which clings to the side of the mountain, and the Sphinx is up at the very top. There is an observatory and viewing platforms.
Then we went back inside the mountain for the high speed elevator ride up to the Sphinx which sits at the very top of the ridge. We walked out onto the outdoor viewing platforms and had spectacular views in all directions. We could see the Aletsch Glacier stretched out for miles, people walking on part of the glacier, a snow fun park, mountaineers making their way to the summits of the Monch and the Jungfrau mountains. It was an absolutely picture perfect day to be up here, and totally worth making the trip that had been on my bucket list for many years.
I even got to verify the accuracy of the altimeter on my new watch :-)
What a perfect day to go to the Top of Europe. We found ourselves dozing off and on during the trip back down inside of the mountain. Once we emerged from the tunnel we were treated to some great views of the north face of the Eiger. The Eiger is the triangular shaped face on the left, the smaller peak with the flat summit which is about a third of the way up from the bottom is called the Rotstock...we climbed it last year (see post way down from here).
We took the train back down to Wengen - a nice little town perched on a plateau above our valley:
We got off the train in Wengen, picked up a snack and then decided to hike the last stretch back down to our valley.
We stopped along the way to take a special picture...one of our friends from work had printed off a random picture of Switzerland and posted it by Jo's desk to wish us luck on our trip. It turned out that the picture was actually from the very town we are staying in, and I knew exactly where to go to get the same shot. So we just had to do it........this one's for you Nancy :-)
Then it was back to sip some of our Italian Limincello on our patio before having a nice relaxing afternoon at Airtime. It's a funky little shop/cafe where you can register for all kinds of sporting activities, surf the web, have some baked good, or do your laundry....oh and have a beer. So we had a beer, did some reading, blogging and laundry. After than, another fantastic Swiss meal, and now it's time to call it a day.
Weather looks great tomorrow.......we're going to see how we feel in the morning and come up with a plan then. But whatever we do, it will be in the mountains :-)
