a blog about faith, marriage, health, travel, family: Switzerland...Part Two

One of the things that we had read about {I did make Tyler read through the books to try and help me plan this trip} and were interested in doing was going to the Top of Europe. The Jungfraujoch hosts the highest train station in Europe, and it sounded thrilling.

Rick told us that if it was cloudy in the morning to not waste our money and go. It did cost extra, so we wanted to make sure we got a sunny day. We both decided that we would be flexible with our Swiss plan so that we could go up on a sunny day.

We purchased our train tickets at the Wengen train station. It must have been a good day to go because the train was packed. We rode up to the next station, Klein Scheidegg, and transferred to the train that would take us up. That train was just as packed. Thankfully, the man who sold us our tickets encouraged us to purchase seat reservations for just a bit extra. It's a good thing we did. There were people standing.

Klein Scheidegg where we hopped on the Jungfraubahn.

When we got to the top, it was chilly. After all, this is the highest train station in Europe and inside the mountain. The thing about planning a trip like this, only taking backpacks, and planning for hot and cold...you've got to get creative.

We purchased coats that fold up into their pockets and are super lightweight. They were very warm, too. Totally worth the money.

We took their "tour," which basically meant we just followed their signs. The first stop was a 360-degree video of the view. I believe that this is most likely for when they have really long lines, but there weren't any the day we came.

The second stop was the "Sphinx." This was basically a building on the side of the mountain where you can take in the views. It was incredible.

There was an area called "Snow Fun" where you could pay extra to do some snow activities out on the glacier. We just looked around and watched.

Looking back up towards where we were in the Sphinx. There is a zip line up those stairs.

The next stop was the Glacier Plateau. This is just the opportunity to walk on a glacier and to see more sights.

Walking inside the mountain.

There was a "live" snow globe. It had moving parts and all!

The Sphinx is at the very top of the mountain...it looks like a metal building. The building on the side of the mountain is part of their restaurant and other viewing windows.

We did decide to splurge massively and eat lunch up there. After all, you're only at the Top of Europe once. Switzerland is expensive, but this meal, hands down, was the most expensive of the entire trip.

It took a long time for someone to take our order, so they brought us Jungfraujoch chocolates. :)

As we continued our tour, we stopped in the Ice Castle as well.

We skated through the whole thing.

There were other shops there that we looked around in. We thought we might try to go back up to the Sphinx after we had seen everything, but the clouds had rolled in at that point. We were very fortunate to get the first trip up and have a fairly clear sky!

That adventure took just about all day. We headed back down the mountain, and I just couldn't believe the views. It was absolutely breathtaking and these pictures do not do it justice.

On our way down from Klein Scheidegg to Wengen.

Overlooking Wengen.

Coming into Wengen.

That's the Jungfrau mountain range!

We decided to head to the Co-op in town to grab some sandwiches for supper. We ate them that evening on our balcony. It started to rain just as we had gotten to our room, and later that evening we heard the loudest thunder we had ever heard....and we're from the midwest! I think it was so loud because of all the mountains it had to bounce off of. Tyler and I just laughed. It was so cool! We also did our laundry. Since we had a bathtub, we just put all our clothes in there and let them soak. We hung them on the balcony to dry, which took hardly any time at all.

The Jungfrau is in the backdrop.

In the middle of this picture, you can see a train (yellow) coming from Klein Scheidegg.

I think I took pictures everyday from our balcony because I couldn't get over our view.

Laundry

After the rain, the sun shone on the Jungfrau!

We did get to facetime my parents that night. It was their lunch time, and my mom reported that she had to give Scout his second bath. Haha!! We didn't talk long, as they were having some friends, but it was good to check in with them.

Other Posts in this Series:

London #1