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Europe 2024: The Top
posted : Saturday, January 18, 2025
Day 5 - and it’s for a day trip to the top of Europe.
So I mentioned there’s quite a number of places nearby Interlaken that would make for good day trips - Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen for instance. To get up to Jungfraujoch there’s actually two ways to do it - either a cable car from Grindelwald, or a traditional cogwheel that starts from Lauterbrunnen. Could have bought the tickets from Klook etc, but wouldn’t be able to mix the transport modes so I opted to buy from Jungfraujoch website directly, which allowed us to take the “traditional” route uphill and the “quick” route when heading back. And very narrowly missed the cogwheel servicing dates too which started the next day. Finally that’s one thing that went our way in terms of scheduling. Half a mind to go for early bird pricing I.e. start the journey early before 7am but nahhh. Opted for a 7.35am train from Lauterbrunnen instead.  But first let’s talk about this buffet breakfast which comes with our room rates, I don’t remember paying too much for it too so I think this is a steal. Decent variety, no Asian options of course but that’s fine  Had to get more cheese  One of my loads  View from our seat in the restaurant, and yes - the platform is right next to it.  And we were out there waiting for a short train to Interlaken Ost in 20 minutes - restaurant opened at 7am and we needed to catch a 7.23am train to Ost, to make our connection to Lauterbrunnen. Never mind, there are two more days to slowly enjoy breakfast.  Boarding train at Lauterbrunnen, towards Kleine Scheidegg  Passing by the town as we head into the mountains. Lauterbrunnen is another charming place and would have been worth half a day or so, but we didn’t have time for it  This train is quite scenic too  Snow, mountains  Snow, mountains (ooh, aah)  Kleine Scheidegg station.  Honestly, pictures don’t do this place justice. I was totally blown away  I think it’s gonna be even prettier in winter but this will do  Jungfraubahn that will take us up the mountains  One more look  Interior of the train, we paid for seat reservations but looks like it’s wasted. Conductor auntie told us we are still early, and many passengers come through the cable car instead  Going even higher  One of the stops along the way, thought it was just a stop but auntie noticed we hadn’t got off and told us this is a stop for views, and asked us to go take a look! And good that we did but again, breathtaking  Had a video but didn’t post, but this is the sight out of Eismeer - Sea of Ice  Arriving at the highest train station in Europe!  Out into a restaurant but we didn’t sit down or buy anything We opted for a 2.5h stay on top of the mountain, which the booking website indicated that we would have time to visit a few attractions, but what we didn’t realise was that it’s more like a building complex and you just go from one station to another, so to speak (like how you have a route to follow when shopping at ikea). And we started off with the Sphinx Terrace.  I suppose you can sit inside and watch if you are afraid of the cold  But we went out. And here’s yet another CLOY landmark  At this point 3 layers of clothing is still good enough  The snow is blinding. I am not sure if that has ever happened to me before.  Next attraction along the way is the Alpine Sensation - a series of exhibits  Also a bit of memorial element, for the lives that were sacrificed when the Jungfrau rail was built which as you can probably imagine wasn’t easy  To the Ice Palace next!  And finally out to the Glacier Plateau on actual ice and snow  The highlight of this part and everybody was queuing to take picture with the flag  We went for the smaller one which had no queue Honestly a breathtaking place and also finally for once I have some luck with weather during such observatory trips. But we did finish ahead of schedule too so we hung out a bit at the souvenir shops before hopping on the train back to Eigergletscher where cable car awaits.  Cable car down to the village  Approaching the village  Hung out a bit at the terminal, strangely still not particularly hungry but ice cream on a cold day is still welcomed, didn’t see this flavor at the supermarkets so bought The schedule is actually such that you will hop on a connecting train back to Interlaken Ost, but we figured that we can just take a later train and spend the whole afternoon in Grindelwald. And here’s a hiccup - I did not realize that Grindelwald Terminal and Grindelwald station (and hence town) are two different stations haha. Hence I spent quite some time at the station figuring how to get to the town, why google is asking me to take a half an hour walk, actually starting the walk, before finally deciding that it didn’t make sense and the realization. So hastily bought a train ticket for a one stop ride to Grindelwald proper (which, technically given the short distance nobody would have time to check your tickets but, eh, integrity).  Arriving at the Grindelwald terminal station  Nice view but how do we get there ah  Oh by taking another train, not walking silly Didn’t budget much time for Grindelwald actually, because sigh their main attraction - Grindelwald First cliff walk - is closed and we aren’t into paragliding and all. So it’s just lunch and walking around the town a bit taking in the scenery, which didn’t take too long.  Grindelwald village  Breathtaking views at every corner and I can only imagine the snow filled scenery  Paragliding is a thing here too  Very short research and we found ourselves at this restaurant called Barry’s to finally have our first cheese fondue  This is apparently one persons portion, the server didn’t ask and just decide for us, I only found out when paying haha. We got the non-alcoholic version and yes it’s yummmm  Also a salad to um balance things out?  Heading back to the station  Another station architecture photo And so we got back to Interlaken with a bit of daylight left even, but it has been a long day so we hung out at the Main Street a bit, grabbed a quick dinner from Coop again, and called it a day.  I’ve still never seen much of Interlaken in light  Stopped by this gelato store, pistachio and chocolate, couldn’t really go wrong |
