Day 57 A Mountain top experience

When you think of Switzerland you immediately think of mountains…the type of mountains we just don’t have in Australia…tall, rugged, snow capped mountains. So it was the mountains that we were keen to explore during our stay in Switzerland. We had read that you can actually take a train from Interlaken to the top of one of Europe’s highest mountains so on day 57 we set out to find out if that was true.

Many things conspired against this happening. Firstly due to the Euro 2008 football we had real trouble getting accommodation anywhere in Switzerland, which is why we ended up in Geneva, a city which is right on the western border with France. Secondly we knew it was pointless to go to all the effort of getting there if bad weather (which is quite common) meant little or no visibility.

In spite of this we set out from our base in Geneva at about 6.50 am and travelled half way across the country to arrive at Interlaken at about 9.30am. Fortunately we were able to buy tickets and head straight up into the Alps. Even more fortunately the sun shone brightly. After a short train ride through the kind of valley you imagined Heidi living in we changed to a narrow-gauge cog train. A cog train is so named because the track is so steep that a cog system works almost like an extra wheel to keep the train from sliding backwards down the track. After another hour long, slow, uphill journey we passed the tree line and changed to a third train (actually our 5th for the day), which ascended the last part of the trip mostly through a tunnel directly up inside the mountain…hard to believe but absolutely true! We arrived at Jungfrau, 3600metres above sea level, at the highest railway station in Europe. At various places along the tunnel we stopped and were able to take photos from viewing points that had been blasted into the side of the mountain where we were able to look out on a world of snow and ice.

At the top after enduring a fascinating and freezing ice cave we entered the multi-level restaurant, bar and tourist centre. This was a bit of a maze and it took us a while to find our way outside and on to a snowy slope on top of the mountain. It was cold but the sun shone brightly and the glare was extreme. A festive atmosphere in which people of all ages were frolicking in the snow was made even better when it actually began to snow.

Later we found another outdoor area where people enjoyed rides, a small ski slope, a flying fox, toboggan and helicopter rides. We noticed a trail of people walking up a slope to another hut and decided to follow them, but after about 40 minutes of trudging though snow in what began to feel like high temperatures (it was only 4 degrees but it felt like 35) we gave up and headed back for a very overdue lunch. By this time it was nearly 3.00pm

We began out descent at about 3.45pm and after another 5 train changes we arrived back at Geneva at about 9pm. Another huge, huge day made possible by our wonderful Eurail pass. We had enjoyed great weather and a natural world more beautiful than any human design.

By the way you may not know that there has been a third member of the Born to Run 2008 travelling team. Paddington Bear has been travelling with us and making regular reports back to Wendy’s Year 1 class. We have snapped him at various places and emailed his photo and report back to school. Would you believe it…on top of Jungfrau our Paddington met up with another Paddington on a very similar trip – he was pretty excited and had a great time playing in the snow with his new found friend!