As much as I enjoyed the view from Charles' backyard, I had no idea what lay just up the valley.
On Thursday morning we left early to catch the train at Lauterbrunnen but I didn't really know anything about our destination. You can imagine my surprise as the train, a narrow gauge cog railway climbed higher and higher culminating the world famous Jungfraujoch, Europe's highest cog railway or the "Top of Europe" as it's also called. Here is the view looking down from one of the stops along the way:
The cog railway was was first opened in 1905 and now in addition to tourism, hikers and climbers, it supports a high altitude research laboratory housed in the building known as the Sphinx. Can you see the dome of the observatory on top?
Underneath the building is an Ice Palace carved into the permafrost. At first the floors looked really slippery and my first few steps inside the ice tunnel were quite tentative. Silly me! Of course they weren't as slippery as they looked and I enjoyed the ice sculptures inside.
Needless to say, the views from the top of Europe were absolutely breathtaking. This is the view to the south and the glacier flowing 23 kilometers down to the Rhone valley.
The view to the north and the tracks that we ascended is equally stunning.
This is the Jungfrau peak behind me:
The peaks around here are a haven for hikers and serious climbers. I don't think you can see the climbers on the very top of this peak:
Every peak, every waterfall, every charming village took my breath away. I felt like I must have awakened on the set of the Sound of Music. I wanted to open my arms, twirl around, and pretend to be Julie Andrews singing "The hills are alive . . ." at the top of my voice.
On Thursday morning we left early to catch the train at Lauterbrunnen but I didn't really know anything about our destination. You can imagine my surprise as the train, a narrow gauge cog railway climbed higher and higher culminating the world famous Jungfraujoch, Europe's highest cog railway or the "Top of Europe" as it's also called. Here is the view looking down from one of the stops along the way:
The cog railway was was first opened in 1905 and now in addition to tourism, hikers and climbers, it supports a high altitude research laboratory housed in the building known as the Sphinx. Can you see the dome of the observatory on top?
Underneath the building is an Ice Palace carved into the permafrost. At first the floors looked really slippery and my first few steps inside the ice tunnel were quite tentative. Silly me! Of course they weren't as slippery as they looked and I enjoyed the ice sculptures inside.
Needless to say, the views from the top of Europe were absolutely breathtaking. This is the view to the south and the glacier flowing 23 kilometers down to the Rhone valley.
The view to the north and the tracks that we ascended is equally stunning.
This is the Jungfrau peak behind me:
The peaks around here are a haven for hikers and serious climbers. I don't think you can see the climbers on the very top of this peak:
Every peak, every waterfall, every charming village took my breath away. I felt like I must have awakened on the set of the Sound of Music. I wanted to open my arms, twirl around, and pretend to be Julie Andrews singing "The hills are alive . . ." at the top of my voice.
amazing!
ReplyDeletewhat is the name of the village depicted in the last picture?