Top of the morning to you !

The Big One – a trip up to the highest rail station in Europe. Ohhhh, yes !

We’ve been planning this since our first visit to the area (in 2023 – see yet more old blog posts) was plagued by low cloud and poor weather , so it was never worth the sizeable outlay on tickets. But this is the day the Summer Pass starts to pay for itself : bus down the valley to Lauterbrunnen, train to Kleine Scheidegg, and then the Jungfrau Express itself all the way to the top .  THROUGH the mountain, if you please !

They state that reservations both ways are mandatory, but so keen were we that we actually arrived at Kleine S station nearly an hour early.  Where we discovered that in fact there is a separate queue for the Jungfrau X train for those without reservations , so managed to snag seats 30 mins early. It’s an odd journey cos almost all of it is inside a tunnel through the base of the Eiger / Monk mountains. They stop for a 5 min photo opp through some picture windows, then on to the top. You emerge , a bit breathless and light-headed from the sudden climb to 3500m , into a ring of cold, rough rock tunnels with confusing sets of directions to  “experiences” like a 3D cinema and ” Alpine Sensation”  ( which I assume just meant an even more intense form of  altitude sickness, so gave that a miss). We eventually managed to achieve escape velocity and emerged blinking into the open air !

And all the extra layers we’d brought were immediately unnecessary ballast – it was hot, sunny, almost windless…and the path we wanted to follow was climbing up to a ” Monk’s Hut” . So off we trotted – pointy walking sticks helping with traction.

The “hut”, 2km and half an hour’s trudge uphill, turned out to be a very modern looking bunkhouse where keen mountaineers can overnight. Took advantage of its balcony to rest and eat my sarnies (  didn’t expect us to pay mountain restaurant prices now, surely ???)

On entry , we had to swap our outdoor boots for their own rather fetching styles –  

Absolutely fantastic views in really clear skies, across glaciers and to distant alpine ranges. Most of the visitors had stayed at the main complex to buy Toblerones and watches ( really ), so it was also beautifully peaceful.

But having eaten, we did make our way back to the  main building – wanted to see the 360 views !

The area round that dome at the top is known as the Sphinx, and does give incredible views to both south and north sides of this ridge .

And indoors there was the option to pretend you are a real mountaineer. Not the sort of juvenile attraction I would fall for, obvs….

All in all we were up there over 3 hours. We kept some of the cinema / indoor stuff for another day as we can come back again on this rail pass …and fully intend to .

Also – I had assumed this marvel of  engineering was all relatively recent – but far from it.  Tough old Swiss workmen chiselled the rail tunnels  out with basic equipment over 100 years ago .

Stopped off at Eiger Gletscher station on the way back as we had spent quite a long time on trains &  fancied a bit more of a walk down.

From that point we got close up views of the north face of Eiger ( sanctions have now been lifted) …

And further down, of all the big peaks

All in all, a really fab day out.

(Oooh, and there was another newsworthy item from our walk on the tops, but that’ll have to wait for another post )