You CAN Get There from Here - Jungfraujoch

 There are three mountain peaks in the Bernese Alps near Lauterbrunnen.  Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger.  You can't get to the top of any of them without being a serious mountain climber and having a serious mountain guide.  So, no.

But, you CAN get to the spot between Jungfrau and Mönch - a spot called Jungfraujoch - and it's easy. Just thank Adolf Guyer-Zeller and his crazy plan to build a railway there.  Started in 1896, it took to 1912 to complete, but a railroad almost entirely tunneled out of Eiger and Mönch was constructed to Jungfraujoch.

To get to the the Junfrau Bahn, you first have to take a cog wheel train from Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald  up to Kliene Scheidigg.

That's exactly what we did.  With a little help.  Our tour company had hired us a guide for the day.

Lauterbrunnen Station.  

We boarded the Wengeralbahn train at Lauterbrunnen.  It is 100% cog wheel train all the way up to Kleine Scheidigg.  Along the way, it stops at Wengen, a town only accessible by rail or cable car.

Wengeralbahn train at Lauterbrunnen

Climbing away from Lauterbrunnen

Looking back at Wengen on the way up

The valley at Lauterbrunnen.  Note the waterfalls. Lauterbrunnen means "Loud Springs" in German.

Arrival at Kleine Scheidigg

Jungfrau bahn train

After a stop along the way where there are windows cut in the side of the tunnel for viewing, we arrived at Jungfraujoch

Tunnel window

The view from Jungfraujoch

Our guide - Roli of Grindelwald

Bundled up.

Mönch

Ice tunnel through glacier

Carved from glacial ice - the table.  Not us...

another ice sculpture

They let you outside on the snow to take a look around.  It was cold windy.  But, we were ready.

We ate lunch in the restaurant at the top with a view of the glacier.  As we ate the clouds were dissipated and the entire glacier came into view.

Aletsch glacier

Lindt shop!

A high speed cable car was added to Eiger mountain in 2020.  We rode it down from the Jungfrau bahn station all the way to Grindelwald.

The weather forecast nearly every day we were in Switzerland was just terrible.  Clouds and rain.  But, then when you'd look at the UV for the day, it would be a 6 or 7.  What gives?  Turns out it was cloudy and rainy and sunny and nice just about every day.  Typical mountain weather - it changes by the minute.  You just had to be ready and prepared.

We descend through the clouds to Grindelwald.

At Grindelwald Termnal, we caught the BOB train back to Lauterbrunnen, changing trains at Zweilütschinen.  The BOB put together the Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen trains here to run down to Interlaken.  In the other direction the trains split.  The wait to change trains here is about 5 minutes.  This is a very typical connection time in Switzerland.

The fellow in orange is in charge of splitting the train from Interlaken in two after it arrives.

The "Top of Europe" is an amazing place to visit and Jungfraujoch should not be missed.  But, the Bernese Alps have a lot more to offer as we'll find out later.

Tomorrow, off to Luzern, but first some time in the Lauterbrunnen Valley.