It is always about the weather when you have a bus, train, switch trains, take a gondola then a train to the top. Once again we are blessed with guardian weather angels gifting us another glorious day in the Alps.
We’re off to the tippy top it’s time
Where did they ALL come from??
Jungfraujoch station opened February 21, 1912. And the railway opened August 1, 1912
The high altitude weather station Metro Schweitzer has operated since 1923. It tracks not only weather, but pollution levels and climate change, a huge threat to the Alpine Region.
The Eiger Express gondola with cutting edge 3S technology is the worlds only gondola system to seamlessly merge into the natural environment with minimal impact. It opened in 2020 replacing the old cableway.
The Top of Europe is touted as such because the railway station lies 3,454 (11,332 feet) meters above sea level. Making it the highest railway station in all of Europe.
The Jungfraujoch is a saddle connecting two major 4000ers of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It lies at an elevation of 3,463 metres (11,362 ft) above sea level and is directly overlooked by the rocky prominence of the Sphinx.
Once on and heading UP, the skies are showing off their magic
The sun is just starting to warm the tops…
Off the gondola and time for the train. You’re required to reserve a seat at a specific time. So we had a lil spare time for a cappuccino. Bonus
When we boarded the train we weren’t sure of the best side for views. Turns out they built this railroad in a tunnel so sit back and relax as we climb to 11,333 feet.
The Aletsch Glacier is the largest in the Alps. It’s 22km long, 900 meters thick and twice as wide with a total of 12 billion tons of ice.
The temperature is 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) with winds of 30-35 mph. That’s 🥶 and we have the other half of our suit case ready in our backpack. Honestly the air is fresh and clean and the sun is warm beating down on us. It’s an absolutely gorgeous day in the Alps and the sky couldn’t be bluer.
We met some brave birdies
We’re not at the top yet. We have a 360 cinema, alpine sensation, and we get to walk through a glacier on a very slick icy path with ice sculptures.
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Get the ice pick
Now it’s the 🔝 💥
Enough cold and snow and beautiful surroundings…there’s a Lindt chocolate store on the way to the train. They assign you a train departure time, so we made time for the highest chocolate shop in the world.
Of course we picked out a few flavors to try this incredibly scrumptious chocolates later tonight
Lucky us they handed out more on the ride down
We hopped on the gondola and had it all to ourselves!!!
We did see 9 paragliders coming off the top. Again loving our gondola ride…
This incredible story/history of this engineering feat of this route to the top of Europe is detailed in this link if interested. We were fascinated in awe today.
https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/jungfraujoch-top-of-europe/construction-of-the-jungfrau-railway/
Tomorrow is open we might just meander through town and hop on a local gondola and definitely have a place for lunch picked out
