Day 22 ~ Jungfrau-yuck

We got up earlier than usual, and cheerfully headed up to the much-anticipated Jungfraujoch. This is “The Top of Europe,” the highest point reached by rail in Europe and its longest continually-inhabited high point. We’d seen photos and videos, and oh man did we want to go. When we hatched the idea of going to Switzerland, it was to get to the Jungfraujoch. And the day was finally here. The forecast had been for fog, for snow, and for foggy snow, but luck was on our side and the clouds parted and this is what awaited us:

Just. Kidding. What we saw was this:

The forecast had been for snow and clouds. In a mode of foolish optimism partly fueled by knowing the forecast wasn’t any better any of the other 5 days we are in Switzerland, we hoped for the best and paid a mountain of money to go to the Top of Europe, only to find that we were in a cloud. Clouds are cool, but to say we were disappointed was an understatement.

But to back up a bit, we did have several very cool train rides up there that took us through some terrain we hadn’t been through before. The train ride was beautiful.

Stef was most excited about the supremely dense forests, packed with at least three varieties of pine trees that were new to her, and even some hardy ferns.

One of our trains was neat too – check out the velvet seats and walls!

Interestingly, for a place that has spent the past hundred years perfecting its tourism pitch, the instructions about which trains to take were completely lacking. Even the native Swiss we were traveling with were completely confused about when we were supposed to get off one train and board another. A couple of $5 signs would have dispelled a lot of confusion.

So you’ve seen what awaited us after our last 20 minutes tunneling through the earth. We resolved to explore everything else the place had to offer, then reassess. They really do have a whole complex built up there, and it was fun to see. They had a moving memorial to all the people who died working on the Jungfraujoch rail line, nearly all Italian men in their 20s from the turn of the century. They had a whole Swisseralia exhibit:

Maybe the neatest thing was their ice tunnel, which was carved at least 500 feet through a glacier. Slippery, but very cool. Switzerland is clearly not a litigious place.

Daniel ventured out, Stef stayed mostly out of the snow.

We liked their posters better than their actual views, on that day at least:

We’d explored everything there, had a cup of hot chocolate, and it was time to decide – did we kill time up there for a couple of hours, hoping things would clear, or did we cut our losses and head back to Wengen? The single biggest factor was that our luck had finally run out and Daniel has come down with a doozy of a cold (seemingly not COVID though). He was dead on his feet, so we decided to head back for naps, baths, soup, and tea.

We kept our spirits up by cracking jokes at the Jungfraujoch (pronounced like “young frow yolk”) which is billed as “the Top of Europe”:

• Did you hear that they’re opening a restaurant for small plate Spanish food on Jungfraujoch? It’s called “The Tapas Europe”
• Did you hear that they’re opening a Thai restaurant on Jungfraujoch? It’s called “The Thai-est Point in Europe”
• Did you hear that they’re opening a stand selling soft serve ice cream on Jungfraujoch? It’s called “Jung FroYo”

Whether it was the low oxygen air or Dan’s rising fever, we found these more entertaining that the Top of Europe itself.

The way back was pretty fun though. At some of the rail transfers, we hadn’t had time in the morning to look around the stations, but there was a lot to see there.

Stef ventured out to do laundry (that was a whole adventure, she’s happy to tell the tale) and leave Daniel in peace to nap. After dinner, we went for a walk and found these two twinsy tuxedo cats, who gave us quite a bit of time and were very lovely. They live in a super-fun house with all kinds of cat-themed decor, AND several cat ramps, one of which goes up to a cat flap in the upper story.

And I know you’ve been wondering: Did Daniel and Stef quit before the miracle? If they’d stayed longer, would the clouds have parted? The answer was no, it was socked in clouds the whole rest of the day. No regrets.

Welp, they can’t all be winners, folks. We’ve had a bit of a pattern of having a bummer first day in a new place, then rocking hard with day after day of awesome, so we’re hoping we’ve got our bummer first day out of the way. We’re staying local tomorrow, in an area we are certain is beautiful and we’re pretty confident will have good weather. Stay tuned!