We were on top of things today! That’s because we were at Jungfraujoch, the highest rail station in Europe at 11,333 feet. It’s also billed as the highest chocolate store, the highest watch store and, of course, the highest souvenir shops. But it is so much more. It is between two massive mountains in the Alps—Jungfrau and the Monch. Between those is a massive glacier on which folks can walk out on. Tours are offered and there are viewing platforms outside.

It took us about two hours on a cog railroad to reach the top of Jungfrau. It was well worth the travel. It was also a lot cooler up at the glacier than it was down in Lauterbrunnen. It was 54 degrees down in the valley and 30 degrees up on the mountain. Of course, Karen has researched all of this which prompted us to pack longjohns, winter coats and sweaters. We were warm. Karen even brought her gloves and toboggan. I had my toboggan but didn’t use it.

The air was also thinner. It took us a few minutes to get accustomed to it.

Part of the outside viewing area was closed because of “falling icicles.” It was a beautiful morning to be that high. The sun was shining brightly. It was suggested that folks who were going to be out long use sun block but we didn’t plan to stay out that long.

We spent nearly two hours looking at the alps. They proclaim the glory of God’s creation. Words fail me in describing the beauty of the snow-covered mountains with the sun reflecting. We were blessed with a beautiful day. Skies were clear and visibility was excellent.

Karen had read not to buy tickets to Jungfraujoch before checking what the weather forecast will be at the time of going up. The station at Jungfraujoch has cameras which can viewed online to see what the weather is.

While we were up there we did a little souvenir shopping for the grandchildren. There also was a snack bar where we shared a pretzel and had cups of hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream. All in all just a great day to be at such heights.

We took a different route down from Jungfrajoch. We took a train part of the way and then switch to a cable car, called the Eiger Express which is part of the Jungfraujoch also. This gave an excellent view of the valley. We then transferred to another train to head back to Lauterbrunnen. When we got back to town, looking up clouds had formed all around the top of the mountains, which would not have been as nearly pretty as when we were there.

10-7-24 HIKING AROUND MÜRREN

Today, our goal was take a cable car to Mürren, which is quite a bit higher up the mountains to do some hiking. There are hiking trails all around the Lauterbrunnen area and we’d planned to spend a leisurely morning on the trails. We had a great cable car ride up and a short train ride into Murren. We walked around the town so much that we were about too tired to do much hiking.

We found a restaurant with a tremendous view of the mountains and ordered homemade apple strudel and enjoyed the view and the strudel.

We returned to Lauterbrunnen, where Karen had found a laundromat and spent the some of the afternoon washing clothes. After washing the clothes, we ate our fondue supper, went back to our hotel room and packed for our long train ride to Rome on Tuesday.

10-8-24 RIDING TO ROME

We’re riding the rails. Our train to Rome departed at 6 a.m. today. We set our phone alarms to wake us at 5 a.m. but we both came awake at 4:50.

We took a train to Interlaken, a beautiful town on Lake Thun, and then transferred to a train going to Zurich. We changed trains again in Zurich for another one heading to Milan. Totally cloud covered so far and rain. From there we are to hop on another for Rome.

So, with all this riding time, I’ve been catching up on these posts. Ok, I did take a short nap between Interlaken and Zurich, and Karen is taking a nap now. We’ve not been used to getting up at 5 a.m. In fact, our bodies have been working hard to adjust to the different times. Right now, as I’m writing it’s 10:53 a.m. In Carteret County it’s 4:53 a.m.

The information board in our train car says we will be in Milano at 12:50 p.m. and we are scheduled to be in Rome around 5 or 6.

Throughout our train rides, Karen has booked us seats in first or business class, where there is much more room. We are facing each other with a good side table between us, which makes writing easier. We also bought a Eurail Global pass which is a ticket which we chose to use 7 days in a month, then we just had to book seat reservations on most trains. With the Eurail pass we could ride on as many trains in a day as we need, just have to get a seat reservation to guarantee we woul not have to stand.

In the top photo, we are in a restaurant in Murren, where we stopped for some apple strudel. In the next photo, a nice couple in Murren took this photo of us with the valley behind us. The next photo is a selfie of us in the cable car carrying us up to Murren. Another kind person took a photo of us at Jungfraujoch. You can see the ice on the observation deck.