Steve Haas Travel

Tag: Jungfraujoch

  • 2021 Europe: Day 11 – A pretty lazy day in Grindelwald & Interlaken

    2021 Europe: Day 11 – A pretty lazy day in Grindelwald & Interlaken

    We both got up about 7am. We discussed what our options were for the day while we drank coffee and Ash fixed some breakfast.

    Scrambled eggs with cheese, chicken, cauliflower. The balcony was nice again.

    We decided to head back to Grindelwald and head up to the Top of Europe again, just since today was the last day our pass would be good.

    We got to the gondola stop before 10am and had to wait until the next train left for the top at 10:15am. This is the gondola car approaching the station at 7600 feet.

    One of the things we hadn’t done at the top was the cinema room. All four walls are a movie screen with a variety of angles while a 4 minute movie plays a variety of mountain scenes. Some of it is quick sickening actually! If you have trouble with heights or feeling like you’re falling this might not be for you.

    We went up to Sphinx again to take one last look around from the Top of Europe. We noticed the people down below this time; hadn’t noticed them a couple of days before, yet later that day we were down there. It was interesting seeing it from this perspective. There was another spot on the other side of the mountain where you could go outside and we wanted to find that since we didn’t the last time.

    This view looked different to us as well because we could spot where we had lunch yesterday on our 10 mile hike. Just below center you see several roads intersecting around some buildings – that’s it.

    The glacier still looks like a glacier…but I loved the clouds in the background that were actually lower than us. We’re at about 11,500 feet here.

    The Sphinx building is a literal observatory and research lab, not just an observation deck. All kinds of weather data is collected in particular. The average temperature up here is about 20F.

    We’d seen these folks from the Sphinx the other day, making this trek up to the peak called Monch. We missed it then but found it today. Still weren’t in the right shoes so passed this time. Next time we’ll be better prepared!

    Ash kept wanting me to jump up….asked me to do it 3 times….

    ….the weird part is that I actually did it….

    There was a bar there and to the far right you can see lounge chairs. Folks were just hanging out taking in the incredible views.

    We went inside instead for different kinds of treat: hot drinks with whipped cream. Ash got a coffee, I had the hot chocolate which was Amazing.

    We were ready for lunch and headed back down around 12:30pm. I took my last shot of Grindelwald valley. It’s been one of my favorite views on this whole trip.

    We made our way back to Interlaken and parked in the centrum. We had no goal in mind other than to walk around some and find some lunch. We encountered a food truck in a little spot across from the park which has made an appearance in this blog twice now – once when paragliders were landing two days ago, and again yesterday from above when we were at Harder Kulm. Here’s that Ferris wheel again from a different angle. I love the mountains in the background just right of center.

    This was my view of the park and mountains sitting across from Ash.

    And the food truck!

    Ash had a salmon salad with peaches and tomatoes. And bread with a lemon aioli.

    I had the bratwurst with “loaded” fries, with lemon aioli, jalapenos, green onions, garlic, and grated parmesan. Packed a punch they did! And wow, that mustard with the sausage was hot like Chinese mustard is. I wasn’t expecting it At All and paid for it.

    This was Ricardo, the food truck guy.

    After we ate we were just kinda done and ready to be lazy, so headed back to the apartment. Above is a pretty church with a Japanese garden in front of it we passed on the way back to our car.

    Text says: Congratulations! Your site passed 10,000 views!

    We sort of napped during Da Vince Code (we’d both seen it). When I got up I had this message from WordPress this afternoon and was pretty excited about it!

    The original plan for dinner was Ash was going to cook, but in the end he didn’t feel like it and lord knows I wasn’t going to, so we went for the closest thing we could find.

    Turns out the Barracuda Bar is ranked #1 out of 117 Interlaken restaurants on TripAdvisor and was .2 miles away. Perfect! We sat at that table on the far right of this photo.

    Looking up the street one way. This was our neighborhood; the laundry place we used yesterday is just behind that first building there on the left.

    The view to the right. That little orangish dot just above the hill line in the center is a paraglider.

    We both got turkey wraps and they were delicious. Ash got a virgin mojito and I got a ginger beer. The reviews ranked this #1 because of the good feed at decent prices and friendly atmosphere. We agreed.

    We noticed as we were sitting there that we could see Harder Kulm from there, where we were yesterday. That ledge sticking out of the top of the hills in the center is where we were yesterday.

    Suddenly there were LOTS of paragliders out and about. Something very relaxing about watching them swirl around. Some of them were quite talented.

    We stopped by the Coop on the way home for dessert: ice cream bars. We enjoyed them while watching The Fantastic Four, which I had never seen.

    This is our last night here. Tomorrow we leave for Zurich. We were supposed to have 2 days there but my flights got changed and am not able to leave on Saturday as planned. They gave me options of Sunday or Friday so I picked Friday because I’m not one of those people who can come back from a trip like this and head to work the next day. So I’m going home on Friday.

    Ash is staying for 2 weeks after me, with a friend joining him on Saturday. So let’s see what we come up with for our last day together.

  • Europe 2021: Day 10 – A 10 mile walk down a mountain, and the Top of Interlaken. And cows.

    Europe 2021: Day 10 – A 10 mile walk down a mountain, and the Top of Interlaken. And cows.

    I slept good, still just about 6.5 hours. I’d gotten Monday’s blog up Monday night which is rare but was glad it was done. I had a teeny bit of work to do for my job so took care of that while Ash had his first cup of coffee. We went for a about a 1.5 mile walk first thing and then came back to the apartment for breakfast.

    In the pan: eggs, potatoes, the Alp cheese we got from our visit to Gimmelwald with Art, and leftover chicken from the night before. And of course bread and butter. We ate on the balcony again.

    We left after 9:30 to go pick up Art. We’d offered to pick him up at 10am from Stechelberg where he gets off at the gondola from Gimmelwald, and give him a ride to the Interlaken train station. His next stop is Lucerne. It was fun to meet up with him on this trip and, as our friend Jon said, have our blogs collide.

    We decided to go back to Grindelwald and make good use of the passes we bought the day before, which are actually good for 3 days. While not only for that reason, we also decided to stay here an extra night, cutting out a quick trip we were going to do to Lugano – a recent add to the itinerary that I’m now very glad is gone. It would have been beautiful but would have added lots of extra driving. Our time here is so relaxing this is much better. Plus we can use the passes through tomorrow if we choose.

    We took the gondola back up to the first stop at 7600 feet. Our big plan for the day was simple: walk back down the mountain. We’d packed water and food in our backpack and were ready to go. The sign said it would take 3.5 hours but we knew we’d be slower (we were) due to photos and stuff. Plus we just weren’t in a hurry.

    This is the valley you see coming out of the railway center where the gondola drops you off to catch the trains up to the “top of Europe” if you wish. We walked down to that little hut left of center just to look into the valley.

    Ash standing next to a pole with directional signs on it.

    Walking this mountain is apparently a popular activity around here. We saw quite a few people out and about – a few of them actually coming up the mountain! – and there are plenty of signs to keep you well oriented.

    That’s the back of the peak called Monch we think, maybe Eiger, but the point of this photo is the cows grazing in the meadows at the bottom.

    Here’s a closer shot just so you can see there were quite a few of them. We could hear the cowbells from where we were way up the hill. In fact, we heard cowbells for most of the day.

    A clearer shot of that back valley. There’s a little town on that center cliff, I haven’t figure out yet what it is for sure.

    From there we took a right and started the trek down. About an hour into it we came to our first and only big stop, those buildings that Ash is looking towards. He’s actually probably looking at the train coming in from the left. Before we left after lunch we had a quick chance to rethink our plan and take the train instead but we were committed. How many people get to say they walked down a mountain? Neither of us had done it before for sure.

    We sat outside the train depot at one of those picnic tables.

    We had water we’d bought the other day, and stopped at the Coop in the gondola terminal to get the sandwhiches and chips. Ash had chicken on baguette, I had roast beef on a very rustic seedy wheat.

    I just love the look of this valley and enjoyed looking at it for the at-least 10 mile trek down.

    This is Eiger, specifically the north face of Eiger, apparently a climber’s dream challenge. It was first climbed in 1938 and took that party 3 days to get to the top. Experienced climbers do it today in 2.5 hours.

    More cows grazing in front of a ski lift.

    The cowbells they wear are Huge and pretty loud – no wonder you could hear them all over the mountain. I had to take this video several times. Ash kept messing with the cows and apparently at one point one was about to charge at me! (Too bad my back was turned, THAT would have been a fun video…)

    There’s that valley again, with the town just a little bit closer. It was right at 2pm here.

    Eiger again, with a covered railway running alongside it.

    Map of Eiger mountain.

    The blue line shows the trail climbers use to scale this.

    This is 3:23pm. We started about 11am. I’m pretty tired. Ash is practically skipping down the mountain. (He finally felt it later this evening.) And emphasis on down: that’s what made it so tiring. It’s 10 miles of downhill slope easily 95% of the time. Some flat here and there but not much, and a fair amount of it is pretty steep. Ash kept saying he wants to do this again tomorrow but uphill. I told him he was welcome to do that and I’d be sitting at the restaurant at the top waiting for him….

    Last cow pic I promise. But aren’t they pretty? Today took my concept of “pastoral” to a whole different level.

    We were finally down the mountain around 4:20pm. We had one more thing we wanted to do, which was also on the pass, and it was back in Interlaken, so we got in the car and made our way to that direction.

    We still haven’t explored much of the town itself and I’m hoping to do that tomorrow. This is the first time I’ve seen the river, Aare, which is the longest river in the Swiss Alps. Here is connects the two lakes on either side of the town, Thunersee to the west nd Brienzersee to the east.

    We had to go up in a funicular for our next stop – a very slanted railcar that’s able to climb steep slopes. That’s the track below us just after we started. And it’s high – over 4200 feet.

    The place is called Harder Kulm. Essentially it’s a restaurant and an observation deck and that’s about it. But it was definitely worth the stop.

    Yesterday we were at the Top of Europe, today merely the Top of Interlaken! But all part of the great system they’ve put together here for enjoying what’s referred to as the Jungfrau region, named for the highest peak in the area.

    From this angle you can clearly see Interlaken is in a valley just like Grindelwald was.

    The observation deck jets out over a cliff from the restaurant.

    Lake Thunersee – the sun was 5:32pm so the sun made it a bit murky but you get the idea. If you look closely you can see a yellow parasail left of center.

    Lake Brienzersee on the east side.

    And the center of town. That field is the same you saw yesterday where the parasailers were landing.

    A better view of the restaurant, etc. There’s also more of s snack bar outside, which is where we chose to sit, under those red umbrellas on the left. We didn’t want dinner but shared a coke and fries and that hit the spot.

    Price of Ben & Jerry's pint: 9.95 francs.

    We were so ready to be done by this point. We stopped by the Coop one more time (there’s one in the same building as our apartment so we only park once) to pick up some things for dinner. Ash suggested I share with the folks at home the cost of Ben & Jerry’s here. That’s $10.82 if you’re wondering.

    Dinner was salmon, cauliflower and tomatoes. And a chocolate almond bar we shared while watching Billy Elliot.

    Tomorrow is our last day in Interlaken. We’ll see what we come up with. I have a feeling that will be determined by how we feel after today’s hike!

  • 2021 Europe: Day 9 – Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe

    2021 Europe: Day 9 – Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe

    I slept a nice 6.5 hours which is my norm, up a little before 6am. I finished the blog over coffee, as normal an early vacation morning as they come. Ash got up a little after 7 and we went for a walk before breakfast just to get a feel for the town of Interlaken which we pulled into early yesterday evening.

    A house with interesting architecture we enjoyed in the center of town.

    This was an open field in the centrum as well. The thing to notice in this photo are the two paragliders about to land: a yellow one left of center in the center of the photo, just above that hotel, and another one above that to the right against the blue sky. There were more lined up to land following them.

    Ash fixed a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, potatoes, toast from fresh bread we picked up this morning, and of course the fresh milk we got the night before. We ate on the balcony of the apartment and it was lovely.

    We found a laundromat and were resigned to spend a few hours babysitting that task. The woman who ran the place lived upstairs and was very helpful. Ash tried charming her into doing it for us but “no, too stressed!” was her response. He again guessed that she spoke Spanish and attempted once more in that language, this time succeeding in getting her to do it for us for 10 Francs. The smallest bill we had was a 20. We started to walk away to get change and I thought: it’s silly to waste more time buying something to break the bill – let’s just give her the 20. So we walked back and when Ash announced that in Spanish she literally squealed with delight and her mother who’d been watching from the balcony clapped! We were just thrilled we got out of the work!

    That out of the way, we decided to go to Grindelwald, another town on the mountain that we heard was worth checking out with a couple of decent gondola rides. We headed out initially in the same direction as the night before, but with clearer sky you could see 3 distinct mountain ridges this time.

    We made it to Grindelwald in about 20 minutes and perfect weather. After much discussion we finally decided to go for it and purchased the big ticket item: Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe. And we are very glad we did.

    “What the heck is that” you’re probably wondering. We’ll explain as we go along!

    The first part was a gondola ride up to about 7600 feet. The cars run close together so there’s essentially no waiting, or at least the line would move pretty fast if there was. They easily hold 30 people.

    There was just one other couple with us so we had a whole side to ourselves. And what a view we got of the Grindelwald valley as we went up.

    Here’s a little video to give you a better idea of that.

    The gondola stops at the Eiger Glacier Railway station which is at 7600 feet. It only takes about 15 minutes to get there. We had about 15 minutes before the next train came to take you into the mountain (yes, you read that right) so we walked around and got a few photos. From here on out, remember the phrase “the photo doesn’t do it justice.” This day was made for that.

    I was pretty excited.

    Somehow Ash manages to take these photos of me that I don’t think look anything like me; a similar shot occurred in Alaska. I guess I really look like that….

    Like I said, the photo doesn’t do it justice. But note the little village dead center.

    One our way into the mountain and up to the top. This railway was first completed in 1912. Hard to imagine. Everything about this experience was impressive, especially how well designed it is to move A Lot of people rather quickly.

    We made it. Jungfrau translates into “maiden virgin” but is also the name of the highest peak in this ridge. “Joch” is saddle which refers to the stretch of land between the Jungfrau peak and another called Monch. The train ride was actually longer than the gondola, and by the time we got here we were ready for lunch.

    It’s a huge complex at the top of the mountain, with 2 restaurants, shopping, lots of things to see and do. We decided on the nicer restaurant of course, because why not?

    This was the view outside my window at lunch time.

    Ash had a salad….

    …and tomato soup.

    I’d been wanting to get fondue since we crossed the Swiss border. So when the menu had “classic Swiss fondue” on it I decided eating it here was the Swissest thing I could do! And it was as good as I’d hoped: swiss and gruyere cheese melted with some white wine, served with bread, pickles, pickled onions, and potatoes.

    Ash helped some and as we got to the bottom the cheese got really thick and was even better. Ash couldn’t resist catching a video of me trying to get it all….

    It was a pretty big place and packed.

    We left the restaurant and decided to just follow the “Tour” signs to see where they led us. We were not disappointed.

    After another elevator ride up, we entered the Sphinx, on observation deck at the very top: 11,782 feet. It’s referred to as the Top of Europe because it’s the highest railway station on the continent. A couple offered to take our photo and Ash returned the favor.

    That peak on the left is Monch. Here’s the point of this photo: see that curvy line in the snow that goes from bottom center over the right then up towards the top? And those little dots in it? Those dots are people and there’s a lot of them, walking up to the top of the mountain. We considered it seriously for a moment but decided we didn’t have the right shoes. And boy was my vertigo kicking in.

    That building is the Sphinx, the observation building that this deck is attached to.

    Looking back into the Grindelwald valley.

    We took the elevator down and walked down another hallway, again just following the signs.

    Eventually it led us to an outdoor space we felt we could get away with in our regular ole walking shoes.

    This was on the other side of Sphinx and gave us this view of Jungfrau- that’s her in the middle, the highest peak. Doesn’t look like much from here because that’s only about 1500 more feet up at 13,642.

    That building in the middle of the photo is the restaurant where we had lunch.

    It’s probably around 2:30pm, we’re on the train going back to the Eiger station to take the gondola back to the car. Remember the train is in a tunnel. We’d noticed the whole time we were up here we were getting incredible cell phone service. We get a text from Art, checking to see if we were interested in coffee or something. Well of course we are! So we would make our way in that direction once we got off the mountain.

    The view into Grindelwald looked different going down just because the sun was in a completely different place, but of course beautiful still.

    I’ll skip the whole story of why it took us nearly 3 hours from that text to get to Art in the small town of Murren, which is next door to Gimmelwald where he’s staying – just a gondola ride away at any rate. But it included getting stuck behind a bus, and a gondola ride and a train ride for us. But worth it!

    This was our view as we got off the train in Murren.

    Art had an early dinner at the Edelweiss Hotel and was waiting for us to get there before he had dessert. When Ash said “but we can’t see your pretty eyes”…..

    …I got this one!

    Art had the better view from where he was sitting but we got to see it here!

    Apple strudel with a vanilla sauce and some blueberries. It was just OK but I was pretty hungry at that point, too, so ate it all of course. Had an espresso as well. Ash just got mint tea.

    It had started to rain a bit and we had to move to the covered portion of the patio, but we were blessed with a little rainbow after it passed.

    And that was pretty much our day. We said goodbye to Art although we will see him one more before he leaves since we’re taking him to the train station. We got our laundry and made it back to the apartment around 7:15pm. We’d picked up some groceries earlier when we got the bread. Ash made a simple dinner of salad and chicken. We ate that and watched The Green Lantern, a DVD in the collection here. Ash sat with me while I loaded the photos and then went to bed. I was still a little wired for some reason so decided to get the blog up before I went to bed, something I haven’t done in awhile. So hopefully it still reads OK without the coffee fueling it!

    Tomorrow, Tuesday, is our last full day in Interlaken and we have no idea what we’re doing yet although we do have dinner reservations. Beyond that, we’ll see. That strategy has worked well for us on this trip and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the spontaneity. There’s nothing like being in the moment from one to the next, makes it all last longer somehow.

    Here’s one final photo for you, courtesy of the men’s room at the Edelweiss Hotel.