Sunday night, we moved our base of operations to Interlaken, a pretty little town at the intersection of the Lake of Thun (Thuner See) and the Lake of Brienz (Brienzer See), in the heart of the region called the Berner Oberland. In my (as yet) limited experience, this is one of the most beautiful areas of the world.
Overlooking Interlaken are the mountains called the Jungfrau, the Mönch and the Eiger (the virgin, the monk and the ogre -- as the tales go, the monk is protecting the virgin from the ogre). And there is a truly spectacular day trip that will take you almost to the top of the Jungfrau -- 11,782 feet -- to a facility called the Jungfraujoch. It's expensive and time-consuming and worth every penny and every minute.
It takes three trains to get from Interlaken to the top. It will literally take your breath away and it's COLD up there. When I say "take your breath away," I mean it: even if you're fairly well adjusted to the altitude, the air at 11,000 feet plus is very thin. Fortunately, we knew enough to take it fairly slow.
From the top it really seems that you are at the top of the world and can see to the ends of the earth. Everywhere you look, in every direction, there are mountain tops and snow-covered valleys between. The top was completely snow-covered, as it is most of the year round, and you can see areas where the glacial ice is exposed.
Inside the mountain, they have carved a walkway through the Eiger Glacier (remember the Eiger Sanction? same glacier...) where you can see how the glacial ice looks from the inside. And they have an ice carving gallery there as well with some spectacular effects, including perfectly preserved roses inside crystal columns.
Kacy walked out onto the glacier; I stayed behind thinking to stay warm inside with a nice cup of tea. It turned out that the sun was so strong and reflected back off the glacier that she was perfectly comfortable in a tank top!
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train up from Kleine Scheidegg
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Jungfraujoch Facility
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Kacy at the top
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Yrs Truly at the top
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View from Jungfraujoch
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View from Jungfraujoch
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View from Jungfraujoch
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View from Jungfraujoch
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View from Jungfraujoch
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View from Jungfraujoch
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Kacy at lookout
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JGR at lookout
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Rose ice sculpture
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Eagle ice sculpture
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Facility from glacier
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Kacy on glacier
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