Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe

We've been planning to visit Jungfraujoch for many years and this year we finally managed! Last weekend, we drove to Interlaken where we stayed for one night as it's not possible for us to do this trip in one day because we live far away.

We enjoyed Friday evening in the village and on Saturday morning we boarded the train that took us to Grindelwald Terminal, then a gondola to Eigergletscher and another train from there to Jungfraujoch. It takes some time to get there but it's worth it!

We have been to Bernese Oberland several times but we always avoided the touristic places as they tend to be crowded. However, when you live in Switzerland it is a must to visit Jungfraujoch at least once. I must say that we were so lucky with the weekend that we picked for this trip. We booked 4 hours between the tickets, so that we had enough time to visit all available activities and have lunch as well.

On the way from Grindelwald to Eigergletscher we enjoyed the views of the village as well as the mountain Wetterhörner which consists of three summits: Rosenhorn (3689m), Mittelhorn (3704m) and Wetterhorn (3692m).

The trip in Gondola takes about 25 minutes, so we had enough time to enjoy the views. There is a video screen and audio inside which will give you some information about your position and we also learned some interesting facts about our surroundings.

The mountain on the right is called Eiger. With its 3967 m above the sea level it is considered an extremely difficult mountain to climb. There have been many tragedies including climbing expeditions here and over 60 climbers have died attempting to conquer the north wall of Eiger. Therefore, it is also known as Mordwand or Murderous wall instead.

From Eigergletscher you can take plenty of slopes in winter. The ski season has just started and we came across many skiing enthusiasts. We could have also spent a bit more time there but we didn't want to waste any of our booked hours, so we went to the train platform instead. The view from the waiting room was not bad at all!

And here comes the train! We thought that we would be going somehow around the mountain and slowly ascend to Jungfraujoch but the rails actually go through the mountain Eiger. There is a tunnel all the way up. It was surprising and concerning at the same time as I struggle with closed spaces but I must say that it was way more comfortable than I expected.

There is one stop on the way where you can get out of the train and enjoy the view. It's called Eismeer (Sea of ice) Railroad Station located at 3159 m and it's the second highest train station in Europe, the highest one being at Jungfraujoch.

Construction of the Jungfrau Railway began in 1896 and the Eismeer station opened in 1905.

We had about 5 minutes to enjoy the views of Ischmeer glacier and surrounding mountains, so we ran out of the train, took some photos and then we were called back by the crew and had to return to the train.

The windows were frozen and partly covered with snow which I loved as it gave an even more wintery atmosphere to the photos.

I think it took another 10-15 minutes to get to Jungfraujoch after we boarded the train again.

It was around lunchtime, so we went directly to the restaurant Crystal for lunch to avoid crowds later. I believe we were the first ones served that day 🙂

My husband struggled with breathing a bit which is normal at such high altitude so we took our time there to give him a chance to get used to thinner air.

We could sit at the window and admire the view of the spectacular Great Aletsch Glacier but honestly I couldn't wait to go on the platform to walk in the snow for the first time this winter!

This must be a restaurant with the best view ever! And they even had some vegan options for us. We haven't had a meal at such altitude before!

My husband was concerned about sunburn as the sun was shining right in our faces for the entire time, so we switched the sides after the main course to even out the color 🙂

After our lunch we headed straight to the platform.

We were greeted by Mönch with its impressive 4107 m.

The summit was successfully climbed for the first time in 1857 by a group of alpinists led by Christian Almer, who also made the first ascent of Eiger as well as 17 other summits in the Alps. Mönch has become a popular climbing location for climbers from all over the world. It should take about 2-3 hours from Jungfraujoch to reach the summit but if you prefer to climb all the way up from Grindelwald you should count with 1-2 days.

When you turn around you will admire the majestic Jungfrau with its 4158m is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps. The platform is located at 3454m. The ascent to the summit takes about 4 hours from Jungfraujoch. It was conquered for the first time in 1811 by two Swiss brothers. I sound like an experienced climber now 🙂 but I would never attempt to conquer a mountain like this.

It was the first time for me to be this close to the eternal ice. I was in awe of the Aletsch Glacier. It's a 20 km long river of ice which weight 10 billion tonnes (I don't even know how many zeros there are in 10 billion tonnes) and it's thickest part is 800 meters deep. Unfortunately, due to the global warming, the Aletsch Glacier is shrinking up to 50 meters each year and is also retreating around the edges. In the 19th century it was 3 km longer than it is today!

There are some interesting facts about this glacier but probably the most interesting one is that if the glacier were to melt, each person on the earth could be supplied with 1 liter of water each day for 3.5 years.

Let's enjoy the surroundings a bit more...

The Swiss flag must not be missed!

There were so many crows flying around. We wondered how they got there and how come that they are not freezing. They even seemed to be happy.

Me and Jungfrau

From the platform we took a lift to get even higher to the Sphinx Observatory which is an astronomical observatory located at 3571m. The building has an astronomical dome, laboratories, workshop, weather observation station and two terraces which are accessible to the visitors. Due to the snow we were only able to visit one terrace and I couldn't take a picture of the building as they were installing a Christmas tree so it was a bit chaotic there. But looking out of terrace calmed everybody down...

We were really so lucky with the weather. It looks like recently the weather was not so good in the region and we've heard from the receptionist as well as the staff in the restaurant that we picked one of the best days in a long time.

It made me think of our trip to Schilthorn some years ago when we landed in the snow storm and didn't see anything after we paid over 100 CHF each to get to the summit.

You can take a guided tour on the Aletsch Glacier which we might do one day as walking on the ice which is thousands years old sounds surreal.

It looks like it will be a good ski season.

Me, myself and I - cold but happy.

And I couldn't finish this post without showing you some of the crows. They are apparently used to people and didn't mind us taking tons of pictures. They were even posing for us.

We had so much fun on the top of Europe and would recommend everyone to come to this place while in Switzerland. It takes time and money to come here but it is really worth it.

PS: There was an ice palace too but I will show it to you next time.

Thank you for reading!

Cheers,
Martina