Rail Journey through Switzerland Part 2: Interlaken
After a relaxing trip from Luzern, the day wasn’t over. We decided to take the funicular (Harderbahn) from Interlaken up to Harder Kulm. It’s a fast, but very steep ride up. Unfortunately the rain had come back and we were in the clouds at the top station. We had been quite optimistic and didn’t bring any rain gear, but we walked to the restaurant anyway (5 minutes from the top station).
There wasn’t much of a view, so we had a cup of tea/coffee in the restaurant while hoping it would improve. The clouds did lift every now and then, giving a nice view of Interlaken, Lake Brienz and Lake Thun. We thought of walking down instead of taking the funicular, but decided it wasn’t such a good idea without any waterproof gear.
The next day it was time for our big excursion to the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe at 3454 m! It was disappointing to wake up to clouds and rain again, but nothing we could do about it. This is the big disadvantage of being on a tight schedule, and unable to postpone this trip to the next day. We got up early, and departed for Grindelwald.
Grindelwald is a very special place for me, I stayed at the youth hostel there during two summers and thought it was paradise on earth 😉 The youth hostel is located higher up the hill, overlooking the valley and the impressive mountains, and I went on some really nice walks from there. It was strange to be back and only change trains, especially since the area around the train station is very touristy – filled with souvenir shops and huge groups of Japanese tourists – not the Grindelwald that I remembered 😉
We continued to Kleine Scheidegg, and at some point we came out of the clouds and had a view 🙂 Actually we had come into a layer in between the lower and the higher clouds, which didn’t promise much for the view from the top station, but we stayed optimistic 🙂 At Kleine Scheidegg we changed onto the final train line which soon enters a tunnel (with 2 stops to look at the view from windows built in the tunnel wall) that took us to the top station.
I had been up to Jungfraujoch once before, and tried to prepare my dad for the possibility of feeling funny because of the high altitude. The last time I was here, I came from Grindelwald (at 1000 m), where I had already been for a couple of days, and I only had mild symptoms while running up a flight of stairs. This time we came straight up from Interlaken at 500 m, and were not acclimatized at all. We both were soon hit by the strange feeling – lightheaded, dizzy, racing heart – it’s quite scary actually, especially if you have never experienced it before. We found some seats and took it easy for a while – making sure to drink plenty of water. After a while, I convinced my dad to come for a walk around the station. There is a 1 km long tunnel which partly goes through the glacier – quite spectacular! We took it really easy, walking slowly, and stopping whenever the symptoms came back.
You could see the layers of the glacier quite nicely in the walls of the tunnel. They had also made some ice sculptures here, and there was an exhibition about the building of the train line up to Jungfraubahn, which is quite incredible – they started building it in 1896!
Halfway through the tunnel walk, there is a lift that takes you up another 120 m to the Sphinx Observatory which has a viewing platform. My dad was not feeling well, so I didn’t want to risk taking him even higher up. After completing our walk around the station, he went to sit and play with his tablet (they have free wireless internet – crazy!) while I walked back to the lift. I soon found out that I shouldn’t walk too fast either though… but taking the lift up was not a problem at all. It was nice to get some fresh air, and FRESH it was – it was a few degrees below freezing here. Not much of a view though 😉
Part of the platform was closed due to icefall – and occasionally ice rained down onto the part that was open as well. It was very windy, and very cold… I didn’t last very long out there! It was impressive to see the ice that was growing on the fence… I wonder how it can move so neatly without breaking off?
We decided it was time to leave, and even while walking to the train my heart started racing so fast I thought I might actually need medical help – really scary. I’m not sure why it was affecting us so badly this time, but seems like you never know how you will react. Last time I was here, the building was full of signs warning you to walk slowly and not run up the stairs. Now there was nothing! I find that strange, because not everybody knows that this can happen, my dad had never even heard of altitude sickness, and then you’d be extremely worried if you suddenly feel so ill.
Anyway… it was all easily solved by getting on the train and descending more than a 1000 meters 🙂 We got off at the Eigergletscher station, just outside the tunnel, and decided to walk to Wengernalp, two stations away. I was amazed my dad was up for it, as it would take at least 2 hours (all downhill though) and we were started off on a tiny path straight into the clouds, with hardly any visibility 😀
The hike was actually really beautiful and the clouds added to the atmosphere. We met 2 people close to our starting point, after that we didn’t see anybody. The path was easy to follow, and the abundance of wildflowers was just amazing…
Suddenly we heard a loud BANG and when we looked around to find where it was coming from, we saw a piece of the glacier tumbling down the cliff. Wow! There was no danger, as we were nowhere near it, and it was impressive to watch the forces of nature at work. I almost forgot to take photos until my dad nudged me 😀
On and on we went, in and out of the clouds…
We found this “nest” of caterpillars, and so many wildflowers that it almost seems unreal.
At some point we saw a helicopter flying around in the thick mist, carrying buckets of concrete from a working area lower down. I just hope he had more visibility than we did!
We even came across this Alpine Salamander. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a salamander before! They look like a lizard, but their skin is slimy like a frog’s. It sat so still we thought it might be dead, but sometimes it made small movements. According to wikipedia, they are very stationary and apparently only move up to 12 m during a whole summer – so perhaps it’s still sitting on the same rock?? 😀
Suddenly our little path was blocked by a HELICOPTER! Yes, the very same one that we saw flying around. They were building a new skilift here, and we had to take a small deviation from the path to get around the work area.
We had been hearing cow bells all the time, and finally we came across a group of cows 🙂 The farmers were trying to move them to the farm, by singing to them 😀
Pretty raindrops…
The drizzle and mist had now turned to heavier rain, and we were happy when we reached our destination: Wengernalp station. It had a comfortable waiting room to wait for the train down to Lauterbrunnen. We had a well-deserved big plate of pasta in Lauterbrunnen, before returning to Interlaken.
The next morning we woke up to a sunny and warm day 🙂 Our hotel in Interlaken was in the ugliest building in town, a big concrete tower block. This photo was taken on the day we arrived, but the panorama showed the view on the morning we left – it might be an ugly building but it sure has the best view in town! The field in the middle is used as a landing place for the many paragliders – some passed by very close to our balcony!
Look at this view of the Jungfraujoch, if only we could have gone a day later… Still, I actually really enjoyed our day in the clouds! The second photo is taken from outside the train station at Spiez, where we changed trains on our way to Zermatt.
But Zermatt will be featured in part 3, I think this blog post is long enough now 😀
