Interlaken and Jungfrau the Top of Europe

On my second and third backpacking trip and Matt's first and second backing trip to Europe we went to Interlaken, Switzerland and fell in love with this small town and the hiking and adventure sports that go along with it so well.  We happened to come upon Interlaken while we were backing back then after we ran into a fellow (I don't recall his name), but he was a fellow backpacker and recommended this little gem of a town.  Now that we live only 3 hours away we couldn't wait to get back there and on a recent weekend we had a chance to drive there (first time driving there, previously it was by train!) with our friend John and our dog Sasha.

Before I show you all of the wonderful pictures, let me start off with the drive there.  Interlaken is exactly what is sounds like, a town that sits between two lakes and surrounded by mountains.  To get there requires you to go 1 of 2 ways: 1. up and through the mountains on a tiny little road and 2. the highway up and around.  We looked at a map, but honestly it was hard to tell what exactly road number 1 was like in terms of size and so I set the GPS to take us there the fastest way possible.  We get off of the highway and follow the signs and we go up and up for about 20 minutes and then up some more and then suddenly there was a white and orange bar with a flashing light and a sign saying the road closes after 6pm! What?! You couldn't tell us that before we got this far?! Sigh....driving in Europe.  Ok so we turned the car around on this tiny mountain road and called the hotel for directions.  They told us "yeah we get this call a lot"...all i could think was "then why don't you warn people about this?!".

Now we are on our way (much longer route number 2 I told you about) and we find the other exit for Interlaken and we are heading down some other tiny roads and then there was what I will call the 'death machine' roaring towards us.  Ok, basically this was some type of very, very large farm equipment heading the opposite way on a road that barely fits 2 cars.

After all of this it is 10pm and way past our planned arrival time so we really need a drink and some food since none of us had dinner yet.  One thing we remembered was that Interlaken has a good old American restaurant that has wings......it is shocking how good greasy wings taste after a very long car trip! LOL

Look how happy Matt is now!

Finally we get to the hotel way past the time we are supposed to check in, Matt gets out and can't open the door. He rings the bell and no one comes and at this point all of us are so tired and just want to go to bed so we can be prepared for our hike tomorrow.  While I am waiting in the car this really drunk guy comes out of nowhere and starts talking to me in English and Matt runs back down the stairs to intercept and by my knight in shining armor.  He asks the guy if he knows how to get into the hotel and the guys tells sure it is easy, the drunk guy walks up the stairs and pushes the door open right away (Matt was pulling not pushing! LOL) and they walk in, and he grabs our hotel keys from the desk.  Well score +1 for the super happy drunk guy who helped us out! 

The next morning we woke up to this.....

Our hiking plan for the day is to drive over the train station in Wengen to take the train to Kleine Scheidegg and hike there, however we had a short delay while a few cows crossed the road......

After we caught our train and made it to Kleine Scheidegg we remembered they we have wanted to go all the way to the top of Europe and see Jungfrau.  In the past we had not made the trip, because the first time it was a little expensive for our backpacking budget and the second time were here it was too cloudy and not worth it so finally on the third time we decided to go all the way to the top!

Train station at Kleine Scheidegg

Matt and John while we wait for the next train

View from the train on the way up to Kleine Scheidegg

 I had such a giggle, because while we waited for the train several Japanese tourists stopped me and Sasha to see if they could take a picture of us!  They were so excited to see a dog on the train.

A little information about Jungfrau and the trip to get there....the railway there started in 1912, it is the highest altitude railway, because Jungfrau stands at 3,454 meters! There are five sections on the way up called Kleine Scheidegg, Eigergletscher, Nordwand, Eismeer, and finally Jungfraujoch. the train stops for 5 minutes two times on your way up so you can take a peek out of the large windows. Now on to the pretty pictures....

When you first arrive at Jungfrau you enter their train station that has a cafe with large windows that has a heck of a view!  (This was Sasha's first train ride and she loved it even though she refuses to smile for the camera ;-) ).  There are several sections and displays you can walk through and you can venture outside if you are brave.
 

Silly Matt, you can't help but smile around this guy

This is a good place to interject that I think Sasha received more attention up here then I believe Jungfrau received.  Here we are at the top of Europe with this beautiful view and so many people stopped me again to ask if they could take her picture or our picture together.  There must be 500 pictures of us out there!  One of the Japanese couples took this picture of Sasha and me (it never fails, I hardly ever can get her to look at the camera she is more interested in attracting attention so she can get petted haha). 

It was a bit nippy and windy at the top of Europe

Taking the train back down to Kleine Scheidegg

Since we had not done much hiking that day and we still needed to burn off those chicken wings from the previous night we wanted to take the hike back down (about a 3 hour hike down the mountain).  You can take the train back down as well, but that isn't as much fun!  Our calves were on fire for the next two days, because it started out as a gentle slope down, but it did get fairly steep towards the middle.  We all agreed that the hike was the best choice.

Of course a beer stop is in order before our hike down

This evening we did get fondue and have swiss food, but I forgot to take a picture so you will just have to take my word for it. ;-)

On Sunday it was a little rainy so we decided to drive through Grindewald and also go to Trummelbachfalle, which has 10 waterfall viewing locations and you hike up and down along a path.

Awww the weekend is over and it is time to head back to Italy!  The drive home was really fantastic (no crazy machinery and no closed roads) and the views were absolutely amazing! We felt like we were inside of a National Geographic magazine. When we finally got to the point where the road was closed on our way in on Friday we all understood why the road was closed since it was a tiny road winding through the side of the mountain....