Interlaken & Jungfraujoch

Switzerland turned orange. Not just Switzerland, much of Europe was tinted for a while as dust from the Sahara filled the air. This is not unusual. It happens every year or two. However, it does look very strange. Left a layer of orange snow on the mountains and orange dust on Helen’s car. We drove down to Interlaken. As the name suggests, this is the town between two lakes – Brienz to the east and Thun to the west. We pottered around for a while. Interlaken is a tourist town but on this particular day nothing very much appeared to be happening. We had a pleasant time and then headed back via the car wash so as to remove the thick layer of Sahara from the car. A few days earlier, David had mentioned that he was missing one of his favourite dishes – sausage, mash and beans. So when I spotted some Heinz baked beans in an Interlaken shop I thought I would attempt a fusion of Yorkshire, Swiss and vegan cuisine. With the baked beans we had rösti and tofu bratwurst. Rösti is a traditional Swiss way of roasting grated potatoes. Bratwurst is a type of sausage popular in Germany and Switzerland.  I have no doubt that many would argue that something made from tofu could not be a proper sausage – it did however all turn out to be very tasty.

Next day we tackled the Jungfraujoch. This is a railway station on the saddle between the Jungfrau and Mönch mountains at 3,454m. Tunnels connect to the Top of Europe building, an ice palace dug into the glacier and, via an elevator, the Sphinx astronomical observatory. First part of the journey was the now familiar train up to Kleine Scheidegg. From there we travelled on the Jungfrau Railway, the highest railway in Europe. The track climbs 1,393m in just over 9km through a steep tunnel inside the Eiger and Mönch mountains. The tunnel was dug just over a hundred years ago, took 16 years and remains an engineering masterpiece. On the way up, the train stops at some observations windows where you can look out from the north face of the Eiger.

From the underground train station we made our way to the Top of Europe building where an elevator took us to a small café. After ascending some 2,400m we were ready for a coffee. Refreshed, we managed to avoid the souvenir shop and headed for the observation platform just underneath the Sphinx Observatory.

The mountain scenery here is awesome and we were not disappointed. There was still a little Saharan dust from the day before in the air. This reduced visibility but also gave a slightly surreal and very atmospheric tinge to the views. We felt like we were in a very unusual and vaguely other-worldly place. We could see down several deep, distant valleys and also across the Aletsch Glacier which, at 23km, is the largest glacier in the Alps. As if to emphasise the height of our viewpoint, a helicopter flew past underneath us.

After the best part of an hour, the cold was eventually starting to penetrate. We retreated inside and installed ourselves in the restaurant for lunch. Service was a bit slow but with incredible views through the windows we did not really care. We drank champagne. It seemed appropriate. There was also salad and pasta. By the time coffee was done we were warm again. We were also quite relaxed and so did not think twice about heading off to the ice palace with both wheelchairs.

The palace is a series of tunnels carved into the glacier. The floor is ice. Flat, smooth ice that we could skate along while pushing the wheelchairs. Along the way are alcoves with assorted ice sculptures. At the end of the ice tunnels we emerged on a short snowy ramp leading to another view point. David surprised everyone by walking up here. We did not linger though. The weather was coming in cold and windy. Also, we were running out of time for the last train down.

The last down train was a bit chaotic. Not only were there some dawdling tourists, like us, but also quite a few staff and a fair bit of luggage. It took quite an effort to pack everyone in. Helen and I  found seats for Diane and David then had to fold the wheelchairs up and get them out of the way. Eventually, we found ourselves squashed into a corner by the doors and behind crates. The ticket inspector was the last person in through the doors. She looked at how cramped things were and then asked us if we wanted to sit next to the driver at the very front of the train. Oh yes. We rode down the Eiger looking out of the front of the train chatting with the driver about his job. Very cool end to the day.