We continued on from Wengen to Klein Scheidegg by train. Journey time is about 26 minutes. We hopped off the train and looked around. All holiday seekers today enjoyed this gorgeous sunny day. Could not have picked a better day to go up to the Top of Europe!

Kleine Scheidegg in a nut shell serves as an Alpine railway station (2 cogwheel railways). It has maybe 3 to 4 restaurants, 2 of them requiring a short hike up the mountain. KS sits at an altitude of 2,061m (6,762 ft). It serves as the starting station for the Jungfraubahn, the train that brings you up to the Jungfraujoch. It also serves a train bound for Grindelwald. By the way, all these train trips are journeys within journeys. At KS, you see the north face of the Eiger, if you tilt your head up.

Kleine Scheidegg:


For hikers and trekkers, you have a choice of taking on the Eiger Trail, or conquering the Lauberhorn. For us, we did neither. Instead, we headed up to the Jungfraujoch by the cogwheel train.

From Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch, the majority of this section is in a tunnel, at an altitude of 3,000 m (9,843 ft) across the rocks of the Eiger. The train will make two short stops along the way, at Eigerwand and Eismeer. Paasengers can get off the train for a few minutes and enjoy the view through the panoramic windows, and then returned to the train. At Eigerwand you'll look straight down the famous Eiger North face. At Eismeer you can plenty of icefields. Both are spectacular!

Jungfraujoch
35 minutes later since departure from Kleine Scheidegg, we were at the highest railway station in Europe, at elevation of 3,454m (11,332 ft). It sits between the mountains of Monch and Jungfrau.

Once outside and set foot on the ice, wow! The Sphinx Observatory; the Grosser Aletsch Glacier, Europe’s largest; the Jungfrau and the vast panorama as far as the eyes could see.

Jungfrau "maiden/virgin"; stands at 4,158m (13,642 ft).




Lots of people were up here. Saw a man with his dog that was huffing and puffing due to high altitude and thin oxygen level. Poor dog! Also noticed many Asian Indian ladies collapsed on the chairs, resting.

We lingered here for 90 minutes, and it was getting hot up here! After a final round of photo-shoot, we decided it was time to go over to Grindelwald for dinner. So we caught the next train down to Kleine Scheidegg, and transferred to another train for Grindelwald.

Grindelwald bound train at Kleine Scheidegg and Grindelwald




Good Eats in Grindelwald? Quite frankly, the view was better than the food. Rosti, a local dish of "hash brown" with an egg and cheese on top. I didn’t care too much for it.



After the sunset, temperature plummeted. It was time to take the train home. Well it had been a great day. Enjoyed all of it, minus the meal.

Next up: More on Lauterbrunnen and Murren in panorama