charismatic megafauna since 1985

Swiss Alps: day 3; Berne

Just from looking at the map of the area, I knew I wanted to go to Jungfrau. On the maps it’s labeled as “The Top of Europe.” It’s not the highest mountain in Europe, or even in Western Europe, but I think it’s probably the highest you can get in Europe without having to be a mountaineer.

Snowy and I left around 10 to walk up to Múrren to catch the lift/bus back to Lauterbrunen. From there, we bought the fairly expensive ticket (113 CHF with the Eurail pass discount) up to the top. The last half of the trip is through a tunnel in the mountain range, but the view from where we switched trains (Kleine Scheidegg) was spectacular. We could see the Sphinx (the observatory on top of the train station and nearly the three peaks: Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. They were just covered in clouds but we were hopeful that they’d clear while we were up there.

After the 50 minute ride, we emerged at the train station (yes, the highest in Europe, at 3454m/11332ft) but still underground. After a short walk, we were at the café with probably the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen. The clouds were starting to clear and I could just see the Jungfrau peak. To its left is a plain of 800m-deep snow called Concordia, created by glaciers from the nearby peaks.

We didn’t take the train for hours to just see the mountains from inside, though. There’s a place they call the Plateau where you can walk outside and get a nearly-360 degree view of the surrounding mountains. By this point most of the clouds had cleared and we could see not only the three peaks but all the way down to Kleine Schiedegg and even a bit further. I wish I could do the panorama mode on the camera well to do some justice to that view, but looking back at the pictures I did take I doubt any photos could do it justice. We didn’t stay outside too long; even bundled up it’s pretty cold. When we got back inside the weather report said that it was -9.8C (14.36F) with winds at 40km/h (24.8 MPH). Factoring in the wind chill brings the “feels like” temperature to just about 0F.

There’s a whole complex of stuff there (hotel, 2 restaurants, observatory, research station, cinema, ice palace) but the parts that we cared about (and could get to) were the ice palace and the observatory. The ice palace is carved into what I imagine is part of some glacier; i didn’t notice any refrigeration and I doubt they’d need it. It’s a showcase for ice sculptures ranging from the typical (swans) to reasonable (penguins and polar bears) to a little silly (igloo with seals poking up into the front yard).

The observatory (the Sphinx) was surprisingly less windy than the Plateau even though the Sphinx is higher and not any more protected from the wind. The view of Eiger and Mönch were better from there, but the dome on top got in the way of the Jungfrau. It’s still pretty spectacular any way you look at it and we spent a lot of time looking at it any way we could.

The ride back was pretty uneventful, as was the evening. We played cards and drank the rest of or beer/wine and got some sleep.

I woke up to snow. Knowing that I had to hike up the hill to buy breakfast that was a bit disappointing, so I hopped out and hiked up the hill quick as I could to get back before the weather got any worse. By the time I got back it had changed to barely unfrozen rain which in my book is much worse than snow. I packed my stuff up, ate breakfast, and caught the lift/bus/train to Interlaken Ost.

There’s not much to do around Interlaken Ost, so my plan had been to train over to Interlaken and hang out for a while to do some errands. Later, I’d catch the train to Berne/Zürich before my night train from Zürich to Vienna. However, the train waiting at Interlaken Ost to take me to Interlaken proper was continuing to Bern. As the train pulled in to Interlaken I decided I’d just hang out in Berne instead (mostly to try and get away from the crummy weather).

Berne’s weather was only moderately better, but I had errands to do. First was reserving my couchette on the night train, which I could do. Second was find a post office and a place to buy a calling card from the Tourist Info center. Both of those I could do inside the train station without braving the rain.

To continue my errands however, meant going outside. Neither was too far from the train station, and mostly the sidewalks are covered so it wasn’t too bad. I mailed 1 postcard (parents) and one collection of items (Tess) but had forgotten to write the addresses on 3 other postcards (for which I didn’t know the address off the top of my head) so those had to wait. The hostel at which I bought the phone card was just a bit further down the next road.

I looped back, wanting to see some different stores for a while. I passed — no, I stopped at — a table of books at a tiny store. I’m not sure what the store actually sold, but they had a copy of The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman which I’d heard good things about for 1 CHF. With 1.90CHF in my pocket, I spent half my remaining Swiss money on this book. I’m excited about the book, but I did spend the rest of my time unsuccessfully trying to spend 0.90CHF.

I spent a bit of time in a library, reading the book and the commemorative issue of Time about Obama’s election. If you haven’t gotten to read it, I definitely recommend it.

And that brings my adventures in Switzerland to and end, and me to the halfway point in my trip. So far,my favorite place was Gimmelwald (beautiful, quiet, cool people) but there are a bunch more places to see (Vienna, Venice, Florence, the Cinque Terre, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris) before I can make a final decision.