Top of the world

I know I posted a quick picture earlier when we were actually at the top of Europe, up in the mountains. Here is a bit more.

Sunday was a gorgeous morning, and even though we had just seen the Matterhorn the previous day, we decided we had to take advantage of the weather and make the trip up the Jungfrau to the so-called "Top of Europe". It's the highest railway station in Europe at 3500 meters up. As a point for comparison, Mt Washington in New Hampshire is around 1900 meters high. Wengen, where we are staying is at 1300 meters. The top of the Gornergrat rail where we saw the Matterhorn is at 3100 meters.

So from Wengen, first we have to catch the cog rail up to Kleine Scheidigg. There we change to the Jungfraubahn which winds it's way through a number of tunnels, up and up, until it ends inside the mountain. You walk through a tunnel, then take lift up to the Sphinx observatory where you finally step out onto the mountains, with views of the Jungrau, Monch, and maybe the Eiger peeking through the clouds. There are glaciers all around. It's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit here today, which is actually pretty balmy. It's frankly amazing.

This is the view looking back at Wengen from the train



This is Kleine Scheidigg. As you can see, the clouds are pretty low up here.





Looking up, ahead of the train:



And here we are at the top.








There's also a part of the complex which winds through the glacier itself. They have dug out an "ice palace", and filled it with ice sculptures. Here' style rather cool entrance






See the small building in the center of this photo, on the ridge? that's where we were!

Location:Jungfraujoch