Today we got up early knowing that it was supposed to be a sunny day. We caught the bus in to Lauterbrunnen, but once we got there, Anoop realized that he had forgotten his wallet. So we caught the bus back to camp, hopped off and then hopped back on again. Luckily it was only a 10 minute trip and the connections worked out for a quick turn-around. Once back in Lauterbrunnen we picked up our tickets to the top of the Jungfraujoch. Our passes covered us 100% up to Kleine Scheidegg where we transferred to another train and then paid 50% for that section. The views on the train out of Lauterbrunnen were great because we could see entire valley with the cliffs stretching up on both sides and somewhere towards the end was our campsite. Every time a view appeared all the tourists (including us) rushed to the side of the train to take pictures; as we arrived at Kleine Scheidegg, all we could hear was the clicking of cameras. Coming in to Kleine Scheidegg was amazing because you could see the 3 peaks once again and the building, "the Sphinx", where we were headed. We got some great pics of the cute red trains heading up in front of the peaks – also featured on many a postcard!

The train up to Kleine Scheidegg took about one hour as did the next section up to the top. Most of the ride was through the mountain so they played clips of the Jungfraujoch and the train throughout its history. It was the 100 year anniversary of the train reaching the top so we received a special centenary “passport” with pictures of the construction, first passengers and statistics about the railway. For this momentous occasion, Swiss Post had also issued a commemorative stamp which was definitely added to my collection. The construction of the railway began in 1896 and two years later they had finished the first section. They then began blasting to build the section through the mountain. By 1905 they had built two more stations in the mountain, but work had to stop due to financial difficulties. In 1907 construction began once again with the break through at the top in 1912. The train stopped at two stations with glassed-in viewpoint on the way up so Anoop charged off for pictures while I sat with the bags etc. We thought that I could get off on the way back down, but the train didn't stop on the way down! At least I could see out from the train windows!

We arrived at the top of the Jungfraujoch at an altitude of 11333 ft (3454 m). It is the highest altitude railway station in Europe. Like the Schilthorn, they also had an outdoor 360⁰ viewing platform, but part of it had been closed due to falling icicles. Nevertheless we had impressive views of the Mönch and Jungfrau peaks since we were right in between the two. It was amazing to be so close to both of the peaks that we had been admiring the day before. It gives you a completely different perspective on the mountains when you are in the middle of them. We bundled up as much as we could and headed out for about 45 minutes across the Aletsch glacier. We were headed towards a hut and more views we hoped. The views around us were incredible and we were glad we had sunglasses since it was so bright. It wasn’t too bad on the way there, but as we got closer to our destination, the wind picked up and it was really cold. It was about -3⁰ C without wind when we were walking around on the platform, so it would have been colder with the wind-chill. We were fairly well prepared for it having brought toques and gloves, but it was still hard on the face. Anoop saw an Aussie wearing flip flops with wool socks – we weren’t sure what the point of that was, but figured he was worse off than we were! We also got to listen to the alphorn being played again, this time out on the glacier. It was beautiful out there and the glacier valleys with peaks all around were amazing.

Once back inside we continued on towards the ice palace which was carved out in the 1930s by two mountain guides. It covers an area of over 1000 m³ with lots of niches containing sculptures and passageways. Because of all the tourists it is now has to be cooled to a constant temperature of -3⁰ so it doesn’t all melt! It was a strange experience to be surrounded by nothing but ice; we skated our way around the palace so as not to slip and checked out many of the passageways – some were too narrow for my liking, but Anoop had a look around.

We then headed outside again to a different terrace for incredible views of the valley below. We could see down to Kleine Scheidegg where we had transferred trains and on for ever. It was so clear and quite amazing to get such views. We wandered over to one side and it was super icy – I warned Anoop to look out for the ice, but two minutes later he had slipped and done a face-plant into the ice. He managed to once again protect the camera, but was a bit more careful about where he put his feet after that. Later, he mentioned that his face hurt and sure enough, there were scratch marks all over once side of it (they have since healed). We also saw a paraglider about to take off. It was neat to see the sail up close because you could see how fine the material and lines were. Him and another guy were laying it all out and making sure the lines were just so. Then, he ran off down the slope a ways until he was airborne! On our way back into the building, we noticed a lady wearing a fancy dress and high heels!  

We went back in to the building and stamped our centenary passports with the date/time at the station. We decided that since there was still some daylight left that we would stop in Kleine Scheidegg for a look around and then again in Wengen. Both were only accessible by train and it was fun to wander through them. We enjoyed browsing the touristy shops which actually had some very nice handcrafted pieces from the region. We also enjoyed an apple strudel in Wengen since we were rather peckish and they looked so tasty! Afterwards we headed back down to the valley floor and caught the bus back to camp. We had another incredible day and were so lucky to have such clear sunny weather.