As soon as we set our toes in Switzerland, the word ‘Jungfrau’ echoes. It is like everyone just reminds us- Visit Jungfrau!! So the first ‘to-do’ on our list was ‘Jungfrau’- literally meaning, young woman or a ‘virgin/ maiden’. Thus, our maiden Swiss trip to this fair white maiden mountain kick started our series of trips in Europe. We visited Jungfraujoch in the last weekend of November 2016.

Zurich HB-Bern-Interlaken

We started our journey from Zurich HB/ Hauptbahnof. Now, a good way to spend three days in a month travelling around Switzerland is to take a 3-day Flexi Swiss Pass which entails you to travel within Switzerland by train/bus/tram/boat for any 3 days in a month. It can also be 3 separate days in a month(with a gap in between).

TIP: If you are keeping a gap in between the days for a flexible Swiss Pass, make sure you have a phone reminder to tell you when is the expiry date, otherwise you can miss a day (sigh).

So, we bought the Swiss pass from the SBB office (any of them sell it) to see amazing 3 days of Switzerland. (Download the SBB mobile app, its of great help to see the train timetable before hand)

Coming back to our journey, we got into the train going towards Interlaken, with a train change at Bern. It is a comfortable 1hour 50minute journey from Zurich HB upto Interlaken. We enjoyed the minibar experience on the SBB train. Our morning cuppa was sorted on the train from Bern to Interlaken.

Interlaken onwards

We reached Interlaken Ost station at about 9am and immediately went to the ticket counter to ask for the Jungfraujoch tickets. Now, the travel from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch is on a mountain railway. Mountain railways in Switzerland have a higher cost and are usually not included in any of the SBB discounted ticket/ day pass etc. The cost per head is 210CHF

TIP: If you have a Swiss Pass or a Swiss Half-Fare card, there is discount for the mountain railways. With a Swiss Pass you have a 25% discount and with a half-fare card, 50% on the Interlaken-Junfraujoch route. So, it comes down to around 158CHF for a passenger with Swiss Pass; and 105 CHF for a half-fare pass holder.

This ticket you purchase is for the entire route and return, and includes all the experiences on the main mountain (not the food,  or skiing adventures). The one way journey takes about 2hours 15minutes. There are two routes from Interlaken. Unfortunately, we ended up taking the same route both ways.

The route are-Interlaken Ost- Lauterbrunnen- Kleine Scheidegg- Junfraujoch

OR

Interlaken Ost- Grindelwald- Kleine Scheidegg- Junfraujoch

Both ways we crossed Grindelwald, as the trains from the Grindelwald route were frequent at the time of our travels. The trip is a little hectic, when it comes to train change. We changed three trains here- one at Interlaken, then either Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen and lastly at Kleine Scheidegg.

Winter onset and travel

The best part about travelling in the month of November or December is the onset of winter and thus, snow. To our surprise, there was hardly any snow on the way to Jungfrau. According to some skiers we met on our way, the snow was not much for them to enjoy skiing. Another unfortunate part about our planning was, the famous Trummelbach falls which is a little off Lauterbrunnen, was closed due to the winter.

In our minds we thought, would it have been better to come during the summers? But, as our train pulled into the Grindelwald station, we had some amazing snow peak mountain views and we did not regret our decision. Before we knew it, our next train to Kleine Scheidegg was already there.

This is the most interesting route of the journey. The train stops at a couple of places that has viewing balconies. We can see some snow covered peaks and glaciers.

TIP: They have toilet facilities at these stops.

On Top of Jungfrau

The weather did not play much of a spoil sport, as we thought it would. I have experienced snow, but this was a maiden experience of snow on a mountain, which is at a height of 4,158 mtrs. The viewing gallery had breathtaking views, sometimes haunting with the depth and the silence you can hear in the wide glaciers and valleys. There is a research centre, which is the top most point of Jungfrau.

As we went back to the main building at the Jungfrau mountain top, we could see many exhibits on differnet floors- we entered the ice cave exhibit. A cave made of, yes, ice. It has some carvings of animals and designs made of ice. For Ice Age movie fans, they have Scrat stuck inside the ice walls. We can take a picture with him 😀 (be careful of skidding on the surface, it is a slippery walk)

One direction said bollywood, but was shut for renovation. Wonder what could have been there (insert DDLJ theme song, not). It made us feel not far from home (not). As if this wasn’t enough, the also have a restaurant named Bollywood. We had coffee counters selling vegetarian sandwiches, which was great, with names of the sandwiches written in Hindi. We were very amazed to see the way Indian tourists were catered to. The flip side was, Bollywood restaurant had Buffet costing about 40 CHF per person. A little on the expensive side for food. Thanks but no thanks.

TIP: The coffee shop serves hot chocolate and special Jungfrau coffee for 8 CHF. A lot for a coffee?, but take it because you can take the Jungfrau mug home as a souvenir 😉

So, this was Jungfrau, Top of Europe. Yes, it does take more time to travel compared to spending time on the mountain, but we thought it was worth the effort. The effort to see the train, they way it is built on top of the mountain. They are an engineering marvel!

The change in the scenery as we come down to Grindelwald is such a complete transformation that we could not believe we were playing in the snow on top of this mountain, sometime back. As we descended to Interlaken, I took a moment to admire the clean trains, with clean windows and the beautiful scenery that we could see through it.

Little did we know then, the next day would also filled with surprising views and breathtaking sceneries too!

Next post: Interlaken and an adventure of a lifetime with pictures clicked in our memories 😉

Until next time!