Day 8 - Jungfraujoch / Vaduz [Switzerland / Leichtenstein]

Last night at the hostel was ok; I was definitely the oldest there, but it was like a big rowdy family, and was pretty fun. I talked to some aussie and kiwi guys who were on week 2 of a 6 week vacation. They were going everywhere and made my two and a half weeks seem short! I drank a bier, finished my book, and watched the corner table get really drunk and really wild, before I headed to my bunk and the serenity of my ear plugs.

Waking up in the hostel at 630, all the college kiddies were still dozing, sleeping off their late night drinking games. From the little window at my bunk bed, I said good morning to Jungfrau and the Black Monk. I packed my things and headed to the cable car for Lauterbrennan, the village in the valley below. From there, a connecting train went straight uphill to Jungfraujoch, the station at "The Top of Europe," about 12,000 feet high in the Alps. Most of the trip up was through a tunnel carved through solid rock and ice at the turn of the century (The Swiss really wanted to climb these peaks!). A couple of times, the train stopped for a few minutes to let us out and look though holes carved in the mountain side. The views were incredible, but would soon pale in comparison.

About an hour later, we arrived. Still below ground, the crowd rushed the elevators, but I figured I'd outsmart them by taking the stairs. Immediately, I could feel the altitude and the heavy pack on my back. My heart wasn't too thrilled about all this extra effort I was asking for all of a sudden! As soon as I surfaced, and could see outside, my breath was nearly taken away by the view. Words just can't describe how beautiful it is up there. When I said that my view from Stilthorn and Birg was one of the best alpine scenes I had witnessed - THIS was the best. Hands down. (In the pic with not much in it, if you look close, you can see two people trying to make the ascent - they are very tiny, and stupid)


From right to left an intensely magnificent picture: the mighty Jungfrau, miles of other, lesser peaks, the Italian Alps, the longest glacier in Europe, smaller glaciers, a tremendous bowl of snow preceding it, and then completing the panorama, Monke. Behind me, I could see for miles, the little villages just dots, over 11,000 feet below. The sun was still a little low in the sky, but quite bright. It was cold, but not freezing.

I went back into the station, and toured the ice palace, a wing of the building with a few mediocre ice carvings, but fun nontheless, because they carved the entire wing right out of the deep ice of an ancient glacier. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all ice; and thick ice from what I could tell. From there, I took the express elevator another 50m up to the Sphinx Observatory. (Sphinx can be seen in some of the pics)

This place is a fantastic bit of engineering and architecture. I have no idea how they built this builing perched atop a rocky outcrop, fully exposed to what the Alps had to give it. You could go outside and look from steel grated balconies that you could see literally a 1000' or more beneath your feet. I heard a japanese man catch his breath and hold his foot mid-step as he looked down. Then he said aloud, "its ok, swiss made, very good. if it had been japanese made, I wouldn't go." After ogling the Alps a little more and taking a ton of pictures, I headed below.

Back at the base station, I left for the open snowfield. This is where they have all sorts of adventure-themed things to do. Like try to get a hole in one, summer skiing, disk sledding, or let some huskies pull you around in a pathetically small circle for a lot of $; they even had a helicopter ready to whisk you away. Prefering to enjoy the Alps the way they did a hundred years ago, I headed off towards a high-alpine shelter.


The sun was bright, and I actually got hot. I stripped off layer after layer and even dumped my bag on the side in a foot of snow. I couldn't believe how fast I was getting winded, and how hard my heart was beating. I had a whole new level of respect for the Swiss who built these trains and buildings, literally a hundred years ago. Every few minutes I would stop to take a picture, but mostly to keep my heart from giving out.

The view along the way just kept getting better and better, particularly as the sun got a little higher, and haze gave way to long shadows and incredible depth of field. Finally, as I was getting pretty tired, I rounded a corner, and the lodge came into view. The rest of the climb wasn't too bad, as I was excited that a new vista was unfolding. This time it was Eiger, previously hidden behind Monke's immense granite shoulder. Beneath Eiger was an enormous snow bowl, and between various peaks, you could see very far to the distant villages below.

The lodge had a restaurant where I ate heartily, Eiger, a cheese-covered bread, a thin layer of ham, and covered with, what else, a fried egg. Through a little square windows, I could see the Alps as I ate. That lunch would later disagree with my stomach, but right then, it was exactly what I needed, since I hadn't eaten all day.


With lunch safely in my gullet, I got up, walked back to where I so unceremoniously dumped my bag (with all my worldly possesions), threw it on my back and headed to the station. The train ride down was uneventful, albeit much faster. I was exhausted, and feeling a little out of shape, until I looked around the train and saw that nearly everyone had their eyes closed, many of them breathing deeply and evenly, sound asleep.

Once down in Lauterbrennan, I knew I couldn't top that experience (literally or figuratively), so I went to the train station and asked the lady for a ticket to Lichtenstein. Just to do it. Its such a small country, I've always wanted to go there and see what makes it tick, why such a country can exist in modern day Europe.