Jungfraujoch

Switzerland is a beautiful country which makes you marvel at its scenic nature at every turn. In the Swiss Alps is Jungfraujoch, a saddle connecting two major 4,000-meter-high mountains.

To reach the "Top of Europe", I went to a city named Interlaken. The colorful Swiss trains are cute, and I reached Interlaken by train from Zurich.

Swiss Rails sells rail passes for different days' duration and the 5 days pass I purchased allowed unlimited travel throughout the country. The first- and second-class options are available for the pass, the second class is a bit cheaper, and quite comfortable. Switzerland is one of the very expensive countries in Europe, in my opinion, and the 5-day pass set me back $340.

The hotel room I had chosen was quite rustic and entering it, I discovered that it was run by a couple. The husband was a Michelin starred chef with many years of this honor under his belt. It was good to hear that the room had breakfast included, which meant that the breakfast would surely be of high quality.

After the breakfast of many types of breads, many more types of Swiss cheeses and these colorful boiled eggs, I walked a mile to the Interlaken station for the epic Jungfrau trip.

The Interlaken train station was buzzing with activity. It seemed like there were nearly a thousand people wanting to go to the top of Europe that morning.

In a half hour, I was at the Grindenwald terminal from where I could go to the top of Europe.

The Swiss are famous for their watches and clocks, so I was not surprised to see this huge wall clock displaying its full working mechanism.

The different areas in the Jungfrau region can be visited in a two-hour period and it is well illustrated in the map above.

To get to the top of Europe, at the altitude of 11,332 ft or 3,454 m, you have to get a ticket on the Eiger Express and the round trip is 157 Swiss Francs or about $181.

Even though the ticket is for a specific time to board and return, I found that many gondolas were going empty and decided to maximize the use of my time by going on the next available gondola.

There was instant gratification after entering the gondola as the views were expansive and surrealistically beautiful.

The gondola had glass on all sides, allowing easy access to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Everyone in the gondola was oohing and aahing at the views, and everyone kept saying that the pictures do not do justice to the actual beauty captured by our eyes.

The greenery interspersed by houses, cabins, villas, castles all around the mountain was astounding.

The blue sky was witness to the perfect day and great weather I was experiencing.

The glacier and the snowclad mountaintop were visible as the gondola kept climbing.

At a distance was the train track which also connected to the first station of the Eiger Express.

The gondola stops at the first stop which had a great view of the Eiger Glacier.

You can walk around, take pictures, realize how cold it is and then embark on the second part of the journey all the way to the top of Europe.

The second part of the journey is on a railroad carriage, and it chugs along the steep track to very quickly bring you to as far as it can go. The further climb is on a high-speed elevator.

Once you brave the long lines and get to the elevator, in a few seconds you get to the doorway with access to the outside.

The railway was conceived in late 19th century by Zuller.

It is cold outside, but not excessively cold. It is windy too.

Various parts of the visit are through the underground tunnel showing what rocks were blasted out of the mountain that resulted in the full Jungfrau experience.

The mountain top is visible from outside and it is almost enveloped by mountains.

There is an observatory at the summit that was visible from the point I was at.

At the freezing top was a raven like bird looking for food and judging by how its features were standing on their ends, it seemed to be feeling cold.

All the visitors were delighted to be at the summit, for many this was their only visit to a snowy place at over 10,000 feet altitude.

The snowy mountain faces made for really good pictures.

Going back in the tunnel, there were many informative placards, pictures, scupltures to learn more about the history and geography of this region.

The sculptures made of ice were detailed and numerous.

At one point, there was an opportunity to go close to the meteorological observatory. Since it was cold, icy and slippery, stepping out to take pictures was perilous and needed caution.

With one final picture, I took the railroad back to the Eiger Glacier gondola station.

The pictures of the forest below, the houses, the roads, the sheep grazing all was very fairytale like.

I had been to Switzerland twenty years before this trip and never went to Jungfrau, and it felt good to visit it this time and check it off my list. The scenic beauty made it quite a pleasant trip. I hold Switzerland in high regard for its awesome geographical beauty.