Next, off to see the Alps! We drove about three hours south to Interlakken Switzerland, a jumping off point for a bunch of ski areas. We weren't skiing this trip (we'll learn that on another trip, hopefully), we just wanted to see some of the country.
The town was just what you'd expect a Swiss tourist town to be, cute, lots of hotels, restaurants, tour groups, and souvenir shops. It was neat.
To get a real feel for the mountains, we took the train up to Jungfraujoch, known as "The Top of Europe." It is the highest point in Europe you can reach without climbing a mountain. To reach the station at the top you pass through a mountain in a tunnel that took 16 years to create. Once at the top, you are at a research / tourist area that has the most spectacular, postcard perfect, views imaginable. I probably took 40 or 50 pictures of just the mountains.
If you look closely at the first picture you can see the Sphinx, which is the observation station on top of the ridge. Start in the upper right corner on top of the Jungfrau mountain, and come down the mountain to the left and you will see a little tiny building shaped similarly to the Egyptian Sphinx. We did not get this view, I pulled it off the internet. The second picture is a closer view of the Sphinx, once again a view we could not see, so pulled off the net. But it gives you a sense that it was really, really high up. John Jr had a very difficult time with the altitude, feeling miserable most of our time there, but he felt fine once we rode the train back down. You definitely noticed the thin air.
At one of the train stops on the way up we encountered the lady with the Saint Bernard, complete with the keg under his neck. Too perfect!
They have dug an ice cave under the Sphinx that you see us in - very cool. (get it? cool??? - sorry about that one)
The other picture is the family on the observation deck of the Sphinx. The signs said it was -15 c, but the sun was so bright, and we were sheltered from the wind, so it didn't feel that cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment