Bern; Wednesday, 15 August, 2007

In the four weeks prior to this trip I had already subjected my body to massive sleep deprivation caused by never-ending day, and dragged it round several thousand miles of Northern Europe. The sensible thing to do would be to take it easy for a while, after all I’m overweight and the only real exercise I get is walking, so it’s not in the healthiest of states. However, I don’t do the sensible thing. Instead, with my body barely recovered from the lack of sleep I decide to try out Oxygen deprivation and altitude sickness on it

Whilst they may not be the very highest of the mountains in Switzerland the Eiger (3970m), Mönch (4099m) and Jungfrau (4158m), translate as the Ogre, Monk and Virgin) are some of the most spectacular. And getting to within admirable distance of the summit of the Jungfrau is surprisingly easy. At 3454m above sea level Jungfraujoch holds the record as Europe’s highest railway station, getting there requires several changes of train and a near 10Km ride through the heart of the Eiger.

Consequently I was up early, and out to the station whilst the rush hour was still on to catch the 9:09 train to Interlaken. I got off at Interlaken, but sadly my jacket didn’t. By the time I remembered that I had put it in the overhead rack I was already half an hour from Interlaken. The trains from Interlaken take one of two routes up to Kleine Scheidegg, where the final train to Junfraujoch leaves from, and return tickets allow you the choice to go up one way and come back down the other. I decided to go up the clockwise way and caught the train up for leg two of the journey to Grindelwald. Here you change trains again to go on up to Kleine Scheidegg, but I decided to have a quick detour hear and take the cable car up to First.

The Firstbahn station is about a 10 minute walk from the main railway station, but mostly on the flat, on the way I passed a number of shops, including one selling jackets. I popped in and £40 lighter left with a new jacket (Whilst it may have been 28C in Bern, by the time I got to Jungfraujoch I would be lucky if it was much above freezing). I boarded my gondola and took off from the base station, through two intermediate stops at Bort and Schreckfeld and arrived at First about 30 minutes later. The views from here over the valley, and across to the imposing high peaks are simply breathtaking. I spent about 25 minutes wandering around the top station before catching the cable car back down to Bort station, here I alighted to make a more unusual descent back down to Grindelwald.

From Bort it is possible to hire a scooter, which you return at the Firstbahn station in Grindelwald, they lend you a helmet as well and point you in the direction of the 4.5Km track down the side of the mountain. How long you takes depends on gravity and how much pressure you apply to the breaks! You get a completely different view of the mountains from ground level, rather than up in the cable car, and you pass through a number of small farmsteads and the outlying suburbs of Grindelwald. The only down side is that the last kilometre or so is on a normal road and a little disconcerting as the scooters do wobble a bit.

Having returned my scooter to the station (where it is loaded onto a maintenance car and set back up to Bort in batches) I walked back to the main station and picked up the train to Kleine Scheidegg, which climbs spectacularly through the foothills and lower parts of the mountains before it reaches the slight plateau the Kleine Scheidegg is on. Here I changed trains again onto the Junfraubahn for the final leg up to Jungfraujoch. The train to Jungfraujoch starts by climbing further up the side of the mountains, until it reaches what can only be described as the rock line, the point at which all grass and scrub appears to stop abruptly. It then dives into a nearly 10Km tunnel that climbs the final 1200m to Jungraujoch, stopping twice on route, partly to let trains coming down pass, and also so you can take in the views, at each stop, despite still being in the rock, passageways have been cut that blast out the side of the mountain, windows have then been installed so that you can remain safe and (relatively) warm, but still enjoy the views.

The first thing you notice on arriving at Jungfraujoch is that the Oxygen is most defiantly thinner, the closest I can describe it to was a combination of slight travel sickness, combined with the light headedness you get after blowing up balloons, alternatively it’s a lot like the way you feel after not sleeping for several days without actually seeing any nights! Consequently, I felt fine, but several other people were staggering around the place as though drunk, and at least one poor kid was being quite ill in the sinks in the toilets.

As with any “furthest…” “highest…” “longest…” attraction it has the customary souvenir shop (the tag line for the whole operation is “Top of Europe”, I somehow feel that the Norwegians may have a better claim to this but…) and “the highest post office in Europe”. It also has a number of attractions, several of these, thankfully, being the view over the surrounding mountains and glaciers. As I exited the station complex onto the side of the mountain and a glacier I was suddenly very glad for the jacket. Whilst it wasn’t freezing (the digital signs were merrily proclaiming it was +8C) the wind was enough to make it feel cold. You can walk along the glacier on a specially secured path to a restaurant and hotel about 40 minutes away, but as I was only wearing trainers and jeans, I didn’t really think I was prepared enough. You can also go skiing, but as I have never skied before in my life, I felt 11,000 feet up on a glacier was probably not a good place to learn. One thing I did decide to have a go on was the aerial slide.

You strap yourself into a harness, scramble, slither and slide your way up a bit more of the mountain (not easy when the snow is at least a couple of foot deep, and you don’t have that much oxygen to play with), have the other end of the harness attached to a steel wire, and then become a human cable car. The ride is a combination of exhilarating and petrifying. The thing they don’t tell you is the breaking system. It’s you, or more importantly you backside, and a mound of soft snow that you plough through (remember at this point that I am wearing jeans!) After dusting myself down I damply, walked back to the start point to hand the harness in. Thankfully, the conditions on the top of a glacier are perfect for fixing issues like this. Whilst it may only be 8C with several foot of snow, the effect of all the sunlight bouncing off the snow and surrounding mountains, as well as it directly being on my back, meant that by the time I had walked the 200m or so my jeans were almost, but not completely dry.

I had a further wander around the site, taking in more of the views and stopping for a very late bite to eat, before catching the last train of the day down to Kleine Scheidegg and from here continuing on my clockwise journey by taking the train back down the mountain to Lauterbrunnen and from here the penultimate train back to Interlaken. This being Switzerland everything connected, so 10 minutes after arriving back in Interlaken the train to Bern pulled out. Even so the entire round trip to Interlaken to Jungfraujoch to Interlaken, without the diversion to First, or even getting out of the train at Jungfraujoch takes nearly five hours, and by the time the train finally pulled into Bern at half nine, I was ready for bed, and I think my body was considering strike action.