Kay the "Top of Europe"

Well since Kay has arrived we have officially begun our tour of Europe.  After a short stint in Amsterdam, seeing the Van Gogh and Anne Frank museums, we headed south to Interlaken, Switzerland.  This is an amazingly beautiful city.  Just walking around town you have mountain after mountain to look up at and are situated between two of the most clean, blue, glassy looking lakes you will ever see.

Just when you think though that you are staring at the Alps, you find that these are just foothills and aren't the Alps at all.  We traveled by train to Jongfurjoch which is called the Top of Europe and that is a pretty accurate description.  We climbed and climbed and after a couple of train switches we reached the top, 11,332 feet.  We walked all around the observatory buildings that they have constructed up to allow people to be able to view and learn about the mountain and how it came to be possible for the public to view it up close.  The train service that takes you up there just turned 100 years old last month and still goes strong today.  To say the view was breath taking would not even begin to do justice to what we witnessed today.  After checking everything out, we even walked out onto the glacier and hiked up a little further to put ourselves over 11,700 feet.  I actually saw a plane flying, below where we were standing.  It was something, that although a little spendy and requiring me to be at the train station at 6:30 am, was more then worth the price and the experience was something I may never repeat.  Well enjoy the pictures and hopefully they will do a little justice to how special this experience was.

Off to Italy tomorrow.  YEAH!

Ciao

Kay and I at the Heineken Experience.  

The view from right outside our hostel window.

What we thought were mountains that surround the town of Interlaken.  Wrong!

Cruising around on the eastern lake, Thunersee.

These are the Alps, on the train on our way to the top.

Almost there.  Yes those are the clouds I am looking down on.

Now that is the top of Europe. 

Hello glacier.  

Inside the mountain they have created several exhibits to see, one being a whole section made entirely of ice.

Some ice sculpted eagles.

Ice Sherlock Holmes in honor of his book that involved him coming to the Jongfur.

Just some crates of whiskey being kept cold.

Whew!

Kay and I with a nice backdrop.

As we began the climb up the glacier.

The mountains never seemed to end.

The view down.

Another one of the "Horns" with a little Swiss pride.

I know they all look the same but I can assure you, each picture is of a different mountain range.

This is the very top, just over 11,700 ft or over 3,000 meters for the metric fans.  Just doesn't sound as cool to me though.

Felt I deserved a picture for reaching the top.  Let me tell you a short distance is very hard with no oxygen to keep you going.

From the top of the trail and all the folk who have a little more climbing to go.

A climbers hotel.  I wasn't really open for climbing several thousand feet to get back to my hotel everyday.

The thing at the top of this peak is one of the observatories.

About half way down.  Still pretty great.

A short movie to help explain the sheer massiveness of the Alps.