11 May 2019, Saturday
Today we go to Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe!
Had to wake up pretty early because we had to get to the meeting point by 7.30 a.m. I put on my warmest clothes and packed further warm stuff (gloves, outer jacket, snow cap) and then we were on our way. The bus left at about 8 a.m. first to Lucerne to pick up some passengers. From the bus, Lucerne also looked like a pretty town, lots of greenery and old buildings. I’m glad I came in spring to witness the lush greenery which is like honey for the eyes.
Our tour guide gave us a lot of interesting information about Switzerland like it has 1,329 road tunnels (!), 60% of the country is mountains and 30% midlands where the people actually live.
The Jungfraubahn or railway itself has an interesting history. It was the brainchild of Adolf Guyer-Zeller whose family was in the textile industry, but his heart was in railways. In 1893 he had this idea to build a railway all the way up to the highest point of the Alps, which would be the highest point in Europe. Concession was granted to him in 1894, but not for the railways to go up to the highest peak, but to the second highest peak I’m not sure why. Construction began in 1896 and most of the workers were Italians. Many lost their lives due to the treacherous work as at that time they had to use dynamite to make tunnels.
Unfortunately Guyer-Zeller didn’t live to see the completion of his idea as he died of pneumonia in 1899. Finally in 1912, Europe’s highest altitude railway was opened at 3,454 metres, after a 16-year construction period. Guyer-Zeller was a visionary who must have been thought mad at the time but looking at the number of tourists using the railway today, nobody’s laughing at him now.
After the pick up at Lucerne, the bus headed for Interlaken which literally means “in between lakes” - between the emerald coloured waters of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. Interlaken is a quaint village town with old timber houses and parkland on either side of the Aare River. The scenery here is simply beautiful. Unfortunately it was raining and windy so it was really cold, colder than the 10 degrees Celsius that was supposed to be the temperature. But I walked in the rain anyway. Went to the public toilet which costs 1 CHF (about RM4!) and then on again to Grindelwald where we take the train up to the Alps.
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