Sharryn And Garey’s Day on Jungfraur (the top of Europe) Thursday 12th June 2008

Entered by Gill but written by Sharryn

Gill and Peter were going to St Gallen and Zurich and we planned to go up a mountain to the top of Europe. We boarded a train at 9am which ground it’s way up the mountain. It took a over an hour and we chugged up hill the entire way reaching a height of 3571 metres or 11,722 feet. Bloody high and not much air. The railways are cog rails to stop them slipping on such steep tracks. The views are not matched anywhere that you can go without a Sherpa or a helicopter. When you get to the top there are signs everywhere saying take your time as the air is so thin that you get very puffed very quickly. We were able to play in the snow and it was very soft as there had been a fresh fall the day before. We went tobogganing but although it was heaps of fun we could not do it for too long as climbing back up the hill was exhausting. I climbed up the side of a bank to go on a flying fox. That was very cool but I did start to worry when I could see the snow getting closer and I was not slowing down at all. I soon realised that my feet and my bum were the brakes! Also at the top were huskies taking people for a ride but the idea of making a couple of dogs tow us around on a sleigh did not seem fair. The weather up there was outstanding; we had blue skies and views for miles. The trip down the mountain took equally as long and most people on the train were asleep.
We had a quite night back in Grindelwald with wine cheese and bread for dinner.