Interlaken - Jungfraujoch

3 days!!! Fell in love with the place and willing to fall in love again with the person I went with😉.

Yay, I made it! I was still alive after 2 days of glacial weather at Lucerne and Mount Titlis! I told myself that I could sustain! Thus continued my journey towards the serene town of Interlaken which was more calm compared to the Lucerne city. By now I had stopped checking on the route maps, directions, train timings, food and everything w.r.t sightseeing. My proficient husband was quick enough to figure out on anything and I could simply rely on him considering past days' experience 😉. 

The journey bliss!

Image from the train glass panes.

The train journey to Interlaken was most definitely serene but an interesting fact was that a Chinese lady was mesmerised with my dimply charm😁. And the lady clicked a few pictures of me & my husband and showed it to us. Also complimenting me for my smile😊. My Mr still considers it to be the most beautiful pictures of us till date😄 but unfortunately the copies did not reach us. Must say, I was awestruck with the views! Even a heedless person like me can take amazing pictures there! Such is the nature from every which way, and is absolutely beautiful all around. The greenery, lakes all along, the distant mountains and the waterfalls! Oh yeah! the lakes are green in color. It is said that it is because of the suspended particles in the water coming from glacial melt and then the suspended solids reflect light making such unique water color. The train journey in Swiss is an experience in itself ☺.

The comfortable stay!

The bridge.

Hotel Rossli was 10 mins walk from the train station but the huge luggage I pulled strained my ice cold arms. In this short stretch I walked, there was a bridge crossing a beautiful green lake with the distant ice capped mountains behind to add to its beauty! The receptionist , a tall guy (John, I think..) welcomed us and was commendable for the information he passed onto us. The room was a basic one compared to Ibis at Lucerne but the wooden stairs and flooring made the difference with the noisy footsteps. Then again the window view was great with the greens, mountains and the paragliding scenes! Continental breakfast here was OK and we used our ready to eat packets for dinner meal as there was microwave facility. There was a food truck near the bus station where we used to eat burgers & sandwiches almost regularly. The joyful owner of the food truck was a kind-hearted lady who gave us some extra garnishing and cheese in the various delicacies we tried😋. I personally found those food trucks more mouth watering than any typical Swiss restaurant.

The cruise!

View as we sail..!

Coming to our next activity, we planned to cruise from Brienz to Thun. It was a round trip, sailing in a mini-ship and return by train from Thun. It was a couple of hours free trip as we had Swiss pass. We waited for the boat to arrive all excited about the open top journey! We were about 8 people sailing together, so the huge boat running at a pleasant pace gave us the much needed privacy. One end of the boat had horns of Swiss cattle and the Swiss flag flying high. There was a bar and restaurant set up inside the motored boat and I think we ordered coffee, some fries. The view on either side was so colourful & soothing to the eyes, with waterfalls from the mountains, few houses here & there, sheep & cattle grazing atop those mountains. We clicked lot of pictures until halfway and then laid back on the sunbathing recliner chairs for the rest of the journey! Men and their camera to capture nature is so annoying when it is overly done. After a few stern looks, the camera took the back seat and our spicy entertainment started😀. Not to forget, this is where we took our first "titanic" photo😍. 

Posing while cruising! 

Another interesting view was the railway track on the mountain edge, amazing isn't it! I thoroughly enjoyed each moment of that evening. Like they say, every memorable journey has to come to an end, we arrived at the Thun station. We waited at the train station for the last train of the day to arrive. It was getting dark and shops closing, thankfully we got to eat some burgers from the station bakery store. Thus the lovey-dovey cruise activity ended as we reached Interlaken by Train😍.

Railway track on the mountain edge!

Paragliding in Interlaken ost!

Hill top pathway.

The next morning, we planned to go Paragliding in the beautiful Interlaken Ost. We were picked up by the paragliding pilots from the hotel and we were taken to a hill top of about 1000 mts. The lush green hill top which felt like an awesome shooting spot. It was windy! I loved being there, posing, clicking pictures, selfies, secluded, humming wonderful rom-com songs, dancing to it, just the way I wanted to spend my vacation! I was all OK until we actually took off but then OMG!!!..the fall!!! I cannot forget that moment in my lifetime. I was shit-scared! It was mad to shout and get off the ground! My heartbeats skipped and I was gone I thought😨! Pilot Jerome made me comfortable while we were just flying straight but the moment he used to glide down a little, I was like wo wo woo..! The fact was that the pilot had to glide and come down to the huge green fields. The pilot made a video of my shouting and clicked few pictures up in the air. The fun shouting video is super hit that my Mr continues to watch it even now and it leaves us in tears of joy😂. The lakes, buildings, junctions, railways, market, monkeys on the mountains...my pilot showed me every distinguishable places as well as my Mr flying ahead of us. Though I enjoyed the beauty around with the mountain rocks at one side and the lake city with the greens on the other side, my acrophobia somehow made it's way through. My Mr was shooting a video of me landing and I was happy seeing us alive 😅. One super scary, yet fun and yet another first time experience to cherish😀. 

Paragliding view!

Trummelbachfalle!!! 

Meadowy entrance.

Cave like passage.

Post lunch, it was time to witness the most amazing glacier waterfall hidden inside a mountain! This waterfall is approximately 20 minutes by bus from Interlaken. The place is near a small town of Lauterbrunnen and the bus stop is right in front of the meadowy entrance. It will cost about 10 Swiss Francs per person. It is said that the glacier water comes with such force that it has carved it's way through a huge mountain! It has been a tourist spot, well maintained with a lift till halfway, stairs and passageways to the view points. It has about 10 floors which we have to climb in and around the mountain to get the falle view! We did not take the lift as we wanted to enjoy our climb up the stairs viewing the valleys. There's a lift at the centre and stairs at both ends. Whichever end you choose to take, it could be different in terms of views. The beauty is that we can see the next floors from the passageways and it gets misty when the water sprinkles. Also, it gets scary😨 as we enter cave like passage as you climb up the stairs with few artificial lights. Then there are small openings from where we can see the milky waterfall already. As we reached the top floor, the noisy waterfall gets so near that one can enjoy the water splashes and is insane to look down the falls! It is certainly a unique experience. One can never even imagine the existence of such a waterfall, having seen the regular ones all through their life😊. Overall, it took us about 2-3 leisurely hours to get back to the entrance along with the photo-shoots we did. 

 Mid-way falls view!

Before we signed off for the day, we did hop few shops in the Interlaken market the same evening. Owing to the cravings of our Indian taste-buds, we then dined in an Indian restaurant before we signed-off for the day😋. We crashed hoping for the skies to clear up for our next day's mountain excursion. 

The Jungfraujoch alps!

Jungfrau alps!

Jungfraujoch is an absolutely amazing alpine attraction, at an altitude of 3454 metres. It is located in between the Monch and the Jungfrau mountains. The Cogwheel train journey to the Europe's highest train station is like travelling in a fairy-snowy land with super exotic ice clad views! The tunnels to climb up the alps gets pitch dark, yet there's an amazing view point mid-way wherein the train stops for few minutes. My Mr jumped out of the train at the view point which worried me until he was back abode. Seasonal crowd was expected and most of them are Indians or Chinese. Having said that, we did not feel out of place at all and got accompanied by our own people. We did not get seats and thus we were standing all the way up. The steep ride journey added up to our romantic memories😉. Do not forget your shades!!! One cannot handle the light reflection while it is sunny. It takes about 2 hours to reach the Jungfrau station via Lauterbrunnen or via Grindelwald. The altitude leaves you a little dizzy as you reach the top station. Thankfully, I got some coffee refreshment to energise myself. 

After relaxing for a while, it was time to take the lift/stairs to the 360° panoramic view point at the terrace of the station building. I was so excited to be at the top of Europe! The view takes your breath away! The misty alps and the moving clouds look so near to you. There was something called Snow fun park area for the snow activities which was very much visible from there. Sledging, skiing, snow boarding are some of the fun activities to name a few! To continue this big time experience is the walkaway from this building to the Ice Palace wherein we get to see some huge ice sculptures to admire. Also the walkways leads us to the multimedia shows and to the informative exhibition. Multimedia show had a big screen wherein they show us the mountain peak ranges, storm experience and much more. Exhibition was intended to learn few facts about the place and it's history. There are many restaurants as well as chocolate stores with the history briefing of the chocolate making. Of course you can buy chocolates here but it's pricey! 

Skiing!

Oh yaas! I played in the snow very much like a child, throwing ice balls at each other, buried my legs in the snow, mostly posed for pictures with such majestic backdrop of ice which was so much fun and I still rejoice recollecting those memories. Coming to the snowy activity, we did sledging together. Sliding over the ice on a sledge was superb😍! The fun part was that if we don't hold the sledge in proper position, it used to slide us to the corners of the sledging runway. Obviously, as beginners we did experience the fun with lots of laughter😂. 

Sledging!

Having such wonderful memories to carry, we boarded the last train of the day to get back to Interlaken. Must say, Titlis and Jungfrau is unique in it's own way. In Titlis, we enjoined the ROTAIR panoramic view as well as the cable car. In Jungfrau, it was the Cogwheel train experience. Thankfully, the weather at Jungfraujoch did not disappoint us as we were skeptical about the visibility and it's operation. With such discussions in an Indian restaurant that evening, our Interlaken days was ceased😊.  


Yet another secluded town of Gstaad stories coming soon😉!