Europe Tour 1st to 13th Nov 2013 - Day 7

According to the itinerary, today would be a free and easy day in the town of Interlaken. However, there was a optional tour, oh yes, to the mountain called Junfraujoch, Top of Europe.

Typical tour agency would throw in free Junfraujoch till the middle of the mountain, they would not go all the way up.

The Jungfraujoch is a col or saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau in the Bernese Alps on the boundary between the cantons of Bern and Valais, inside the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area.
Strictly, the Jungfraujoch is the lowest point on the mountain ridge between Mönch and Jungfrau, at 3,466 meters (11,371 ft). It is just east this location that the mountain station of Jungfraubahn is located, Jungfraujoch railway station, which at an elevation of 3,454 meters (11,332 ft) is the highest railway station in Europe. The Jungfraujoch railway station is connected to the Top of Europe building.

The Sphinx (3,571 meters or 11,716 feet) is a peak that lies just to the east of the col. It begins from the Jungfraujoch on the Valais side and at the Great Aletsch Glacier. There is an elevator to its summit, where a small viewing platform and a scientific observatory, the Sphinx Observatory, are located. Europe's highest radio relay station, the Richtfunkstation Jungfraujoch, is installed atop the ridge to the west of the railway station.

 The Sphinx

The Jungfraujoch houses one of the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmospheric research stations. The Jungfraujoch can only be reached by non-mountaineers through a 7.3-kilometre-long (4.5 mi) cog railway tunnel, served by the Jungfraubahn, the highest in a series of cooperating railway companies that provide access to the Jungfraujoch from Interlaken.

As Interlaken is a pretty small town, most of the tour mates decided to go for the optional, except the sisters.

Day 7 - 7 Nov 2013

After breakfast in the beautiful old hotel, it was time to set off to the mountain.

Today itinerary nothing much to highlight as it would only be one place...

The trip up to the mountain would be via the railway, most mountain would be via the cablecars but not Junfraujoch.

According to the tour manager, it would seems that even tour guides need to pay for the trip up, but at a discounted rate. I peeked at the ticket price and it would seem it was not cheap, around $175 CHF, lucky ours were $200 CHF inclusive of lunch.

Part of the package included one passport of Junfraujoch, where one could stamped it at the top.

Lizzy signature move

The cabin of the train

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scenery traveling up was breathtaking, lucky it was clear sky and no fog nor dark clouds.

 Once we reached the mid mountain, we needed to change to another train that would traveled all the way to the Top.

Each trip would take around 45mins, meaning 45mins from the foot to the mid and another 45mins to the top.

Our next train, it was booked for individual tour groups.

 

 

  

The second stop, noticed that we had reached 3160m already.

Along the way, the train would make two stops, each around 5mins for people to take their bios and there are windows in the mountains to lookout to take in the views.

Oh yeah, need to remind you people, once we humans reached altitude of 8,000 feets and above, we would feel the high altitude sickness. However, most will feel the effect after 10,000 feets.

Altitude sickness—also known as acute mountain sickness (AMS), altitude illness, hypobaropathy, "the altitude bends", or soroche—is a pathological effect of high altitude on humans, caused by acute exposure to low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude. It commonly occurs above 2,400 metres (8,000 feet). It presents as a collection of nonspecific symptoms, acquired at high altitude or in low air pressure, resembling a case of "flu, carbon monoxide poisoning, or a hangover". It is hard to determine who will be affected by altitude sickness, as there are no specific factors that correlate with a susceptibility to altitude sickness. However, most people can ascend to 2,400 metres (8,000 ft) without difficulty.

Acute mountain sickness can progress to high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), which are potentially fatal.

Symptoms often manifest themselves six to ten hours after ascent and generally subside in one to two days, but they occasionally develop into the more serious conditions. Symptoms include headache, fatigue, stomach illness, dizziness, and sleep disturbance. Exertion aggravates the symptoms.

Once we reached the top, the Sphinx, we were free to roam around. Our good tour manager, gathered us and showed us the areas of interest within the Sphinx. Basically the areas are:

a. Skiing, snow boarding and play with the snow, but now the snow is still not enough, so it is closed.
b. Ice sculpture, much like the China famous Harbin but at a very small small scale
c. The observatory deck where one can go out and experienced the mountain, note that if the wind is too strong, it is very dangerous
d. Some display of globes and statues
e. Tunnels on the history of the railway and the memories of those that sacrificed building it
f. 3D panoramic view, nothing much really, hehehe, just a place where videos of the mountain


The first stop, the observatory deck:

 

 

 

 

 

  

The observatory deck

 Before coming out onto the deck, Lizzy was feeling the attitude sickness, she was seriously affected. Here you could see how miserable she must have felt.

The following were some of the sculpture and the snow globe pix.

 

 

  

Eat sweet stuffs seem to help with the sickness

 

 Tunnels on the history, Lizzy was feeling terrible

 

 

 

 Names of those that had sacrificed building the place

 

 Polar Bears ice sculpture

 We were at the top of europe !!!

 

 Ice Age !

 

 The following were pix showing where one could come out and experienced snow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow !!!

Lunch was at the Sphinx, as Lizzy was still feeling sick, she basically did not touch much of her chicken thigh with french fries. I did not took any pix as well as I was basically distracted by her sickness.

After lunch, I actually bought a postcard and stamp to send back to Singapore as a memento from Junfraujoch. However, I was beginning to feel the sickness and quickly wrote something and posted the postcard. BUT !!!!! I never wrote my address, damn it !!!

I also completed the stamping of the passport of Jungfrajoch....

While waiting for the train down, I was like feeling damn tired and headache was forming.......

On the way down, most of the people were also sick and most preferred to take a nap, including me.

 Lizzy getting better

 

 

 

 One of the station

 

Almost down at the foot and Lizzy could be seen smiling. It would seemed that at this time I was hit with a splitting headache. 

The rest of the afternoon was free and easy, however, our tour manager brought us to the biggest super market in Interlaken to shop for chocolate. As I was feeling sick, I did not bother much as Lizzy, which recovered, was happily shopping away.

Later the tour manager brought the tour group to Bucherer to collect free spoon !!! But alas I was sick and stayed in the hotel.

Bucherer is a name of the shop that specialised in watches, like Rolex, Tissot, IWC, etcs....

Dinner I just took McDonald and slept my way thru' ............................