Friday, December 16, 2011

Jungfraujoch

The word of the day: die Aussicht - the view

What is your favorite setting in the world? A beach or the ocean? The forest? A meadow?... Mine is being in the mountains. The sight of them is such a testiment to God's might, in my opinion. So getting to take a 2 hour train ride up and through the Swiss Alps is an ideal way I would spend any day. And I was so excited to get to do this with my mother. The Jungfrau is a region of the Alps in the middle of Switzerland - an absolutely beautiful place. We stayed one night in Interlaken - a town inbetween two beautiful lakes surrounded by the Alps. At first I was kind of being a little grouch because we were in this little town - sorry mom, again (you know why moms are so great? Because they will put up with you when you are 22 years old and still behave like a little stinker sometimes).

We started the day early and hopped on the train. We had to change to 3 different trains along the way at these little itty bitty villages and the last one was just a train stop on the side of the mountain legde. Just looking out the window all the way up was the best entertainment.




The Jungfrau translates to young lady or maiden. It's called the Jungfraujoch because the place where the train takes you to is inbetween the Jungfrau and another mountain. It is at 3,571m and is just as cold as it sounds. That hat may look silly but it did it's job keeping me as warm as it could. There were mountains as far as the eye could see.




They market it as the being the Top of Europe. False. I was disappointed. The Jungfrau is not the tallest mountain in the Alps, but it does have the highest railway line. So it's the highest point normal people can go. Only those crazy extreme climber people have gone to the actual top of Europe (which would be the Mont Blanc on the border of Italy and France at 4,808m - Mount Everest is at 8,848m so don't get too excited). I do not have the skills or the emotional stability to do that so I was content with the comfy train ride.


Normally you can get off and ski and sled but there hasnt been enough snow yet. This year is aparently too warm. My mom has a picture from the 70s of the last time she was at the Jungfrau with her family when she was 13 years old. She was skiing in jeans and a Tshirt... crazy.


This place isn't a popular place for Americans to travel to when they are in Europe, but it is at the top of my list now. It's an incredible place. All of Switzerland is an incredible place. It has the most charm, I think.



And of course when you are a Tridelta sister you are one for life. So you have an eye out for those tripple triangles. What a coincidence the symbol for the Jungfraujoch is. I thought my days of throwing up the delta were over. But look what we found. I think this would make a great cover for the Trident magazine. Maybe we can try to photo shop you in too Aunt Kathy! And the barrel squared! (My mom was a Tridelta too, FYI.)

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