Today Rita intended to show the Walters and Donovans a little bit of classic Switzerland in the Bernese Alps, with a trip to Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe. Along the way, we were to realise a long-held dream of Doug’s to visit the Eiger North Wall. We arranged to meet them on the hill overlooking the Aare River, where we got a great shot of Old Bern.

We then drove out to Gümligen to pick up Frank; even though Rita’s Dad is 94, he wouldn’t miss the chance of a trip to the mountains. We then drove to Thun and along the southern edge of Lake Thun until we got to Interlaken, where we turned south to enter the mountains on our way to Grindelwald-Grund. I had many fond memories of this area, as it was one of the first places I visited with Rita when I came to live in Switzerland for a year in 1998, and can clearly remember going up to Jungfraujoch on my 49th birthday.

At Grund, we boarded a cog-railway to take us up to Kleine Schiedeke, where we would change trains for the final climb to Jungfraujoch. Along the way, we passed under the North Face of the Eiger, and I could see that Doug was getting excited, and was already on his way to breaking the world record for most photographs taken in a single day.

We then boarded the cog rail to Jungfraujoch, and started our journey up through the tunnel carved through the Eiger and Monck. Along the way, there were two 5-minute stops at observation points with windows set into the mountainside allowing views of the scenes below. The first stop showed views over Kleine Schiedeke and Grindelwald, while the second had much more impressive views of the glaciers on the south side of the mountains.

When we arrived at Jungfraujoch, we followed the signs for the tourist walk until we finally got outside on the observation deck. While there were a lot of people there, the view across Concordia Platz and around the corner to the Aletsch Glacier was stunning. We were so fortunate to have perfect weather, with unlimited visibility in all directions.

After lunch, and feeding the crows (alpendole), we headed back inside and toured the Ice Caves before getting back on the train to go back down to Kleine Schiedeke, after a very interesting few hours at The Top of Europe. While Rita had warned us all about altitude sickness, it was ironic that she was the one to start feeling the symptoms just before we started to come down from Jungfraujoch.

Once we got down to Kleine Schiedeke we met up with Frank, who had decided he didn’t need to see Jungfraujoch again, and had a cup of coffee before starting the walk downhill to Alpignen, the next station on the way back to Grindelwald. Frank had estimated this would take about an hour. As we descended, I noticed that the weather had changed a bit, and that clouds were beginning to cover Monck and Jungfrau, so perhaps we had timed our trip to perfection. While we all stopped to admire the scenery and take pictures, Frank just kept ploughing on at a steady pace, and was last seen heading off under the North Face of the Eiger.

Finally, we eventually caught up with him, as he slowed and stopped for some rests. Perhaps he had bitten off more than he could chew as a 94 year old! So Rita walked along with him, as others broke into pairs and walked at their own pace, with the intention of meeting again at the Alpignen Station. However, Lynne had an upset stomach and went ahead to find a toilet. When we got to the station, there was no sign of her, and we weren’t quite sure where she had gone, since there was a toilet at the station and at the nearby restaurant (Berghaus). Eventually, Frank arrived at the station and we had a decision to make, since the next train was the last one going down the mountain that day. We figured that Lynne might have kept walking to the next station, and so we all got on board the train and kept a lookout for her on the walking track as the train descended. When we got to the next station, there was no sign of Lynne. So Rita and Doug decided to get off the train while the rest of us continued down. I would then drive back up the mountain to the station and hopefully intercept Lynne on the way. However, after explaining the situation to the guard on the train, he refused to let Doug and Rita stay on the mountain as darkness was setting in. He also warned against looking for Lynne ourselves, since the mountain roads could be tricky after dark. He suggested that we all go down on the train, see if Lynne was there, and if not he would call out the Police Search Squad to go look for her. So we all travelled down on the train and when we got to Grund Station, we were greeted by Lynne! She had walked all the way down the mountain, and had been waiting for us to arrive.

Everyone was relieved to see Lynne, while she was a little embarrassed, so we were all willing to accept Frank’s offer of dinner at the Grund Railway Restaurant. After a very filling meal (but nothing for Lynne who was still feeling a bit queazy), we hopped into the cars and trundled back to Bern in the dark.

Later that night, the Sims/Nolte family arrived in Bern, after an eventful trip from Italy via Basle, with luggage problems getting on the plane in Venice and then no 9-seater van, as booked, awaiting them at the hire car office in Basle. Eventually, a 7-seater van was found, and so they squeezed their 6 people and copious luggage aboard, and completed the trip to Bern. They slept well after arriving close to midnight.