As our tour guide had warned us that it would be very cold (at best 14 degrees F), I put on my black merino tank top, my long-sleeved black merino top, the sweatshirt I’d bought yesterday, my white jacket and my new hat (also bought yesterday.) Covering my head I had the hat, the hood of the sweatshirt and the hood of the white jacket. I also had my Scottish scarf wrapped around my throat so that I couldn’t close my jacket. And lastly, my thick white gloves.
We met in the lobby on Floor 0 (street level) at 8:25 and walked a 100 yards to the train station to get on the 8:41 train to Kleine Scheidegg. Then we changed onto another cogwheel train that took us up another 5,000 feet to 11,000 feet (the top of the Jungfrau), getting there early before the crowds.
We did the interactive tour that took around an hour. It was okay, if a bit cheesy in parts. We went onto the terrace taking a very fast elevator. But it was hard to see anything as the Jungfrau was cloaked in a fog bank. I took the elevator down and then experienced another cheesy bit with silly statues and stars emblazoned everywhere.
We went out to see the glacier, and it was extremely cold. Again, it was hard to see anything due to the fog. The scariest part was the Ice Palace which was like walking through an igloo on an ice floor. This went on and on and on, and was hard to enjoy as I have knee issues. As my stick was sliding on the ice, I held onto the railing.
After that, the tour came to an end, and then it was time for shopping and eating. I visited the Lindt store and bought five bars of chocolate for my English relatives. Then I had lunch at the Crystal restaurant, ordering a grilled salmon fillet, white wine and one scoop of chocolate ice cream. It was delicious.
Then we had the business of getting back to Wengen. We met at 12:30 and it took us 1 hours and 45 minutes to get there. By this time, the snow was bucketing down. We got down to Kleine Scheidegg and had to wait twenty minutes for the train to Wengen to arrive. There we were, standing on a station platform with clouds of fluffy snow around us, feeling cold, when our tour guide produced some vodka. What a lovely surprise! Finally the Wengen train came, and we descended to the pretty village to return to our hotel.
