Jungfrau & Interlaken

Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe

Our second day at Grindelwald, we decided to venture out to the infamous Jungfraujoch, one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps and the highest point in Europe to see the spectacular Swiss Alps. 

After a couple of train transits and fighting our way through endless numbers of tourist groups, we finally got to the observation points which is to take in some stunning snow-capped vistas along with some icy winds. Standing on the Jungfraujoch 3,454 metres above sea level, we were able to see the magnificent Aletsch glacier, Europe’s largest glacier.  

Like most mountain peak tourist attractions, there’s a zipline, a place to get hot/cold drinks and plenty of snowy hiking paths for people to explore. Inside the mountain are various tunnels that lead to different attractions such as a diorama room with trip lightshows and a lot of historical audio clips on the crew’s who dug all the tunnels in the mountain.

We then reached to the most interesting attraction of the exhibitio - The Ice Palace. The ice palace was a shockingly extensive network of ice tunnels and sculptures that seemingly went on forever. Even the floor was ice so you constantly had to be cautious of your footing, but it was fun to frequently see other rude tourists fall flat on their backs. The ice palace let us take some amazing photos and was easily one of the highlights of our trip.

We eventually made it to the peak of Jungrau which has the nickname “the top of Europe.” Some impressive vista’s but unfortunately we couldn’t see Jungrau’s highest peak as it was too cloudy. On the way down we where treated to a Lindt store which had a museum apart of it that gave some of the history of the company and utilized some snazzy interactive touch displays and nifty hologram-type exhibits.

After making our way back down from the winter peaks to the warm streets of Grindelwald we met an English couple who have travelled the world and the only country they’re never really visited was Canada. We had a fun time telling them about Canada and they told us plenty of stories of all the countries around the globe they’ve been to. Easily the nicest people we met on the trip and it was a memorable dinner.

Interlaken

On our last day in Grindelwald, we wanted to go to one of the beaches in Lake Brienz ("Lake Fanta") but the weather didn’t cooperate so we ended up taking cruises and bus rides around the neighbouring towns and eventually to an awesome town called Interlaken. The cruise had a lot of spectacles and also gave us a glimpse at many people’s homes on the side of mountains overlooking the lake. 

We got off our cruise at a village called Iseltwald. While more of a residential community, what little to do there was already closed so we could only really go on a walk and then hop on a bus which drove along an incredibly narrow road down the side of a cliff and had the trademark swiss horn (which sounds obnoxiously loud and off tune lol) to warn oncoming motorists that the bus was on its way.

Interlaken was a very lively town with many tourists. There where many luxury hotels and a wide variety of shopping & restaurants to visit. Picking a place to eat was difficult as there were so many options. We ended up picking a pub that had wvsrt and schnitzel but it was not as good as Old Swiss House.

Throughout the trip we constantly had our eyes open for chocolate strawberries, but that awesome combination must be a North American concoction as nowhere on our trip could we find any. Until we found a shop called Funky Chocolate Club. Essentially a chocolate cafe, they had a glass crammed full of chocolate and strawberries and was well beyond satisfying to finally have some.

At the end of the day, we decided to head up to Harder Klum. Harder Klum is yet another hilltop overlook, however, this one has the distinction of giving visitors a complete view of the town of Interlaken as the town serves as a link between two massive lakes. Truly breathtaking views and it was hard leaving, you could sit on that mountain top at their restaurant drinking beers and eating fondue all day long and you would never get bored.

At last, when it's time to leave our beloved Grindelwald, we needed to give a shout out to Alte Post. Alte Post was the hotel we stayed at for the past couple days. It has a nice old-time cottage feel to it as well as a great mountain view. Aside from the terribly hot room temperate with no AC (because it's mostly for skiiers in the winter), it's a charming hotel and fits right in with the town.