Switzerland: Jungfrau and Grindelwald

On the next day, we had something really exciting planned: going to Jungfrau and Grindelwald.

I got up at 4:30 so we could make the four-and-a-half-hour journey to the top of Europe: Jungfraujoch. The whole way there was absolutely beautiful. 

After 4 trains, we finally made it to the top. The train takes you to a building on top of the ridge between two of the tallest mountains in the Alps. There's an amazing view of the 'sea of ice,' which is probably a glacier.

There was also a great view of on the of the peaks, which was surprisingly close!

You can also look north and see villages on much lower ground, because that point is on the northern edge of the Alps. 

So there are three very different views from the platform.

They also built an ice palace inside the mountain. There is a network of tunnels made completely out of ice and every so often there are sculptures of penguins, bears, etc. carved in ice. It's pretty fun, especially since you have to slide around on the ice floor the entire time you're in there.

After that, there wasn't much else to see, so we took the train back. On the second train, which we were taking to Grindelwald, we passed the snow line and started to see hiking trails around the train tracks that went down into the valley. On a whim, I convinced Pramay that we should get off the train and walk around. We decided to completely ditch the idea of getting back on the train and we walked down the mountain. 

I'd seen pictures of Grindelwald on Pinterest, so I added it to the plan last-minute and I'm so glad I did. Because we got to walk down the mountain, we got to see the view of the valley from a bunch of different angles and also for about an hour. It was definitely the best way to experience it. 

It just looked like we were walking into a postcard. The weather was perfect, and the valley was just as I imagined it: towered over by snow-covered mountains, filled with green grass and pretty yellow flowers poking up everywhere, scattered with cute wooden building, and occasionally populated by cows wearing cowbells that together sounded like a wind chime. It was pretty magical.

We spent a good hour or hour and a half walking down (and stopping every 2 minutes to take pictures). After we got to the bottom, we continued the journey of 3 or 4 trains that would eventually take us back to Basel.

We stopped in Interlaken to change trains, and realized we had some time, so we got out to explore. We went to go check out a church, because it looked pretty, and we found a wedding party celebrating a wedding that had clearly just ended. That was pretty cute. 

We did  eventually catch our train and make it all the way back to Basel. It was a really long day, but I think it was my favorite day of the trip.