July 8 - Kleine/Scheidegg/Jungfrauhoch Train & hike to Wengen/Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Okay - not gonna lie... this is one of my most favorite days. The beauty and majesty of nature was spectacular! Even getting rained on and having to walk up the hill to the hostel at the end of the day with spent knees (cause the buses were no longer running) - was totally worth it!!!

So, we took the train to Klein Scheidegg. The rest of our group then hiked from there down to  Wengen. But, Curt and I took the next train all the way to the top of Jungfrau!! We toured the view points, ice caves, walked on the glacier fields (and had lunch there) before we came back down and alsoo hiked from the Klein Scheidegg to Wengen - through the fields of wild flowers and cows roaming with their bells around their necks over little windy streams and through dense forests - surrounded by the spectacular peaks of the Swiss Alps!!  Okay - went a little crazy on the pics here... but you will understand! The crazy thing was - as we started our hike down - we see this town across the valley literally on the edge of a cliff with waterfalls falling off the edge of town over the sheer walls to the valley way way below. We are asking ourselves - how does anyone actually get to this town?? About 3/4 through our hike - we realize that we are hiking along the rim and end up in the other side in this same town - Wengen.

Loading up the train at the base of the mountain

Sheree & Ted - our fearless leader!

The train tracks were SUPER steep. This was our first spotting of the cows. Well... you would hear their bells first

If you take the train THROUGH the mountain up to Jungfrau, it stops several times so you can look out the view areas and see the glacier fields

made it to the top!

The view deck at the top

Walking on the glacier fields. You can also pay to sled, rappel or zip line.  There is also a 45 minute hike over the field to another lodge with another view - but we ran out of time to do it all. We opted to eat our lunch here. There were people who had brought chairs and were suntanning. Crazy!

Ice caves. Slippery!

Hiking on the other fields. I was grateful for the hiking stick here. It was really slippery!

Taking the train back down to Kleine

Starting our hike down - in the rain

Amazing scenery - just breath taking! We took a ton of these pictures :-)

Resting in a field. In the winter this is a ski slope - so you can see the little lodges and maintenance sheds along the route.

Fields of wild flowers everywhere along our hike!

Cows!

In Wengen, trying to read this train map (that doesn't match the train map we have) and trying to figure out which train will take us to Lauterbrunnen and then home.

Train stop along the way.  Just 3 tracks running through the middle - no map and no one around to ask except another tourist couple. It was an adventure!