The Top of Europe: Jungfraujoch, Switzerland

                                     

                                         

The "Top of Europe" is at 11,332 feet above sea level and is a high-altitude building and overlooks the eternal snows of the Aletsch Glacier. It is connected to the underground Jungfraujoch railway station by a tunnel, and to the Sphinx Observatory by an elevator. It is the highest point in Europe that can be reached without hiking. You get there by the highest train station in Europe. On a clear day, you can see all the way to The Vosges, a mountain range in France. 

You have to stand upon it to get an idea of how huge the ice mass is. It's not for nothing that this icy wonder is the heart of the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are almost 14 miles of ice and it is almost 3000 feet thick at its lowest point. In total, there are around twelve billion tons of ice here!

The Sphinx Observatory is an astronomical observatory located above the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland.

The Top of Europe includes several restaurants and a permanent exhibition about the Jungfrau Railway and the Alps. It also includes Europe's highest-altitude post office and a research station.

Looking out over The Aletsch Glacier 

                           

Icy air streams across your face, snow crunches under your feet, and the view nearly takes your breath away: on one side the view of the Mittelland up to the Vosges, on the other the Aletsch glacier-the largest alpine glacier in the world and is a Unesco World Heritage Site, bordered by 13,000-foot peaks. Standing on the Jungfraujoch 11,332 ft above sea level, you can feel it with your first step: this is a different world. It's one you have to experience. All four of us were impressed in the Ice Palace, even at 26 degrees (F.) We also found a Lindt Swiss Chocolate Heaven, the highest chocolate shop in Europe. We found the Snow Park Fun and we thought about going tubing but decided we were not dressed appropriately. The activities were Snow tubing, sledging with the Balancer, Flying Fox rope slide or ski, and snowboarding.

On top of a huge rock formation on the Jungfraujoch is the Sphinx Observation Deck.  There is an ultrafast elevator that takes you to the observatory and an international research station. It climbs 354 feet in 25 seconds. We experienced a once-in-a-lifetime experience on the largest glacier in the Alps, the Great Aletsch Glacier. With a length of around 13 miles, it is the heart of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is cold and windy out here. The highest winds recorded here are 165 miles an hour! The average temperature is 19 degrees Fahrenheit. I went live on Youtube while here. 

                   

 The Sphinx Observatory is an astronomical observatory located above the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland. It offers views of the Jungfrau, Mönch, and Eiger peaks, all within a few kilometers. The scientific part of the Sphinx observatory includes two large laboratories, a weather observation station, a workshop, two terraces for scientific experiments, and an astronomical as well as a meteorological cupola. The astronomical cupola is equipped with a 76cm telescope with Cassegrain and Coudé focus.  The observatory plays an important role in a range of long-term experiments; it serves as a solar spectrometer for the Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics at the University of Liège, Belgium, and plays a key role in a LIDAR experiment conducted by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. The observatory can be seen in the movies The Grand Budapest Hotel and Krrish 3. It was visited by Season 22 of the reality competition series The Amazing Race on their visit to Switzerland in Leg 8. It also appears in the 2016 videogame Steep.

The Sphinx Observatory

LINDT SWISS CHOCOLATE HEAVEN:

This amazing experience is on "The Top of Europe!"

Rodolphe Lindt could have torn his hair out. The Lindt founder tried everything to make the chocolate taste even better. It was all in vain. Frustrated, he left his factory on a Friday evening – and forgot to turn off his self-made stirring machine. When he returned on Monday, he was flabbergasted. The crumbly cocoa-sugar mixture had become a delicately melting crème. Lindt tried it and it seemed like heaven. Visitors to the Lindt Swiss Chocolate Heaven experience this key moment. They turn Lindt's mixing machine, learn from a virtual Lindt Maître Chocolatier how a chocolate bar is made, and discover delicacies in the shop. Heavenly, indeed! 

 

The day we went to The Top of Europe was the day of the funeral of a dear friend of Brian's since he was 3 years old. Alexa passed away after a brave fight with cancer. We brought a pinwheel and a heart sparkler up to the "Top" with us to have a little memorial for her. We had the memorial as close to Heaven as possible in Europe. We found the perfect spot on the Glacier Plateau. It was a heartbreaking decision for Brian not to fly home for the funeral. 

Brian & the girls holding a pinwheel in honor of Alexa

It took a ton of effort to get this heart sparkler lit with the strong winds, but we got it lit and let it burn all the way out 

It was fun to explore the Ice Palace! There was a great photo opportunity around every corner. 
                        

Ice Palace

A fun play on the movie Ice Age

                                      

We decided this must be the Grandpa from the story "Heidi"

Heidi and her goat

The Heidi Story

The Heidi story

Heidi

(after Johanna Spyri, short version of Heidy Sunier)

Heidi is a novel about the events in the life of a 5-year-old girl in her paternal grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps.

You can download the audiobook for free  HERE or purchase the hardcopy HERE

Heidi was five years old when she was brought up to the alp from her aunt Dete to her grandfather. She had been looking after the child for four years, from the day his mother, her sister Adelheid, died. Since she now has a tempting offer from a distinguished family from Frankfurt, it is now his duty to take care of the child. Heidi could also no longer stay with the old Ursel in Pfäfers Dorf, because she is too old and also blind and the child cannot learn anything from her. The grandfather was angry at the brazen behavior of the Dete, but lovingly took care of the child after they left.

From then on, Heidi was allowed to move to the upper pastures with the goat-peter, which was very good for her physically and emotionally. She couldn't see enough of the variety of alpine flowers, marveled at the miracle when the sun bathed the rocks in the glowing red light in the evening; she loved the goats and felt happy for the first time in her short life.

In winter the Alpöhi often drove with Heidi on the sledge to the Geißenpeterhütte, where he patched up everything that was not riveted and nail-proof. However, with her lively storytelling, Heidi always brought light and joy into the living room and life of the old, blind grandmother of the goat Peter.

After two years the pastor appeared on the alp to warn the grandfather to send the child to school, since he was now seven years old. The Alpöhi said that Heidi was only spoiled in the village because the people there always talked bad about each other. Base Dete appeared on the same day, willing to take Heidi to Frankfurt on the spot. Heidi could bring great joy to a paralyzed daughter as a partner. The grandfather was very angry with this request. Heidi, however, only went along because Dete assured her that she could go back immediately if she didn't like it there.

Heidi expected a completely new world in Frankfurt: instead of mountains, meadows and rustling firs, a large gray city with wide streets and many people. The daughter Klara soon turns out to be a loving friend. Miss Rottenmeier, the governess, on the other hand as a hysterical, child and animal-hostile tyrant. Sebastian, the servant, as a secret helper and friendly colleague of the Rottenmeier, who has a good time when she almost faints with fright over the young kittens - which Heidi brings home. Tinette, as the maid who has nothing but mockery for Heidi. Fortunately, there is the grandmother, who teaches Heidi to read and pray with much love and patience, and Mr. Sesemann, who quickly realizes that Heidi's presence is a blessing for his daughter.

 Klara misses her little friend very much, who owes her two entertaining, amusing years. Heidi, on the other hand, is happy to be back with her grandfather on the alp, to hear the firs rustling, to be able to watch the bird of prey and to be able to visit the blind grandmother, who can now read songs from the hymn book. Every day, Heidi goes up again with goat Peter and the goats, where she quickly gets well. After Heidi has told the grandfather the story of the prodigal son, the latter contemplates and moves with Heidi and the goats to Dörfli, where Heidi can go to school, before the onset of winter.

As a result, she also teaches Peter to read. In contrast to the past, he now sits in the school class every day and in winter is able to read the songs to the blind grandmother if Heidi is prevented from doing so because of the heavy snow.

In spring they go back to the alp with the goats. Every now and then a letter from Klara comes from Frankfurt. She hopes to travel to Switzerland in the summer. The doctor had prescribed her a spa treatment in Bad Ragaz, then she would come to visit Heidi on the alp every day. She is so happy to finally see everything: the mountains, the flowers, the sunset, the goats and of course her dear friend Heidi.

Instead of the Sesemann family, only the doctor comes in late autumn. The only daughter had died a few months ago and since then he has not been able to be happy. Heidi manages to raise the old friend to whom she owes her journey home. She encourages him to pray and quotes the song: "Command your ways and what offends your heart, the most faithful care, the one who directs the sky, the clouds, air and winds, gives ways, run and path that will also find ways because your foot can walk. ”The doctor leaves Switzerland strengthened and comforted and has to tell Klara again and again how nice it is with Heidi on the alp.

Next summer the time will come: the Sesemanns are coming! Klara and the grandmother ride up the alp on horses. Heidi is so happy about her arrival that she has to jump in the air a few times for joy. The goat Peter is less happy. He fears that Heidi will no longer have time for him. Out of anger, he pushes Klara's wheelchair down the mountain, where it remains broken into pieces. Thanks to the grandfather's care, the good air and the goat's milk, Klara becomes stronger every day and learns to stand and walk on her feet. When Mr. Stresemann arrives, he doesn't believe his eyes when Klara walks towards him. Peter is tormented by his guilty conscience for making the wheelchair disappear; but in the end everything will be fine. He even gets wages from the grandmother: one tenth every week,

When Mr. Sesemann asks Alpähi how he can compensate him for the good care of his daughter Klara, the latter says that he has only one wish that Heidi never has to earn her living with strangers in her life. Whereupon Mr. Sessemann assured him that Heidi would settle in the area around Maienfeld in the future. He was so well with the child that he wanted to stay close to Heidi until the end of his life. Now Heidi is asked if she has a wish. She wishes for the blind grandmother the big bed from Frankfurt with the blanket and the pillows so that she never has to freeze again.

Tears flow the next morning when Klara leaves. but Heidi is promised that she will come to her on vacation every summer. Sesemanns keep their word. Peter gets his tithing on time and the big bed from Frankfurt will be there in a few days.

The doctor comes to Dörfli shortly afterwards, where he buys the old building that served Alpöhi as a winter quarters. He also orders the restoration and reconstruction so that he can from now on live in the same house as Heidi. He wants Heidi to look after him in his old days, so he should be his sole heir. With these words, the old grandfather is very happy, because now he knows Heidi is well looked after for all times.

How adorable is this gorgeously illustrated Heidi book?!

The Unbelievably Gorgeous Town I Almost Lost My Life in: Grindelwald, Switzerland

                    

Driving from Austria, once we crossed the border to Switzerland we were excited to try another country's McDonalds. By now we had created a tradition. On travel days we ate at McDonald's simply because it was a drive-through, there are not a lot of drive-throughs in Europe. We already know that all of us can find something to eat there and we had grown excited to find the unique items carried at each McDon in different countries. So the Switzerland McDon surprised us. It. Was. Expensive. A happy meal was dang near $10 and a regular meal over $16! What?! That was our first sign that Switzerland was expensive. Not even going to lie, we blew our budget in Switzerland. So the Happy Meals here included cute little carrots in the shapes of flowers and an apple. The regular menu included 5 shrimp for $7, 5 chicken wings for $6, and a Share Bucket that we came to love getting for the kiddos. The Share Bucket includes your choice of chicken nuggets, sausage, chicken wings and shrimp. Some locations included cheese curds-which were my favorite. We could grab an entire Share Bucket for $17 and just share. McDon on travel days was great so we could grab our food and be on our way. Food takes a lot longer in Europe. Their life is not as fast-paced as here in the states. It is meant to be enjoyed. But on travel days, we wanted to get to our destination asap.

       

Our next home was an alpine lodge that had been passed down and kept in the same family through at least 5 generations. The family lived on the top level and the ground floor was its own home, get this, overlooking a waterfall on the side of a mountain up in the Swiss Alps! This place was heaven. There was a large yard with a garden and a barn, and a play area for the children that included a swing set, sandbox and trampoline, as well as the cutest cat that my girls fell in love with. They were able to have a pet this week! It was unreal to come back home in the evenings after sightseeing, to sit outdoors in the comfy outdoor furniture area on the back porch while watching the girls play in the freshest air while having a waterfall in the background. I could live here.

Inside the home were the typical alpine wooden walls and wooden furniture. There were two bedrooms. In the girl's room, there was a bunk bed as well as a third single bed. The room was large and came with toys!

                                        

See the waterfall in the backyard?!

One evening we were invited to have a traditional Swiss dinner with the owners. Have you heard of Raclette? It is made with a really great Swiss cheese melted on a traditional raclette grill. Once the cheese was melted, it was poured over the potatoes. I am pretty sure this ranks as one of our family's favorite meals. Another new thing I noticed about European culture is that they use syrups in water. They are sold in all grocery stores, but this family made their own and it was delicious. I was pretty bummed when we got back home to the states that I was unable to find similar syrups, not coffee syrups. Guess what I will be stocking up on our next trip?!
                                  

We were excited to find Heidi milk at the local grocery. We had brought outfits to take "Heidi" photos in Switzerland. We also found it common in Switzerland that the eggs were colored like Easter eggs. That is how they are sold. Interesting. Just like McDon became a tradition for travel days, we also began to love exploring Aldi in each location. Here, I was excited to find a Britax car seat for under $99! I struggled with whether or not to buy it just because it was a good deal and throw away the car seat we had brought Briella. I passed on that deal. I did get Briella this amazing hooded towel that had a Disney Bambi scene on it. Still to this day she loves it and it always reminds us of our Aldi treasure hunting trips in Europe. I also found chicken nuggets in the shape of soccer players.

colored eggs

                                                                                                                           

colored eggs

               
Each day we spent just wandering around Grindelwald exploring the natural beauty of the scenery. I was always on the hunt for the next glorious photo spots. On the hunt for the location to do our Heidi shoot, we thought we found the perfect location until a helicopter comes and has a cement maker and tools hanging from it and lands where we were shooting. You should have seen us run down that hill on the mountain!  We also explored Interlaken for several days. There was a music festival in Interlaken while we were there and it was fun to see all the festivities.
                           

When you hear of Swiss Chocolate, you think of superior chocolate, right? Well of course we had to take a master class on how to make it! We went to The Funky Chocolate Club in Interlaken and had the best time. We were encouraged to lick the bowl and eat as much chocolate as we wanted while making our own personalized large chocolate bars. There were so many toppings and ingredients there to add if we wanted to. They supply the chef hats & aprons, all you need is your camera to capture this amazing memory!

               

               

               

Afterward, it became clear Briella was on a sugar high. I mean, this kid went buck wild. We needed to burn off this energy so we walked around the city without a plan. Just to discover. We found a gorgeous rose garden with statues of naked boys that the kids spent way too much time laughing at. We shopped the many Swiss knife stores before heading home. There was a music festival in Interlaken the week we were here. There was a group that we saw in the streets that many people were taking pictures of, but we did not know who they were. Any guesses? Here is the concert poster if you want to try to figure it out for me!

                                

The next afternoon ( I am not good at mornings) we went and purchased tickets to go up to the summit of the mountains. This was wayyy expensive for our two days of exploring up there, especially without even skiing. The first day we were going to the Maennlichen and then a couple days later we were to go up 'The First." The First never happened due to an accident I had that you can read about in a minute.  I will say it was one of the most remarkable places we have been. Outside the tourist office, I found a vending machine. I went to see if they had this Swiss Chocolate coffee drink I had come to love. Instead of food or beverages, I found condoms, lighters, pregnancy tests, rolling papers, etc lol. Everything but what I needed for my coffee high.

We went up to Maennlichen. We stopped at a children themed trail first, the Apple Fritters Trail. It was so sunny out and we were in love with finding all of the mountain wildflowers that had just started to grow again after the winter. Then we went further up on the ski lift to Burglauenen. There was a large playground for the kids there. I joined in with the playing because they had these awesome single trampolines that were in ground. I had fun! It appeared it was getting ready to rain and we wanted to do "The Royal Walk" and get to the summit, so we hurried on. It looked easy enough, but we really did end up having to use the ropes along the walkway to pull ourselves along the upwards path. The crown at the end was gorgeous and had gorgeous views. We stopped to take a billion photos, since we are Kings we were extra excited to have completed the Royal Walk. Soon clouds came running in. It was crazy! We could no longer see the village below, we were above the clouds! While walking back down, we couldn't see Aubrey. We could hear her, but she was lost in the clouds. Briella was impressed with the scent of the alpine air and clouds. There were a few raindrops so we decided to hide inside the restaurant and have lunch. Guess what we had, Raclette!
                           
                            
                            

Maennlichen

the clouds coming in

Summit of Maennlichen

The next day we went on an excursion to the "Top of Europe." At 11,332 feet above sea level. It is connected to the underground Jungfraujoch railway station by a tunnel and to the Sphinx Observatory by an elevator. It has five levels. It is the highest point in Europe that can be reached without hiking.

The Top of Europe includes several restaurants and a permanent exhibition about the Jungfrau Railway and the Alps. It also includes Europe's highest-altitude post office.  An older building includes a research station.

the glacier

                         

Icy air streams across your face, snow crunches under your feet, and the view nearly takes your breath away: on one side the view of the Mittelland up to the Vosges, on the other the Aletsch glacier, bordered by 13,000 foot peaks. Standing on the Jungfraujoch 11,332 ft above sea level, you can feel it with your first step: this is a different world. It's one you have to experience. All four of us were impressed in the Ice Palace, even at 26 degrees (F.) We also found a Lindt Swiss Chocolate Heaven, the highest chocolate shop in Europe. We found the Snow Park Fun and we thought about going tubing but decided we were not dressed appropriately. The activities were Snow tubing, sledging with the Balancer, Flying Fox rope slide or ski and snowboarding.

Ice Palace

                             

In front of the glacier on top of Europe

                         

On top of a huge rock formation on the Jungfraujoch is the Sphinx Observation Deck.  There is an ultrafast elevator that takes you to the observatory, an international research station. It climbs 354 feet in 25 seconds. We experienced a once-in-a-lifetime experience on the largest glacier in the Alps. The Great Aletsch Glacier, with a length of around 13 miles, is the heart of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is cold and windy out here. The highest winds recorded here are 165 miles an hour! The average temperature is 19 degrees Fahrenheit.

Brian's childhood BFF passed away from cancer while we were in Grindelwald. It was hard on him not to be able to fly home to attend the funeral. We bought a pinwheel and a heart sparkler and took it with us to The Top of Europe and found a beautiful location that overlooked Europe and had a moment for Alexa. It was beautiful. We took her memory to the Top of Europe, as close as we could get to heaven here on earth.

Pinwheel & heart candle lit at the Top of Europe for Alexa

The next morning Brian almost lost me also. We got up early and went to the post office to ship home two large boxes full of our cold weather gear now that we were done with the colder destinations since we were going to spend the next month in Italy. $200+ was worth us freeing up much room in the car as well. We sent home souvenirs and anything we weren't going to need for the rest of the trip. On the way back from the post office, I saw the spot. The spot I knew I needed to get the wonderful shot of Grindelwald I wanted. So we went back home and I got on the green gown I brought for this picture. I made the girls get their Heidi outfits back on because we still hadn't got the perfect Heidi photo to send to Grandma yet. Grandma used to read me the book before bed when I was young, and now she continued the tradition with my children. A billion pictures later, I was still unhappy with all photos Brian had taken of me. Grouchy, I gave him more directions and tried harder to get that shot. I was prancing back and forth along a wide ledge, that did not seem too high up. There were tall wildflowers that made it an optical illusion. After a hair flip, I found myself unable to catch my balance and knew I was going to fall. I tried to straighten out my body and attempted to grab a hold of the edge with my arms as I fell. I had zero luck grabbing on. Because it was a mountain, there was a large incline that looked like this \  . One leg hit the ground first and my leg flew back into my face so hard. My knee is what hit my cheek and jaw and knocked me to the ground, laid out. Aubrey was screaming the most horrible " I-just-watched-my-mom-die" scream that all I could think about was to comfort her. I tried to get up on all four limbs and tell them that I was alive. I kept telling Brian I was alive and to just get the kids under control and to grab the car and come pick me up. See, where I fell was into a barbed wire area. I had to zombie drag myself through a field of tall wildflowers to an area where there was no fence where Brian had the car. I cannot believe I fell 10-12 feet...and lived.  Here is a post I wrote soon after the fall.

My Heidi's

Before the fall

                             
I will say how impressed we were with Switzerland's healthcare! I was afraid that the hospital was going to drug me up and steal my organs to sell on the black market. That did not happen lol.

Early the next morning, while it was still dark out, we awoke to a crazy amount of bells. We looked out the window to find a farmer leading his cows up the mountain for the summer. Each cow had a bell on. Not just a bell, but a bell that looked like it would be used in the gym for a crazy workout. This was pretty neat to watch.

                                 

We made the decision to keep on with the trip after my fall since my jaw did not need to be wired shut, so the day after the fall we drove to Rome. This was going to be one of the longest drive of the trip and I was in a bad way. I just tried to sleep with the pain medicine as much as possible.

Grindelwald

Aubrey LOVES goats!

Top of Europe

Top of Europe

Grocery shopping

Spynx Observation Building

The Royal Walk

The Royal Walk

Summit of Maennlichen

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