Today's day trip up to the Jungfraujoch (joch means saddle and refers to the "saddle" between the Jungfrau and Mönch mountains) is actually what we've built the whole holiday around. When Jan (Ian's sister) was around 13 (1954ish) she went on a school trip to Switzerland and stayed for 2 weeks in a hotel in a place called Kleine Scheidegg, which is half way up the Jungfrau and presumably she came back with lots of exciting tales about the place as it's always been somewhere Ian wanted to visit. Next to the hotel was a small souvenir shop and for some reason Jan ended up looking after the 7yo son of the owner. She corresponded with the boy's mother for a few years afterwards and when she heard we were going to the area she asked if we could try and find out what had happened to the shop/family/boy as Kleine Scheidegg was only a small place and she had a feeling that the shop could still be run by the family - almost 70 years on we thought it unlikely, but were happy to give it a try. I took a photo of one of the postcards she'd received (franked 26 May 1955).
Sadly we woke to heavy drizzle, mist and very, very grey skies - just our luck. We layered up with our thermal vests etc as it would be cold on the glacier and had a limited, but adequate, breakfast in the hotel’s little restaurant before stopping off en route to the train station to pick up some food for the trip. Ian's snack choice appealed to my infantile sense of humour.
Firstly we caught the shuttle to Ost and then a normal train to Lauterbrunnen where we changed on to a "rack" train to Kleine Scheidegg which took just over an hour. Unfortunately the reflections were particularly bad but these photos are all I have.
At one point we actually got above the mist/cloud and thought we were in for perfect weather.
This group of Japanese tourists were sealed off from the rest of the hoi polloi.
We did get a few nice views between the clouds.
Certainly a slate roof.
I think this represents our view for most of the time though.
Arriving into Kleine Scheidegg, this was our first view of the place and I can only wonder how/what/why a group of nuns and school girls from a convent in Chatham ended up here!
The onward "rack" train was scheduled to leave within a few minutes, but we had deliberately booked on a later train to give ourselves time to look around the place - so sure were we that it would have expanded/developed in 70 years.
The Bellevue Hotel which Jan stayed is in the middle with the gift shop on the left. I think the building on the right is the hotel's des Alpes annex.
The train we've just got off.
And the connecting train up to the Jungfraujoch which we've chosen to miss.
I'm sure in the height of summer or the depths of winter this place is buzzing, but on a cold, wet, miserable late May day it wasn't very appealing.
With this much frozen snow still on the ground we certainly had to be very careful how we walked around.
We headed for the gift shop.
And fortunately the lady behind the counter spoke excellent English. We told her the story and asked if by any chance she knew what happened to the family that had owned the shop. "Just one moment" she said "Let me get my husband, Daniel, the shop has been owned by his family for 5 generations". From the back of the shop Daniel appeared and we repeated the story and showed him the photo of the postcard. "That's my grandmother's handwriting" he said immediately "I would know it anywhere". We chatted on and he said that unsurprisingly both his grandparents were now dead but that his father (Toni, the boy Jan looked after) was still very much alive aged 75ish.
Daniel and Ian.
We bought a small, but very expensive, tea tray for Jan with a picture of how the place looked way back and said our farewells. I think there have probably been a few more buildings erected over the years but you certainly couldn't describe the place as "developed".
You can clearly see the cogs or rack rails at the bottom of this picture. Maybe British Rail should invest in some as the trains stop running after a few snowflakes at home.
The next "up" train arriving into Kleine Scheidegg.
And our next train on its downward leg from the glacier.
Feeling quite smug that we'd reserved seats as the train is advertised as being extremely popular, we boarded to find ourselves in a more or less empty carriage.
Still at least that would give us the opportunity to move from side to side to get the best views, except that shortly after leaving Kleine Schedeigg we went into a long hut-like tunnel structure before tunnelling underground practically the whole way to the top.
