Mount Jungfrau – Top of Europe

My favourite part while in Switzerland was heading up the sheer slopes on a cog rail to Europe’s highest railway station. The Jungfrau Railway, which leads through the heart of the mountains and up to the highest train station in Europe (at 3,454 metres above sea level), offers unbelievable views of the mountain giant Mount Jungfrau. As the train screeched and swayed its way up, I gazed out the window and watched Swiss cattle grazing. They each had giant bells around their necks and I could hear them clinking and clanging as they lumbered along.

Once reaching the very top, I stepped out onto the “roof” of Europe for spine-tingling views of the mountain. Excited to be in the snow and literally within the Swiss Alps, I ran down a slope as fast as I could, but then almost collapsed from being so short of breath. The oxygen content is really not great from up so high.

I explored the Ice Palace, and as it is made completely of ice, to get around I had to push myself off the walls and glide everywhere over the ice. I had also never snowboarded before in my life. What better place to learn how to snowboard than the Swiss Alps themselves? Feeling extremely awkward on a snowboard, I basically rolled the whole way down on a slope. It was so hard to get up once I fell down. Numerous snowboarders weaved around me effortlessly, leaving me feel even more deflated about my pitiful snowboarding skills. Since it was never long until I tumbled over, I began to find amusement in sliding down the slopes instead of snowboarding down. Nearing the end of the day I acquired enough skills to successfully snowboard down a slope! With my confidence now skyrocketed, I tried another (taller) slope. The original rolling techniques from before continued.