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Switzerland's most popular (and expensive) mountain railway trundles through lush countryside south from Interlaken before coiling spectacularly up across mountain pastures, breaking the treeline and tunnelling clean through the Eiger to emerge at the JUNGFRAUJOCH (3454m), an icy, windswept col just beneath the Jungfrau summit with the awesome Aletsch glacier, longest in the Alps, for company. The journey up is scenic in parts, but very long (two-and-a-half hours from Interlaken, with most of the final hour climbing in a pitch-dark tunnel), and the top station, inevitably, is a tourist circus of ice sculptures, husky sleigh rides, glacier walks, a short ski run, restaurants and a post office, all invariably overflowing with tour-groups. Nonetheless, on a clear day and with time to spare, it's worth the expense. Panoramic views from the Sphinx Terrace (3571m) to Germany's Black Forest in one direction and across a gleaming wasteland to the Italian Alps in the other are heart-thumping - as is the thin air. There are two routes to the top. Trains head southwest from Interlaken Ost along the valley floor to Lauterbrunnen, from where you pick up the mountain line which climbs through Wengen; trains also head southeast from Interlaken Ost to Grindelwald, where you change for the climb, arriving from the other direction. All trains terminate at Kleine Scheidegg, where you must change for the final pull to Jungfraujoch; the popular practice is to go up one way and down the other ( www.jungfraubahn.ch ). The adult round-trip fare from Interlaken is a budget-crunching Sfr162 (IR no discount; ER 25 percent discount; SP free to Wengen or Grindelwald then 25 percent discount). The best deal is the discounted Good Morning ticket , valid if you travel up on the first train of the day (6.35am from Interlaken), and leave the summit by noon (Nov-April: first or second train plus later departure permitted); this costs Sfr125 from Interlaken (ER Sfr110; SP Sfr98), Sfr109 from Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald, Sfr97 from Wengen, or Sfr62 from Kleine Scheidegg. Walking some sections of the journey, up or down, is perfectly feasible in summer, and can save a lot of money. Excellent transport networks and vista-rich footpaths linking all intermediate points mean that with judicious use of a hiking map and train timetable you can see and do a great deal in a day and still get back to Interlaken, or even Bern or Zurich, by bedtime.
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