Die Jungfrau

This was taken from quite high up. I've never been so high without an aeroplane. We were sleeping, or to be more correct, trying unsuccesfully to sleep at around eleven thousand feet. It was warm in the research station but outside it was about 5 degrees.

We had a great evening with G's friends. J takes care of the household duties and M takes care of maintenance and does all sorts of techie things as well. He's also climbed the three peaks here more times than he can remember. Two days before we arrived he'd been on the top of this one again with one of the scientists who had visited.

It is no place to be complacent. Last week two climbers went up to climb the Mönch and haven't been seen since. It is not a place where the hope of rescue is high.

Back to pleasanter things. Our morning was spent with M & J after they finished the first of their duties. We spoke various varieties of German. M is swiss and speaks Schweizer-Deutsch and I could understand most of what he said. J is Dutch and learned German in Switzerland and she speaks a fabulous mixture of all three that is nonetheless understandable.

They also have a huge galoot of a dog called Sherpa. He is great fun but a terrible scrounger. I thought he was great.

I'd love to go back and visit them again.

The journey down from the Jungfraujoch is quite fun. Packed but quite fun. Lots of tourist groups are bussed straight from the airport to the train station and then with no time wheeched up to 3500 meters, hurried around the various touristy things available, fed something and then chivvied back on to the train after emptying their wallets and purses in the gift shop. The altitude difference and the comparatively thin air, mean that when they sit down in the train to go back down, you can almost spot who was going to fall asleep.

The trip up to the Jungfraujoch costs 118 Euros. Eye watering. But in general, Switzerland is really expensive.

Arrived back in Wengen and were greeted by another enormous thuderstorm and three witches. This one rolled around for hours with sky cracking thunder and huge lightning strikes.

It was Very Impressive but with tragic consequences. A young guy out climbing was struck by lightning and as you can imagine, the result was inevitable.