Masala tea with ice chips: 'Crash landing' on the Alps

The journey to Jungfraujoch is on a cogwheel railway line, over a 100 years old, climbing up a mountain at an angle of 35 degrees.

Autumn had just set in leaving foliage trails. The air is icy and crisp. A freezing breeze whisks past me. I am happily numbed.

Standing on top of Europe, 3,454 metres above sea level, in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland, the Alps look majestic, and humbling.

Our pretty strong group of 38, led by our tour manager Ameya Deo, had been on a Paris-Swiss tour for almost a week. Jungfraujoch was going to be our last stop before we flew out.

It's mid-September and I bet there's no better time to see the Alps with winter knocking on the door.

While I didn’t know what this part of the Alps held for me (I had my share of Julian Alps a decade ago), the adrenaline came from the picture-postcard landscapes, the perfect green and serene meadows, the barns, the sheep herds, and the flawless rendition of Bollywood songs and soulful dances by my co-travellers.  

We were being driven by Andrew ('I am from Budapest, Hungary', he told me) all through the trip. He once drove me back to pick up my lost phone, but that’s another story.

We passed the panoramic landscapes, the Alpine houses made of wood to Interlaken, a quaint town nestled between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, where we alighted.

The Swiss landscape.

After soaking in the sights of the teal blue water of the lake (or was it emerald blue?), hovering around the city centre, and watching tandem paragliders, we were set for Grindelwald, the mountain village in Bernese Alps. Imagine living in a glacier village? It has its perks, and peaks of course!

The best thing about Europe is the insane amount of walking you can do, and I tried to do justice to it as much as I could.

At the Grindelwald terminal, the Eiger Express tricable gondola took us to the Eiger Glacier. This was no roller-coaster ride but we let out screams at regular intervals.

After all, only seven pillars support the route.

Once we moved past that icy mountains appeared all around us. In 15 minutes we were transported from Grindelwald to the Eiger glacier station.

"As a tour manager, Jungfrau has always been the key highlight of every tour I have conducted since my start as a tour manager," Ameya informed.

"Jungfrau is always portrayed as a 'must do' sightseeing event for any tourist visiting Switzerland. It is a journey where people experience a more than 100-year-old cog wheel railway line climbing up a mountain at an angle of 35 degrees; the longest Aletsch glacier of Switzerland at it base and the chance of walking on it; the engineering marvel inside a mountain created for people that has a become a highlight today and it is Europe’s highest altitude railway station," he said.

The red-and-yellow Jungfrau train is waiting.

Climbing aboard, we chugged through an open landscape and through the long tunnel in the rock.

Our ascent to Jungfraujoch has begun -- a good time to dig deep into the history of Jungfraujoch railway.

Swiss industrialist Adolf Guyer-Zeller, while hiking, made the decision to build a railway from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfrau. He wanted to construct a cogwheel railway through the summit of Jungfrau. In 1893, on June 20, the Wengernalp Railway opened. Stations were constructed. On February 26, 1899, six men lost their lives in an accident with explosives.

Finally, on February 21, 1912, they saw 'light at the end of the tunnel' -- metaphorically and literally speaking -- the construction of the final station in Jungfraujoch.

It had taken 16 years and Zeller had passed on before his dream project was completed.

By now, the train had stopped at the first viewing station of Eigerwand which has an observation window on the platform.

We hopped out of the train and a few quick clicks later, settled back in our seats again.

Our train is reaching the summit and the temperature in Jungfraujoch is -4.8 degree Celsius.

As we stepped out at the highest station in Europe, we could see the sheer marvel in rock and ice outside.

Ameya had reminded us the previous day to hydrate ourselves to avoid altitude sickness. I balanced my two bottles of water, snow caps, and mittens leaving a trail behind, while kind souls picked them up.

Jungfraujoch is brimming with tourists. Restaurants, a coffee shop, Europe's highest post office, souvenir shops, the Sphinx Observatory and Observation Deck, and an 'Ice Palace'. Voila! you have it all.

But an Indian lunch couldn't have come at a better time.

At the vantage platform, 'stay at least 15 minutes and breathe easy', Ameya advised. It worked!  

I watched Europe's longest glacier in the Alps, the 22-km-long Aletsch Glacier. Time stood still as we were transfixed by the mysteries of the mountain. I managed to scoop up some ice that had laced the platform on which we stood.  

I felt the Alps.

Later, a lift took us to the Sphinx Observatory in about 27 seconds. I saw a 350-km long corridor connecting the Sphinx Hall with the Ice Palace - a brilliant tribute to the souls who built the railway, some of them laying down their lives in the process.

Inside the Ice Palace in Jungfraujoch.

The walk was done and it was time for my 'Masala Tea' ('We have no English Tea', a restaurant manager told me in Anglais-Francais).

I am glad.

The tourists are 'Alpining' with our good old 'Masala Tea'.

As we got back on the train, I realised how tough it was to leave the grandeur and the pure air behind, rather above us, as we slowly began our descent. 

'Vaud' a beauty!

Two days before Jungfraujoch, we had a picture-perfect look at another face of the Alps --The Glacier 3000 -- located in the canton of Vaud and east of Montreux, at an altitude of 2965 m.

A cable car took us to the top of the summit station designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta.

Glacier 3000.

From Glacier 3000's lookout point, I tried to catch a view of the snow-capped peaks -- Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau, the Matterhorn, Grand Combin, and  Mont Blanc -- standing tall at around 4,000 metres-- through the fog and the clouds.

Outside the cable car station, tourists made their way to the Peak Walk, the world’s first suspension footbridge spanning two summits. 

I downed another 'Masala Chai' at the restaurant on the summit as well and went for another soon enough.

Down the valley, lunch was served with fondue. We were only too happy to lap it all up in the lap of the Alps.

Fondue at Glacier 3000.

As we descended, I understood why the Alps are so venerated, why they have been the inspiration for poets and writers like J R R Tolkien and Mark Twain, and why nature’s bounty is so captivating that words fail to paint the picture of Heidi's world that I read as a child.

I couldn't get over it! Guess, I never will.