We had one clear day while we were in the alps and we devoted it to hiking on the Jungfrau glacier. It was magnificent and we were thrilled to be there.

To get up to the top is an expensive train ride to what is dubbed “the top of Europe” (think the price of tickets to a Broadway show) but it was totally worth it.

Above you can see the river of ice that is the glacier moving through the landscape. We hiked the higher, thick portion, where the ice is 1 kilometer thick. The snow was sparkling and the view was fantastic.

We walked way out on the glacier and it was windy, cold, and simply exhilarating. Our euphoria level was exceedingly high, especially augmented by the low visibility we’d had the day before on the Schilthorn peak.

We also got to go inside the glacier, with ice all the way around us, which really helped us understand how hard and compacted the glacier is.

I’ve hiked a lot of glaciers as a kid.  For example, the Athabaska glacier in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies, I remember stretching for miles, all the way down to the road. I went back there about eight years ago to find it shockingly gone!  I’m glad our daughters got to experience a glacier before this one too is gone.

The train ride up and down had some great views, and it was amazing to think about them blasting that path through mountains for this a hundred years ago.