Jungfraujoch

The granddaddy of all high-altitude excursions, the famous journey to the Jungfraujoch, site of the highest railroad station in Europe, is one of the most popular adventures in Switzerland. From the station at Lauterbrunnen, you take the green cogwheel Wengernalp Railway nearly straight up the wooded mountainside, and watch as the valley and the village shrink below. From the hilltop resort of Wengen, the train climbs up steep grassy slopes past the timberline to Kleine Scheidegg, a tiny, isolated settlement surrounded by vertiginous scenery. Here you change to the Jungfraubahn, another train, which tunnels straight into the rock of the Eiger, stopping briefly for views out enormous picture windows blasted through its stony face.