Jungfrau, Joghurt and Just Enough Time in Salzburg

Yesterday dawned bright and clear in the Swiss Alps, and we decided to seize the opportunity and head to Jungfrau - even though it meant delaying the start of our seven-hour drive to Salzburg by several hours. So, we climbed the steep slope of the Eiger on a train that was built a hundred years ago and reached the highest train station in Europe - JungfrauJoch. As we caught our first glimpse of the views afforded from Jungfrau, any doubts about delaying the long drive were completely dispelled. It really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Some of the pictures we took can be found below. I'm sure Manish will upload the rest at some point. I had expected that Jungfrau would be one of my favorite things about Swizerland, but didn't know beforehand that Swiss yoghurt would be a close second. The yoghurt in Switzerland is absolutely amazing. We were staying at a guesthouse in Gimmelwald, where there are no restaurants. Thus, all residents cooked their own dinner in a common kitchen. One night, we were having dinner with a few folks from Frankfurt who got to dessert before we did. They pulled out their cups of yoghurt and started making yummy noises with every spoon. They even offered to go back and eat the yoghurt in their room so that the rest of us wouldn't get jealous. A few minutes later I pulled out my lemon yoghurt and understood why the other travelers were so happy. The next day, I had strawberry yoghurt with coconut flakes and that was even better. After Jungfrau, I couldn't find yoghurt at the little store by our car, so I ended up buying pineapple-coconut lassi instead and that was great too!

We got into Salzburg really late - around 1 a.m. - after picking up Huat Chye from the Munich airport on our way here. We are glad that he is joining us for this phase of our trip. Salzburg itself has been underwhelming. The city is extremely touristy and doesn't have too much to offer. We watched a classical music concert today - and the organization, musicians and venue were all mediocre, especially compared to the Vivaldi concert we had watched in Venice. The day wasn't entirely a waste though - we did manage to connect with an old friend who currently lives in Stuttgart but was visiting Salzburg, and ate really good Indian food (almost tasted like a home-cooked meal!) at a restaurant called Spicy Spices.

Tomorrow, we plan to head to Hallstatt in Sound of Music country. That should be a fun break in the country before we hit Vienna.