We woke up in Murren to a spectacular day for our Jungfraujoch trip, with nary a cloud in the sky. Inclement weather was coming, but not today.
The trip from Murren to the summit is a full two hours. One goes down into Lauterbrunnen ( trolley rail car, gondola, and train), and up past Wengen. There are about five connections in all. The Swiss Travel Pass covers up to Murren and Wengen, and give a 25% discount after that, so the cost was around $300 USD for the two of us. It's a full day experience, so plan for at least six hours for the round trip. I'd recommend a timed reservation. We thought we had one, when we bought the ticket the day before , as the Murren train staffer gave us a time to depart. We did not. A timed reservation costs about 5 chf more each way, and allows you to stand in the reserved line at the last two connections. Because we did not have such, the train filled up with one of the few tour groups, and we had an additional 25 minute wait, indoors, masked, no social distancing. I'm told that at peak times, the reserved tickets guarantee one a seat, instead of standing. This was the only crowd we experienced on our entire trip.
The last segment goes through the mountain, so is dark, and you are delivered in a basement-type structure at the conclusion of your rail ascent. It was a little confusing where to go to get outside to the mountain summit, as there is an ice cave, and several "experiences." It's a very commercial venture, but one is at the " top of Europe." Surprising were the number of folks, having been deceived by the 70-ish weather in the valleys, who were completely unprepared for the cold and snow: open-backed sandals and sundresses. I did see gals buying coats in the gift shop. I did buy a Jungfrau map mask in the gift shop- definitely unique!
Once outside- wow! We had dark blue skies, clear air, powdery snow, and not a cloud to be seen! The views were magnificent and breath-taking ( in addition to the 11,000 ft altitude.) There was a 360 degree observation deck, and access to the snow. Typical Swiss, the path upward was slippery and not shoveled, and it's up to you not to fall. The air is clean and brisk, the sun bright, and I marveled at all the hardy hikers, marching uphill in the snow to newer vistas. The experience is magnificent, and I did get some unbelievable pix of the summits and of the glacier.
There are restaurants in the structure, but there were fairly full, midday. I believe we spent about two hours just being there - a once-in-a lifetime experience.
The trip down was much less crowded, no real lines at the transfer points, again two hours back to Murren. There is a new gondola that shortens the trip, but I think it goes down towards Grindlewald. So many options for hikers !
There are some lovely stops on the way down; many folks were having lunch at KS, with a wonderful view of the summit, or getting off to explore Wengen. I wish we had done the latter, however we were nearing an exhaustion point in our trip, and ran out of energy . That day was to be our slow-down day, but due to the weather forecast , we had to pursue the Jungfrau! It was a wise decision, and left us with life-long memories.
We returned to Murren for the last of our spectacular sunsets.