Interlaken and Jungfrau September 9

Today was the day to head down to Interlaken to pick up our race packages. The weather was beautiful so it made a great day for sightseeing. Those who had purchased the Jungfrau ticket with the race package with lift ticket had the day for exploring Interlaken - Mary, Leanne, Carol and Larry. For those who didn't, it was a day to head up to the "top of the world" - Margaret, Doug, Susan, Sarah and Ken.

We found the race expo easily and enjoyed the short walk past the luxury hotels dotting the street from the train station. We took the opportunity to pose at the start line before getting our race packages.

After that it was time to split up and continue with the day of fun in the sun. The Jungfrau crew headed back up to Wengen to change into some warmer clothes and pack a lunch. Susan complained loudly about having to put on long pants on such a hot, sunny day but at 11,333 feet she was happy she did!!

The trip up from Wengen to the Jungfrau involved the "normal" mountain railway to Kleine Scheidegg and then changed to the separate train to take us through the Eiger and Monch to the Junfraujoch. Yes, a train through 2 mountains!! The train ride up provided us with some spectacular views of the mountains. This helped to compensate for the 30 minutes of darkness which we spent going through the tunnel. The stops at the lookouts along the way gave us some indication of what we  helped to had in store for us the top.

After we arrived we headed for the ice caves. Boy was it cold! Even the floor was made of ice!

Enough of being underground and now time for some time outside!! Just breathtaking!!

When we got down to Kleine Scheidegg we got to see the set up for the race finish. We thought we would sneek on to the finishers podium as this would be the only time we would ever get to do that in this race.

And now it was time to head back down to Wengen for a prerace meal and some fitful rest before our big race in the morning.