Help please with trains, Switzerland and Prague
 

This question involves several parts.
I've read some stuff but still haven't really found the answers to what I need.

I will be starting out in Prage and would like to see Jungfraujoch. I will have 2 days.
Where does the "train" to Jungfraujoch start off at? I think Kleine Scheidegg--right? Only problem is when I search on Rail Europe, I don't see it.
Do I first go to Interlaken and switch to some train??
If that is right, I'm seeing it is a 14 hour train ride from Prague to Interlaken. Is that right? Any other, faster way to do it?
I want to spend the night somewhere, in case it is too cloudy on day 1 to make it to the top, then I can try for day 2. What town do I stay in?
Is it a roundtrip train from Kleine?

There are many local private railways in Switzerland. There seem to be three independent railways for the journeys from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch via Kleine Scheidegg.
I haven't been there myself, but more details are on
www.jungfrau.ch.

> There seem to be three independent railways for the journeys from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch via Kleine Scheidegg.

You don't have to worry about that. For you it's only one company "Jungfrau Railways". And for timetable, the easiest is to use the Swiss Federal Railway below that gives all the time table you need even from Prague.

http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm

Jungfrau train starts at Interken-Ost. You can go from there to Lauterbrunnen > Kleinescheidegg > Jungfraujoch (top) > Kleinescheidegg > Grindelwald > Interlaken-Ost
Or
INT-Ost > GRW > KLS > JOCH > KLS > LTB > INT-Ost.

Only for 2 days, is it worth? It's another matter, but it's your choice.

I wouldn't do it just for two days. I'd prefer to visit Salzburg, Vienna or something closer to Prague. Imagine travelling 14 hours only to find terrible weather.

I agree--much too far unless you plan to spend a week in the BO. Travel down to St. Gilgen on the Wolfgangsee to see some beautiful lakes and mountains.

You're talking covering a distance of 500 miles from Prague - about 13 hours or more by bus and train, not counting the actual ascent to the top which would have to happen the next day. But you may not be able to make the ascent - as schuler says, being a mountain location (high up!) the weather is most unpredictable. So if you arrive the night before your one and only chance to go up and the weather doesn't permit it - you've made that 500-mile trip for nothing.

I'll skip it for now.......that just means another trip to Europe :-)

Be careful about the Jungfraujoch. Only 5K per day are allowed up to the top, and tickets are often sold out by 11 AM especially on weekends with nice weather.

And you don't want to buy tickets beforehand, because if the weather is lousy you will be wasting your money.

My husband and I were at the Kleine Scheidegg train station just a few months ago (we hiked from Mannlichen) and there were hundreds of people trying to buy tickets to the Jungfraujoch, but the excursion was sold out.

People come from all over the globe to visit the Jungfraujoch. We ran into a family from Holland who told us they hated the experience because there were so many people.

The best way to see the Jungfraujoch is to stay in Wengen and take the train up to Kleine Scheidegg early in the morning if the weather is nice.

Liz, Wengen lover

For train schedules all over Europe the German Rail site is great, http://tinyurl.com/c9jp54. For an introduction to riding the trains in Europe see http://tinyurl.com/eym5b.