Day 6     72 long waterfalls tumble down the vertical cliffs  in the Lauterbrunnen Valley with the Staubach Falls in the photo plunging 300m.  J R Tolkein was so inspired by the landscape that he based Rivendell and “Middle Earth” on it in his book “Lord of the Rings” and the Jungfrau railway tunnel was being completed at the time giving him the inspiration for the dwarf realm of “Khazad-dum with its tunnels and stone hall.  We boarded the cog railway which quickly took us almost 500m up the slope to Wengen from where we had good views looking down into the valley before climbing another 800 m to Kleine Scheidegg.  We had intended doing a fairly long walk but the path was closed due to snow so we just had a short walk before taking the funicular down to Grindelwald.  
On the way a middle aged Japanese couple were escorted off the train at a tiny halt as they refused to pay the exhorbitant fare and surcharge for not having a valid ticket. They were under the impression that their half price Swiss Rail ticket to Wengen allowed them to travel right to the top and were told they would have to walk down if they didn’t pay.  I felt very sorry for them as they were inadequately clothed for the long very steep stony path down with no road and wonder if eventually they decided to pay and get the next train back.   We had bought a 4 day Jungfrau pass which seemed expensive at the time but gave us the freedom to travel on several cable cars and railways as well as boat trips for which we had no time but it was definitely worth the money.