DAY 3: To the Top

Time to confess. I do have a history of letter writing and blackmail – indeed, you may have some recollection of my role in a certain political scandal known as The Second Stain. Well, I’m better now. No more secrets, no more monkey business…

Oh all right, perhaps a little wouldn’t hurt.

The day started so well! We board the ingenious Jungfraubahn, built in 1912 and due for its 100 year anniversary as far away as the year 2012. Bound for the Top of Europe and the highest rail station on the Continent, we first alight at Kleine Scheidegg.

Here the nefarious Moriarty manages to appropriate the train itself, pedalling shares in his own evil rail company and promising his MMR train line would have “no Swiss tennis players, and feature leaves on the line and the wrong kind of snow”. Mayhem.

This wild feat of rail engineering journeys right into the mountain itself, popping out at the top of Jungfraujoch at higher than a heart-fluttering 3,400 metres. Our hearts certainly are pounding in the thin clear air, one tweed-coated man turns a fetching shade of blue. We pause to admire the splendid ice carving of Sherlock in the Ice Palace, deep inside the glacier. Oscar Meunier aka renowned British artist John Doubleday, makes a celebrity appearance. Thrilling and chilling.  

Snow heaves over the mountain tops this sunny September day and indeed its lies here all year long. Peering down the longest glacier in Europe -- the Aletsch is 22km long -- the elegant Miss Helen Stoner looks for the easy way down.

Who has stolen the officer’s hat? Again! No bump or bustle escapes his investigative curiosity.

On the train winding back down the mountain the missing hat is finally discovered…. by Sherlock, bien sur. But horror of horrors, the Great Sleuth finds the missing property in the possession of me, Lady Hilda. I am cuffed, but I feel I am in good hands…

Fellow passengers take the incident in their stride. There will be more to follow I am told...

And many more costume changes to come ...