HIKING beneath the north face of the Eiger, I peered up and marvelled at how any human being could climb such a vertical rockface of such a mighty mountain, stretching far into the sky above the clouds.

Yet not only have many conquered it, with crampons and ropes and unbelievable courage, one or two freestyle climbers - using only their hands - have reached the summit in a mind-blowing two and a half hours.

"Running up the Eiger," the locals call it.

You can see photos of the landscape, you can watch documentaries on TV, but only when you are here in person can you truly appreciate the beauty and sheer scale of the Bernese Oberland's glaciers and mountains.

Nothing quite prepares you, for instance, for the vastness of the Aletsch Glacier, a near-23km-long mass of ice which you can gaze down upon from Jungfraujoch.

In places it is 800 metres deep and emits a blue hue. And it's just so wide! Our guide informed us, for example, that in its central plain, which in the distance appeared just one small section of the entire glacier, you can fit the entire city of Basel!

Reaching Jungfraujoch is an expedition in itself and can only be done by train, thanks to an extraordinary engineering feat more than a century ago that involved tunneling seven kilometres through the rock of the Eiger and Mönch mountains. Construction, completed in 1912, took 16 years and cost many lives.

It was the dream of Swiss man Adolf Guyer-Zeller to take people to the Top of Europe by train and the idea and project were ingenious.

Despite considerable problems along the way - including Guyer-Zeller dying from pneumonia after three years so not being able to see his dream realised, with the ambitious project being carried on by his son - workers managed to complete construction of the Jungfrau Railway, and 100 years later this still ranks as the driving force behind successful tourism not only just in the Jungfrau Region but throughout Switzerland.

The continent's highest-altitude railway station, at close to 3,500 metres, is one of those must-see places for anyone visiting this part of Europe.

If you are lucky with the weather - as we were with the clouds parting to give perfect visibility for an hour - the views are breathtaking. As is the height. I suffered from altitude sickness, getting quite dizzy at one point.

My wife and I were here because we had wanted to walk the Eiger Trail and, heeding the guidebooks, we selected a week in the middle of June to walk sections of it.

Unfortunately, however, very late snow in the area, just two days earlier, meant the highest parts of the trail were still inaccessible when we arrived.

Despite this, we still hiked two sections, one from Kleine Scheidegg down to Alpiglen, and on another day from First, high above Grindelwald, to Grosse Scheidegg.

The first walk, right below the north face of the Eiger, was idyllic, with pretty spring flowers dotted between the patchwork of grass and snow, dramatic views and then moody clouds ahead in the valley (which inevitably brought rain). We even saw, close up, a very cute marmot, emerging from its winter hibernation to peer around and wonder who on earth we were.

To start the week, we stayed at Interlaken which, as its name suggests, lies between two lakes, the Thunersee and the Brienzersee, and makes a good base before heading up into the mountains.

Two fun excursions to take here are the funicular up to Harder Kulm, overlooking the town and the lakes, and by boat to Giessbach, where there is a wonderful hotel and waterfalls. We did a very pleasant walk back from here to Interlaken, with an idyllic lunch stop overlooking the lake at Iseltwald.

From Harder Kulm you can see the three great mountains of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, but one of the best views of the first two of these is from Grindelwald, where we remained for several days, extending since because scenery was so magnificent, as the Chinese and Japanese clearly knew, since they were in the area in their thousands.

Taking the cablecar up to First from Gridelwald, we walked to Bachalpsee, a part-frozen lake which has glorious reflections of the mountains. A lot of people were doing the same hike, so we found it more enjoyable along the Eiger Trail on the other side of First mountain restaurant, where on this two-hour section we hardly met anyone, and where carpets of flowers sparkled in the day's dazzling sun.

Yet mountain weather is notoriously changeable, of course, and the previous day we had experienced a very mixed bag.

Taking the train to Murren and cablecars up to the near-3,000m Schilthorn, we were met with heavy snow and poor visibility at the top, so there was just time to get a picture of myself and James Bond, who made its Piz Gloria mountain-top location famous for a thrilling scene in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

When we descended in the afternoon to the Lauterbrunnen Valley, however, which is lined with no fewer than 72 majestic waterfalls, the clouds parted and the full beauty of this quintessentially Swiss landscape was revealed.

After stopping off at the spectacular Trummelbach falls, to experience the energy of the meltwater from the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau crashing down, we then walked along this beautiful valley, to the sound of cowbells ringing and millions of litres of water cascading down the steep-sided mountains, a real highlight of a memorable week.

FACTFILE

Jon travelled as a guest of Interlaken and Jungfrau Region Tourism, flying with Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) and staying in Interlaken’s Hotel du Nord, and Hotel Central Wolter in Grindlewald.

For more information on Switzerland visit MySwitzerland.com or call the Switzerland Travel Centre free on 00800 100 200 30.

SWISS operates more than 170 weekly flights to Switzerland from London Heathrow, London City, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Dublin from as little as £55 one way. Visit swiss.com

The Swiss Travel System provides a dedicated range of travel passes and tickets exclusively for visitors from abroad. Visit swisstravelsystem.co.uk

See also:

interlaken.ch/en

jungfrauregion.ch/en

hotel-dunord.ch

central-wolter.ch