We ate lunch at 11, 388 feet the Bernese Alps, the Aletsch Glacier, chow mein and spring rolls.

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There will still be a bit of the 23km Aletsch glacier left at the end of the century, because it is 900m deep in places.

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Finally, Tolkien continued across the 2, 165m Grimsel Pass and through upper Valais to the village of Brig, before crossing the Aletsch glacier, the largest in the Alps, into the popular mountain resort of Zermatt.

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On clear days you will probably want to head straight out onto the observatory's wraparound terrace, which looks out over a rippling sea of pearly-white summits, deep into Italy, Germany and France and over the 22km-long tongue of the Aletsch Glacier, the longest of its kind in the Alps and a Unesco World Heritage site.

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Jungfrau-Aletsch, for instance, located on a Unesco World Heritage-designated glacier's edge, can be accessed by rail, bus, bike or foot.

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The longest glacier in the Alps and a Unesco World Heritage site, the Aletsch covers 32 square miles.

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