This map (we really love these Swiss signposts and large photographable maps) only shows the 4,982′ downhill portion of today hike, which starts on the far right as Surenen Pass. It was 2,925′ getting up to that point and that didn’t include the two gondolas just to start the uphill. We avoided the 3 hours and 3,000′ prelude to today’s hike because it would have meant over 11 hours on the trail and 6,000 up with 5,000 down. As it was we racked up 14.25 miles and felt not a twinge of guilt. Our destination, Engelberg, is on the far left.

What amazed us was watching a farmer family of eight drive their herd of cows over the same pass we were ascending. They looked like ants when we first saw them crossing over the summit. We could hear the “ya oops” from more than a mile away.

Once we reached the pass we were surprised to see these two “downhill” mountain bikers coming up from the 5,000′ side. We’d only seen Swiss mountain bikers riding the gondolas up to ride their armored downhill rides. These guys actually had to work for it.

Here’ same couple more photos of Stanna checking Kev’s guide book on the iPhone to see how much further or where we should be watching for a course change.

Dinner in Engelberg was super by the way.

Zero Day is what thru hikers call a day when they don’t log any miles down the trail. Our rest day we only walked between two towns and back. Even though it was probably five miles, it was different as it was totally more urban with town sights to marvel and ponder. Seeing those domestic and cultural “slices of life” always prompts plenty of palaver.

But before I tell about Tell city, let me mention a bit about getting sea water consumė served in a specimen jar. It reminded us of experimenting with cooking spaghetti in sea water on the boat, but in this case I could have floated the spoon if the jar was larger. We needed lots of water to hydrate the salt crystals, which was a problem because when you only ordered tap water to drink they brought out a liter flask and post card saying poor folk in Zambia don’t have clean water, so this restaurant is collecting money for your water to give to the Zambian poor. I didn’t want to drink too much because you didn’t know if they were raising money by the ounce or by the milliliter.

Following on the marine theme, the main meal was a delicious modicum of turbot served on partially cooked rice with diced beets. The fish and beets were great but again you needed more of that precious African resource to swallow and digest the rice. It’s hard to complain because this is a four star restaurant with more cutlery and glassware on the table than is understandable, especially when they keep removing and replacing spoons and forks before you even use them. I did, much to Stanna’s chagrin, ever so delicately tell the owner/server to tell the four striped chef should taste his rice before he serves it again. As we were laying over in the same hotel we were afraid they’d be serving that rice again as rice pudding just to get even. It should be known that they did redeem themselves the next night with a stuffed pork cutlet and new potatoes. The water was still a hassle but we hope our 3 Swiss franks gets down to Zambia.

Back to tell about Tell. Altdorf is the town where William shot the arrow thru the apple on his son’s head. The town square has a mammoth bronze of Wiiliam with crossbow and young son. William Tell is known in Switzerland as the first of the hero’s that stood up to the Habsburg lords and led them country into independence and confederation. The story of his feat, his arrest and his escape are chronicled with edifices, plaques, plays and music, however in the tower supporting his statue the museum tells a different story about how this myth was imported from a Norwegian folk tale. Hopefully the throngs of visitors to the various “historic sites” don’t read the fine print.

Following upon the second nights dinner, we couldn’t help but laugh aloud when the young server announced as part of the pretentious service, that, “you will eat pig tonight”. It was delicious and the only other minor complaint one register was getting the caramel creme out of tiny glass box with a soup spoon.