Sunday’s pass was completely different from the day before. Aerial traffic could wend its way up to the summit for a treat in curvey turns, while the Jochpass itself was rife with hundreds of people but no roads. We’ve begun to approach the resort portions of the Via Alpina and the Bernese Oberland in specific.

Rising out of Engelberg are numerous lifts and a gondola ferrying folks up to the Titlis Glacier year-round ski area and all sorts of hiking trails descending both sides of the Jochpass. Arriving at the base (yes, we did choose once again to knock off about 3,000′ of first-thing climbing) there were already eight tour buses parked in the gondola parking lot. The line for the smaller gondolas had no less than 100 people queued up but fortunately was moving really fast.

Most people chose to start their hike at the first stop, whereas Stanna and I took one more chair lift to a more remote summit. The lake we passed accessing that second lift had a postcard perfect reflection of the mountains and cumulus sky. Here’s hoping the photos turned out.

If you’re worried we’re wimping out, we got in almost 14 miles and nearly 7,000′ of downhill. Stanna is reading Kev’s guide and titrating her endurance. As it was, with only 50 minutes stopped time the whole day, we just managed to arrive in Meiringen in time to catch a Post bus to our hotel. The hike included lots of sunny mountain views, waterfalls and long looks down to the valley below. About midday we could see the back side of the Bernese Oberland massif which is the home of the Eiger, Jungfrau and their brethren.

Check out all cow bells above the door and windows.

I’d chanced to check online about our next accommodation and luckily I noticed it was about 9 miles out of town. What the Google Map didn’t emphasize was it was three hiking hours up the mountain toward Grindelwald. The last Post bus saved making a long day interminable. We were’t sure what to expect this far up a single lane road that the Post bus had to use it’s famous Post Horn bugling around sightless wall to wall curves. Oncoming cars pulled sharply to the edges or backed up to turn-outs to let the Post Bus through.

What a delightful surprise the Rosenlaui Hotel turned out to be.