Berchtesgaden & The Eagles Nest 10.4.11

After breakfast this morning we were mapping out our route for the day, trying to figure out what we wanted to see.  I probably could have stayed in Salzburg a few more days, it's a great city with so much to see and so much history.  The Eagles Nest was on the agenda today though as we headed to Garmish for the next few days.  We were looking online and found a tour company that we hadn't planned on but thought we would give that a try for the  Eagles Nest.  It was only 30 minutes away so we thought if we couldn't get on we would do it ourselves but when we got to the TI they had room for 2 more!  We had 2 hours to kill so we walked through the remote little alpine ski town of Berchtesgaden.  The whole walk that the TI gave us took about 2 hours and goes through the history of the 900 year old town but we needed lunch so we just looked in some of the cute shops in the Marktplatz, took a peek in the Abbey Church and took a walk around the Royal Castle from about 1200.  We then enjoyed lunch outside with a beautiful view of the Alps!
 
The Historical Eagles Nest tour was definitely more than just a ride up to Hitler’s mountain retreat, it was 4 hours of excellent historical significance of the whole mountain.  It was the cradle of the Nazi party and became a stage of where world history was enacted.  We learned all about Hitler’s life on the drive up to Obersalzberg, the tiny former Nazi community above Berchtesgaden.  We also learned about how the Nazi Party took over the area and Martin Bormann transformed the mountain into Hitler’s headquarters.  We saw actual buildings, administrative and residential, from the Third Reich as well as Albert Speer's home and architectural studio, Bormann's model farm, and the location of Hitler’s home that is no longer standing.  In fact, once it was destroyed they planted so many trees so close together so that no one had room to build any type of shrine or memorial there.
Hotel zum Türken

At the Documentation Center we were taken into the Bunker System, below the mountain.  It is an extensive fortress-like system built as an air raid shelter, as war headquarters and as a possible last refuge for the leaders of the Reich.  We saw living quarters, bathrooms, studies and file rooms.  It was a pretty impressive system.  Then we made our way to the Eagles Nest which is perched up high at 1834m or 6017'.  

The long tunnel took us directly to the original brass lined elevator that goes directly up through the heart of the Kehlstein Mountain into the actual building.  There were no bedrooms in this 50th birthday "gift" house to Hitler, no one ever stayed there, it was primarily for entertaining dinner parties and showing off the view.  He didn't like heights and found the place rather inconvenient to go to!  Eva Brown did spend more time there than Hitler.  It is now a restaurant that closes down sometime in October.  It was a four hour tour which put us a little behind schedule getting into Garmish but we are glad that we took the tour and gained the extra knowledge about our world history.
 
We took the mountain bus back to the TI and headed to Garmish - normally about a 2.5 hour drive from where we were but having to head back towards Munich to get around the mountains landed us in a number of stau's! Yuck, we're beginning to find this more common in Germany driving.  It might make me think more about the train.  I called the Gasthaus to let them know we'd be arriving late and they kindly left the keys on the front door for us.  The Gasthaus Höhe Tannen is a large B&B on a quaint residential street nestled in the foothill of the mountain among many others just like it.  We found our room, on the top floor, and headed out to try to find a place to eat.  We didn't have a map or know the town but figured we would run into something.  We ran into a couple coming in as we were leaving that offered us a little direction, Eddie and Theresa, who gave us their flashlight too to use in the dark!  We found a steakhouse just down the road that was still serving with a very nice waiter who spoke English!  We were tired and hungry, had a great meal, luckily found our way back, and now are off to bed.  I can’t wait to get up tomorrow to actually "see" what it looks like out our balcony!


Pictures of the day:

Berchtesgaden and The Eagle's Nest 10.4.11