Last stop in the Alps

Originally published  12 June 2013

The view from the top

​We woke this morning to borderline fantastic weather and visibility. This meant one thing. We're going to climb the mountain! After another fantastic breakfast, we said goodbye to Hotel Bavaria in Berchtesgaden. Our stay there both times has been superb. What a great hotel!

The view down the valley from Eagles Nest

​We checked out, loaded our gear into the rental car, then headed for Eagle's Nest. We got our tickets...and wondered if it would be worth the 16 euro price. A trip to the top told the tale.

The bus line from the valley below

​We boarded buses and headed up the one lane road. They have a very good system worked out where the buses travel in groups of 6 and there is a pullover 6 buses long on the road. The buses coming down pull over and stop, while the buses coming up have right of way. 12 buses run constantly to take people up and down.

Eagles Nest

​We arrived at the drop off area, disembarked from the bus, and went up a tunnel cut into the mountain for a few hundred feet. There we boarded the original elevator and rode it up and into the house on the peak. We got off and were stunned by the views. We had a full 360 degree view around it and many of the peaks surrounding it were now on our level. It was really different looking across at peaks than up at them.......and it made for some stunning photos.

On the high ground above Eagles Nest

​I knew the history of the place but I'll repeat it as it is important. The houses owned by the Nazi party bigwigs were all demolished after the war, so there could be no monument, or place to converge for the believers in the Nazi ideals. Eagles Nest was spared for a couple of reasons. There was a mayor that wanted to use it for functions, and put a restaurant in it.....for tourist purposes. He worked very hard to save it. It was allowed to be saved because Hitler actually never spent the night there, and only visited it about ten times to greet high ranking guests. It turns out the leader of the master race.....was scared of heights.

Hitler's fireplace

​We went out of the chateau and climbed up a few hundred feet more. I'm always one to take the high ground so I climbed the biggest rock there. The views were awe inspiring. There are reasons people come there..........and it's not the food. And like all real estate, it's about location! To wake up each morning and look out over everything would be such a great way to start the day.

The gang at Eagles Nest

Laurie in Hitler's reception room.   Her people win.

​We had to have the rental car back by 3 p.m. so we started back to the buses. We boarded our bus and were dropped off at the parking area. We hopped in and headed to Freilassig, Germany. Yeah...........I never heard of it either. But to return the rental car in Salzburg, Austria was twice as much as returning it to a rental car depot in Germany. So we dropped the car there, took a cab to the train station, and took a short, inexpensive train ride into Salzburg.

Our ride into Salzburg

On the train to Salzburg

​We have a great hotel in Salzburg....it's very "old world European". Sadly, one of the old world perks is that it's A/C in our room is broken down. It's been unusually hot here and it's less than pleasant. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.

The fortress in Salzburg

​We wandered a bit in Salzburg, and discussed possibilities about what we would do on our visit here.......we'll decide exactly what...tomorrow. 'Nite all. It's late here.

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