Berchtesgaden

After our first night in Salzburg, we spent a full day just over the German border in Berchtesgaden, a beautiful alpine town nestled at the base of some huge mountains and most well-known for its association with Hitler and his Nazi Party. Young Hitler fell in love with the area after he was released from prison in the 1920s, he enjoyed some R&R here, where he completed his memoir and the beginning of his crazy ranting, Mein Kampf. In the 1930s, Hitler and pals built a gated complex of 80 buildings, bunkers and tunnels here. Somewhere in this complex someone said “hey guys, let’s take over the world!” And all the crazy people agreed. Once the Americans, Brits, French, and Russians were finished beating the Nazis into submission, we took over the area and before handing the land back to the Germans in 1952, we completely destroyed the parts of the complex that survived bombing during the war. A few of the tunnels and bunkers remain. And the Kehlsteinhaus, better known as Hitler’s Eagles Nest. It’s located on the top of a 6,000 foot summit overlooking Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and the Konigssee. It was a gift to Hitler in 1939 for his 50th Birthday from the Nazi party. It was meant to be used as a place for him to bring Diplomats for tea or whatever fascists drink. Lemonade? Soy milk? The blood of virgins? And my favorite part of this whole thing is that Hitler was scared of heights, almost as much as he was scared of the Russians, so he only used the nest 14 times. Steve and I visited the Nest in 2003 but I don’t remember the view being so good. The day we were there this May was beautiful, it was clear, although cold and terribly windy, but we could see the entire city of Salzburg laid out in the distance. We dined in the main hall on some pretty delicious and reasonably priced German food. And then wandered around the building and hiked a short ways up to the summit for pictures.

 

After we rode the bus back down from the Nest, we went over to the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine for a tour. Touring the salt mine is awesome, Steve and I also did it in 2003 and knew from experience that the kids would have a blast (although luckily not literally) on the tour. Tourists are handed blue jumpsuits to put on and then the tour begins with a train ride 650 meters into the mine. Once inside, we slid down “miner’s slides” and took a boat ride across a water-filled cavern. And also of course learned how salt is actually mined, which is still going on in that mine today. A good time was had by all.  

Now, this picture above had us laughing for several days. Steve’s parents, Mike and Mary, got grouped together with some random guy for the slide down. Once they got sliding, Mike got stuck at the top, so Mary and the random guy got a nice little snapshot together!