Sunday, June 28, 2015

A Full Day in Berchtesgaden

June 24th

My alarm woke me up at 7:00 am.  I haven’t woken up this late with an alarm in weeks, must have been my long day yesterday.  I cleaned up at bit and headed down stairs for breakfast. 

Continental Breakfast
I finally got to meet the owners of the B&B.  I found out that is place actually is a natural, organic, spirit, mind and body kind of place: so there is no internet, everything is natural/organic and a vegetarian menu.  By doing removing modern distractions the guests are encouraged to enjoy the beautiful natural scenery of the mountain side.  Luckily for me I didn’t need internet because I had a good travel book with all the information I needed.  Breakfast was the usual (excellent) so I made sure to eat plenty in preparation for my day.

Beer at the Chapel
Boats on the Kunigssee
I walked two kilometers down the road to the Konigssee (about 15 minutes).  Boat rides across the Konigssee is also one of the main tourist attractions so getting there early in the day was a must.  I just narrowly arrived before a large group of tourists and was able to catch one of the first boats.  The boats are slow and eclectically powered so they take about thirty five minutes to get to a chapel and restaurant along the lake.  The boat ride was fun and the scenery was breath taking.  Half way through the ride the boats stops and one of the crew pulls out a trumpet and plays a tune, with the mountains echoing the back in a sort of duet.  When we arrived to where the chapel was, I had about an hour to walk around and take some pictures and drink a beer before I needed to hop on a returning boat.

Next on my agenda was to go to Obersalzburg and its underground bunkers.  This location was where Hitler spent the majority of his leisure time and what is considered “the cradle of the Third Reich”.  I was able to grab a brat on the go and eat it on the bus.  The buss dropped me off at the museum part of Obersalzburg of which I quickly walked through to get to the bunkers.  There are four miles of tunnels to this lavish bunker however very little of it was available for tourists to see.
Museum of Obersalzburg

After leaving the tunnels I took a bus to the Eagle’s Nest, a present to Hitler on his 50th birthday.  The fifteen minute bus ride to the top was quite fun; steep and sharp turning roads.   Then it was just an elevator ride to the top, I rushed out of the bus to be in the first group up to the top and avoid the lines.  The Eagle's Nest now is just a restaurant with a gift shop.  The weather was partly cloud so the view was spectacular.  Since I took the last bus of the day I only had about 30 minutes once I got to the top to take pictures, hike around and have a beer where Hitler and his Nazi higher officials once enjoyed meals and made their plans of war and terror. 

View of Eagle's Nest
Now I was pretty much done with my day.  I returned to my B&B to drop of my bag and then returned to the German restaurant that I had eaten at the night before and have some dinner.  I spent the remainder of my evening sitting on my balcony and enjoyed the view as the sun set.
View From my B&B Balcony in Berchtesgaden  
      

3 comments:

  1. How beautiful and mysterious all those plaes must feel. Does the air feel different or weird in the places where so many evil people were? I always wonder if spirits linger. I have seen documentaries on those passageways. Its so unfortunate you could not see more. Beer at a chapel is awesome tho.

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  2. Actually the atmosphere was very calming and relaxing.

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  3. Interesting. People who have studied paranormal activity on the fields of the battle at Gettysburg say it is fougt again night after night. When i went to the first part of the OKC bombing memorial it felt very crowded, even tho there were not many people there. I felt like things were running behind me and there was nothing there.

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