So, Where’s the View?

Berchtesgaden, Germany

Let's pretend there's a view

Beautifully carved sign at the entrance

Glimpses of what might have been - on the way down of course!

Having ventured north into farming heartlands looking for romance, it was now time to head south for a history lesson in those famous Bavarian alpine playgrounds with massive views.  Oh dear, it was overcast and raining (again!)…..  This was not the best of days to be heading off to tour Berchtesgaden and visit what remains of Hitler’s Alpine HQ of the Third Reich.

Along the way, we dropped off some of our fellow passengers at Lake Chiem for their visit to Ludwig’s famous Herrenhiemsee, a wondrous palace built on an island in the lake – a replica of Versailles!  Bavaria is one of those places where you simply wish you could stop and see everything, but we stayed on the bus, climbing higher and higher into the Bavarian Alps to reach destination Obersalzburg.

A good indication of the places we visited in the Bavarian Alps

First stop was the “elevator bus” to take us to Eagles Nest.  Somehow we imagined this bus to be a futuristic, innovative German-engineered rig.  It was in a way, just not what we had envisaged.  The road up to Eagles Nest is incredibly steep and ordinary vehicles are not allowed.  (Even the maintenance staff drove trucks that would have happily been at home in a US “monster truck derby”.)  The views from the bus though are expansive and the drop to the valley floor deadly; it quite takes your mind off mere technicalities.  The end of the road was a simple tunnel entrance to a not-so-simple Elevator.  Made from polished brass with green leather benches and Venetian mirrors, it was confection enough to make any interior designer of the times swoon. 

Tunnel to the Elevator

Selfies? in the Elevator

Mussolini's Marble Fireplace, Eagles Nest

Eagles Nest itself is situated high on a rocky outcrop in the Alps and this smart elevator takes you the last 124m skyward to a modest stone lodge.  Presented by Martin Bormann to Hitler for his 50^th birthday, it was rarely used.  Sadly, the Italian marble fireplace, a gift from Mussolini, was damaged by souvenir hunting soldiers after the war.  Currently, a charitable organisation operates a restaurant at the top.  It was raining and miserable, so with no spectacular views for us to contemplate today, we bussed back down the slopes. 

Obersalzburg has a sobering history.  It seems that Hitler enjoyed vacationing here and initially rented a chalet.  That was until owners and neighbours were “encouraged” to leave, making way for the area to become Alpine HQ with the chalet modified into the famous Berghof.  Others in the Nazi upper echelon lived nearby, the area a fortified pleasure garden and warren of tunnels.  The Documentation Centre, a resource of historical information about the area under this regime, has been built over the former Guesthouse.  Little remains of the complex given that it was heavily bombed following the end of WW2.  One of the original buildings, Hotel zum Turken (a hotel prior to its occupation by the SS) sits serenely in what is now a quiet forested area albeit with a nearby bus terminus busy with Eagles Nest visitors. 

Remains of the Berghof's solid retaining walls

Eagles Nest is up there somewhere  - in the clouds.  We had lunch
(inside) this restaurant - hearty, German-sized portions & a hot chocolate!

Our final stop for the day was at a damp Berchtesgaten, once famous for its salt mines, now a resort town with immediate access to winter ski resorts & sports venues and summer pleasures on deep glacial lake, Königssee.  We strolled briefly around this picturesque village to take in, aside from some lovely buildings, those delightfully romantic external frescoes known locally as luftmalerei painting.  Wealthy merchants in the 18^th c had wall murals applied to their homes, themes varying from the religious to folk lore, fairy tales included.  We stuck our noses briefly into the church, but not wanting to drip in one of the few dry places in town, moved on to “window shop” before taking the journey back to Munich.  

Town Square - church & palace

Town Square - decorated with luftmalerei paintings

 

Inside the Church

Fashionable Dirndls

Shop window full of hand painted goodies

(During this run up the A8 highway we noticed a large police checkpoint just out of Salzburg and lines of delayed traffic - all part of organising the bourgeoning flow of refugees.  In fact our whole trip had been re-routed along country roads to save the inconvenience of border crossings.  There were few amongst us who had not left passports locked in our hotel safe.  Kudos to Grayline for this quick thinking!!) 

It was going to be a wet ride home...