Berchtesgaden, Germany
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
This morning we took the bus over the border to Berchtesgaden which was about a 45 min trip
. Berchtesgaden is another beautiful place but is best known for being the location of the Eagle's nest. This was a 50th birthday present to Adolf Hitler. The eagles nest is only a conference center and Hitler only visited it three times because he was afraid of heights. The marble fireplace mantle was a gift from Mussolini. A note about the fireplace- When the 101 airborne division arrived they broke off pieces of the mantle for souvenirs. The road up to the Eagles nest was quite an engineering feet. It is quite a ride up special buses which my wife will not look out the window as we are either going up or down. Once up there you travel thru a tunnel which has an erry feeling since you know Hitler walked this very same path. You take a Brass elevator up to the conference center. Brass was used in the elevator because Hitler was also afraid of closed spaces and the brass made the elevator look bigger
. We also toured the bunker system that are below. Berchtesgaden was used as a retreat for the third Reich and Bormann, Gurbels, etc all had homes here. After 1945 these homes were used by the US Army as officer RR center but have now since been returned to Germany. Hitlers home was destroyed after the war so as not to become a shrine to the neo Nazi's. Now that the German government now has the rest of the home they have also been destroyed. The Eagles nest was spared such destruction as Hitler only visited it a few times and they have made it into a restaurant with all the money going to charity.
When we arrived in Berchtesgaden it was freezing and there would be snow up the mountain. We took a boat cruise on the konigsee lake over to St. Bartholoma. Only electric boats are allowed to be used so it is very quiet. In the middle of the cruise they stop the boat and the driver will take a trumpet and play some notes and it will echo back to you.
