Germany: Eagle's Nest, May 14 Part 1

After a great night's sleep, we loaded the car again for our next adventure. The plan for the day was to head to Eagle's Nest first, which is located in the Alps above the town of Berchtesgadener. This drive provided another scenic tour of southern Germany, with amazing snow-capped moutains in the distance.

Today, Berchtesgadener is predominately a tourist stop, where people come to stay near mountains for hiking and biking and even skiing. Nestled throughout the local mountains are various salt mines, where tourists can don miners' clothes, hop in a mine wagon, and learn the salt-extraction process. Sadly, we didn't have enough time for this, despite our interest as children of the (coal) mining industry.




Berchtesgadener is known to historians as one of Hitler's spots during the Third Reich. The town served as a retreat for Hitler and his party leaders, namely Martin Bormann. They lived at times in small villas nestled in the hills at the base of the mountain. For Hitler's birthday, Bormann decided to honor him by building Eagle's Nest, also known as Kehlsteinhaus. It's referred to as Eagle's Nest because the house was built nearly 2500 ft into the summit of a mountain.

There are some strange elements about this, in my opinion.

First, the road to the top to actually go into Eagle's Nest is unbelievable. The road is an insanely winding road stretching higher and higher to the summit. The views are absolutely spectacular. In fact, in my opinion, the views are the ultimate "thing" to experience here. It was truly the most amazing part of the whole trip. What is strange about this is that Hitler was afraid of heights. The story is told that as he was driven to the house, the window's views were obstructed so he could only see within the car. Odd.

Second, the house today contains an outdoor patio that is a restaurant. Hitler never ate food prepared IN the house. The story here is that all of the food Hitler ate while here was cooked at his villa down in the town and driven to the top. He was afraid of being poisoned. Maybe not as odd, considering Hitler for Hitler.

Third, being in this house in general is just strange. I mean, you walk throughout the house and you are able to stand in the room with a fireplace that was a former meeting place for Hitler and his top officials. He plotted some sick, nasty, immoral acts here. It was downright creepy to think about and experience.

Eagle's Nest was an interesting experience, and we were fortunate to even have it. The day we visited was only the third day it was open to tourists; even though it was mid-May, a great deal of snow had just cleared away enough of the path to make this stop accessible. All in all, this was a thought-provoking experience, and the start to a very strange day of tourism - weird Wednesday, as I'm referring to it now.