The Eagle's Nest

This morning we got up and prepared to leave Salzburg. While we were packing, Bezaubernde Jeannie (I Dream of Jeannie) was on TV. Emilie was enthralled with it, but at the moment when Jeannie's existence was on the verge of being discovered by Dr. Bellows, Emilie clapped her hands over her ears and ran around the room yelling, "Oh, no! I just can't watch! I can't stand it! Oh, no!" I never realized how suspenseful I Dream of Jeannie could be.


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We left Salzburg and in minutes were back in Germany.

We headed deeper into the Alps toward Hitler's chalet, the Eagle's Nest, located high up in the mountains.

Berchtesgaden is a beautiful spot in the mountains where Hitler had constructed a compound of 80 buildings which served as his second seat of government and planned refuge of last resort. Long before its association with Hitler, Berchtesgaden was one of the classic Romantic corners of Germany. This dramatic corner of Bavaria was steeped in legend and close to the soul of the German people. In fact, Hitler's propagandists capitalized on the Führer's love of this region to establish the notion that the former Austrian was truly a German at heart.

Almost everything in the compound, also called Obersalzberg, was destroyed by the victorious Allies (wanting to leave nothing as a magnet for future neo-Nazi pilgrims). Today you can visit the Nazi Documentation Center and learn about the rise of the Nazis, and you can tour the underground bunkers, but we were only interested in the one building that was left intact -- Kehlsteinhaus, or the Eagle's Nest, situated higher up the mountain.

From the parking lot in Obersalzberg where the compound had been, there is only one way to get up to the Eagle's Nest -- by bus, unless you want to make the long, steep trip on foot, which we didn't. The road there is only one lane, so only official Eagle's Nest buses are allowed to make the drive.

When we first arrived at the parking lot, it was cold, cloudy and then it began raining. How good would the view be and was it worth paying to go up? David said, "Let me check on bus tickets. If it's too expensive, we'll skip it. There's probably not much of a view anyway." Just a few minutes later we were on a bus making the 20-minute trip up the mountain, happy to be out of the cold rain.

With each passing minute, the rain lightened a bit and blue sky began peeking through the gray clouds.

After exiting the bus, we paused briefly for some pictures and in spite of the much nicer weather we were so happy to see, it was freezing! And Emilie and Rebecca were in shorts! What kind of parents are we?

Our trip was still not complete. We would need to walk 400 feet through a creepy marble-lined tunnel to the original brass elevator that would take us the last 400 feet up to the top of the mountain.

The chalet was a gift from the Nazi Party to Adolf Hitler for his 50th birthday in 1938 and was meant to be a retreat for Hitler and a place for him to entertain visiting dignitaries. Construction of the chalet was considered an engineering feat, including carving a 6-mile long winding road out of the side of the mountain. The Eagle's Nest cost $200,000,000 and 12 lives to construct. Hitler visited less than 20 times and usually for less than 30 minutes at a time. He was apparently afraid of heights. His mistress Eva Braun, however, often entertained her friends there.

Finally at the top. Click on the photos to get the full effect.

It was unexpectedly warm up at the top.

Edelweiss cross

The former great hall is now a restaurant.

The fireplace was a gift from Mussolini. In 1945, victorious allied soldiers chipped off countless souvenirs.

This was another one of those instances where we didn't know quite how to feel being here. The views were magnificent, but my mind kept drifting back to the Orthodox Jewish family we passed in the tunnel leading to the elevator. What had they been thinking? It was strange being a tourist in a place so strongly connected to Hitler. But then I figured that this visit, walking where he walked, having a Jewish family stroll though his $200,000,000 chalet, was like symbolically thumbing our noses at him.

As our visit came to a close and we boarded the bus to descend the mountain, angry-looking clouds rolled in, obscuring the view,and it resumed raining. We had lucked out.