Berchtesgaden, Germany

Ahh, the soul crushing traffic that is Europe in July. We had good music, food and water and good attitudes, which made all the difference. Unfortunately, we did have to stop to go to the bathroom and refuel the car once, which was an experience. The line to the womens' toilets was out the room, down the stairs and out the building. Naturally, there was no line for the mens' room. I would have bailed when I saw the line, but I REALLY had to go, and the way traffic was going, we weren't going to get there soon, no matter what our friend the Garmin was telling us.


But have no fear, we did finally arrive, and what a sight awaited us. We were privileged to be able to stay at the Hotel zum Tuerken, which not only survived the Allied bombing in 1945 but was also the only property successfully regained by the original owner. The hotel was confiscated during WWII by the Nazi's because of location - it was right next door to Hitler's mountain home called the Berghof (translated to the Mountain Farm). Hitler's security force was housed here and they successfully closed off the community to anyone but the SS elite. The current owner is the daughter of the woman who reclaimed the hotel after the war. She is a fantastic, energetic, hospitable woman. This is the first time I have really felt like I was staying in someone's home while in a hotel - in a good way. We stayed in the room on the right in the middle section that has a balcony.


This was the view from our balcony. We splurged to get the "Room with a View" and it was worth it; we spent as much time out there as we could. The mountain air was lovely.


This guard-post, surviving from WWII, stands at the front of the property. It suggests the architecture that lies beneath. Martin Bormann, Hitler's personal secretary and leader of the Party Chancellery, had bunkers built beneath the homes in the area to protect their high profile owners.


The great thing about where we were staying is that Frau Schaufenberg let us not only go down into the bunkers below the property, but also gave us permission to take as many pictures (for personal use) as we wanted. I included only this one picture out of respect for her (even though this blog is personal for us, we didn't want pictures to get out on the Internet that then we couldn't control.) We had the bunkers to ourselves and were amazed by how eery it felt being there. It was quiet and damp and remarkably well fortified. There were machine gun nests at every staircase, well enclosed with 3 machine guns per nest. There was one hole in the walls that was labeled as being made by a tank. It gave us a glimpse of the amount of rebar and cement used, and it is a serious structure. The most interesting sign was next to one bricked up doorway that led to the entrance of what was once Hitler's house. It was wet and cold and fascinating. Being able to walk in the footsteps of history adds a dimension of understanding impossible through just reading. We felt really privileged to get this chance.

As soon as we exited the bunkers, we saw this door across the street. This was one of the exits of said bunkers, either from the Hotel zum Tuerken or from one of the surrounding buildings that were destroyed.


We decided to take a hike on one of the many trails around our hotel next - after 5+ hours in the car it felt good to stretch our legs. (And the scenery was just fantastic.)


More bunker doors. We discovered later that once the buildings were destroyed, the Bavarian government leveled the area and quickly planted fast growing trees in order to avoid "Brown tourism," which is defined as people coming to glorify the Nazi officials and government previously based here. It was a little disconcerting just "stumbling" upon these, and I can appreciate the locals not wanting to encourage the wrong kind of site seeing.


I really love this pic of D. My mountain man.


We hiked up the mountain to the peak, where the Intercontinental Hotel currently resides, and soaked in the beautiful sky. Peaceful, relaxing, gorgeous, just what we needed. I could have just looked around for hours, everywhere you turned, it was another glorious village, farm or field. We even heard the cows - yes, heard, didn't see, they were wearing their cow bells, so fantastic.


And this is the view from the Intercontinental peak of Kehlsteinhaus, otherwise known as "The Eagle's Nest." (You can just make it out up at the top.) The building blends in exceptionally well with the terrain, which turns out to be a great advantage to the survival of the site. In 1945, the Royal Air Force (RAF - the British) bombed the SS community of Obersalzburg and intended to hit the Eagle's Nest as well. There are 2 theories why Kehlsteinhaus survived, one, that it blended into the terrain so well that the pilots couldn't see it in order to bomb it or, two, that the RAF was skilled at large target bombing and since the US Air Force were the small target specialists, they just missed. Option one is kinder. Either way, I am grateful that it remains.


The Eagle's Nest was a gift to Adolf Hitler from Martin Bormann and the Nazi party on his 50th birthday. It isn't a house, it doesn't have bedrooms. The intention of the building was to entertain and impress foreign dignitaries. The construction was a remarkable feat accomplished in only 13 months. There were considerable obstacles involved - the remote location, transportation needs to Obersalzburg (then, not to mention, up the mountain!), challenges regarding water and electricity, combating the weather, and so on. We enjoyed the our view until it became clear that we needed to hurry back to our hotel - once the sun goes down here, there are no street lamps and it gets dark, dark, dark. So, off to dinner and a good night's sleep and tomorrow, first thing, off to visit the top of the mountain and this remarkable feat of building.