Monday, 28 May 2012 – Drive to Berchtesgaden
Got up and got packed up and in the car and headed out of Bratislava and found a nice rest stop to get some fuel, coffee and gas station bread. Then we got on the autobahn toward Linz and Salzburg. We had decided to head straight to the luge ride we had found in a place called Bad Dürrnberg that we had found while doing online research the night before. Bad Dürrnberg was very near Berchtesgaden and the place we would be staying for the next couple of nights, Bad Reichenhall. We got there and found it temporarily closed due to impending rain on the mountain, but they told us to try back later if the weather improved. Apparently, the rain makes the brakes not work – bad if you don’t want to exit the mountain at 1,500mph, which sounds even worse in kilometers per hour.
We decided to have lunch, since it was about that time. We found a nice place, the Hofbräu Kaltenhausen near Hallein. It was a small brewery and restaurant, with a tasty local beer selection. I had roast pork with bread dumplings (very good), Lynn had bratwurst as did Brian, and Cindy had a delicious Käsespätzle (cheese Spätzle) skillet. Lisa had schnitzel. All was very good and the beer was very good too.
We decided after some discussion to go do the salt mine tour. It had started raining again, so we figured it would not matter underground. The mine was just up the road form the luge place, above the town of Hallein. We got our tickets just as a downpour began, and we escaped major soaking by mere moments. Once inside, we had time for a drink before getting started on the tour, which began be getting us suited up in some 2-piece coveralls to protect our street clothes from getting dirty. Once in line for the tour, we were loaded onto a narrow little train for the ride into the mine. Each car was very narrow – just one 2 x 6 plank wide, and we sat astraddle it in single file. They drove us into the mine a substantial distance before having us dismouont and walk another substantial distance. Eventually we entered a fairly good sized chamber where we were seated on benches to hear the tour guide’s information and to watch a short movie
From there we walked a little farther into the mine and slid down a polished wooden slide to the next level down. Luckily, no splinters, as we were in a particularly vulnerable position there. There were a few stops on the way where the mining process was explained. We slid down another slide and eventually came to a large underground pond that we took a boat across before continuing the tour. The pond was left over from the mining process where water was used to dissolve the salt so it could be pumped out, dried and purified in Hallein before being bagged and sold. A very interesting tour, and we even crossed the border between Austria and Germany a couple of times while underground.
After leaving the mine, it looked to be clearing off again, so we stopped by the sommerrodelbahn (luge) place again, and it was open. The lady waved us in. Brian, Cindy, Lynn and I decided to ride while Lisa remained to photograph anything unusual that might occur during our ride. We boarded a ski lift to the top of the mountain. The views of the Alps and surrounding area were spectacular, so guess who wasn’t carrying a camera for the ride. The luge itself was just a yellow plastic trolley sled riding on a metal rail, and it was quite steep in several places. The sled had a brake handle between the legs so you could control how fast you wanted to fall down the mountain on it. Luckily it wasn’t still wet, and it worked very well. The ride was fun, but we got slowed down to a stop about 2/3 of the way down after catching up with some namby-pamby riders that were going about as fast as you could walk. We waited for them to get mostly out of the way before starting again and finishing with a swoosh. Lisa got pictures of us as we got to the bottom. No thought of a second run, as it had clouded over again and they were closing the run again. Anyway, fun while it lasted!
We left and drove to our apartment in Bad Reichenhall. It was on a small farm and had cattle in our back yard and a wonderful view of the Alps. The apartment was quaint and had two bedrooms, one with a little walled-off cubby with two twin beds in it, so Lisa finally had some privacy.
After getting settled, we drove around to find a store to buy some water and snacks, but all we found were closed. Decided to go to dinner and found the nearby restaurant that the lady who rented us the apartment showed us on the map. It was very nice and the food was very good. Our waitress, when asked if there were any English menus said, “No, I will be your translator for everything!”
We went back to the apartment after dinner and the girls watched some TV (Mary Poppins in German, which they thought was Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang for a while). Lynn and Cindy got a serious case of the giggles before collapsing for the night. Brian, Lisa and I discussed our plan for the next day – a tour of Hitler’s Eagles’s Nest (The Kehlsteinhaus) in Berchtesgaden. Then off to bed.
Tuesday, 29 May 2012 – Berchtesgaden, Obersalzburg and the Eagle’s Nest
Got up and got some bakery treats for breakfast from the little bakery store just down the street. It was also a getränkemarkt, so we had plenty of drinks to choose from, so we got some bottled water too. We started out a bit later than usual today, so got to Berchtesgaden just before mid-day. The drive was beautiful, through a valley between large, craggy mountains. We arrived in town and parked in an underground garage almost right under the visitors center. A quick walk down to the area of the hauptbanhof got us to the Eagle’s Nest Tours office where we confirmed our reservation for the 1315 tour.
Then we walked back up the hill the way we came, and walked around the little town a little bit before finding a place to have lunch before heading back down to start the tour. We found a nice sidewalk table at a gästehaus. I had schnitzel again, while Lynn had a good tomato soup and a salad. Cindy had a very delicious creamy garlic soup and something else I don’t remember after tasting the excellent soup. Lisa had some pork in a creamy mushroom sauce, which was also very tasty. Brian had pork with a “fiery sauce” that was not so fiery after all – but was still very good.
After lunch we walked back down the hill to the tour office and got on the bus. The lady guiding the tour was very good, with lots of excellent historical background information on the local Nazi sites and on Hitler and the other senior Nazis who inhabited Obersalzburg. First we looked over some of the Obersalzburg area where the homes were, although they had all been long-since demolished and obliterated. Then we went to the Documentation Center, which was really a German language museum for young Germans to confront their fairly recent history head-on. Then we got a tour of a section of the bunker network that had been built during the latter part of the war, and then we boarded a bus for the ride to the Kehlsteinhaus on the mountain peak. The bus was built specially for the climb and return, having redundant, failsafe brakes and a special transmission for the steep climb.
The ride up was steep and the views were spectacular, even on the mostly overcast day. The bus road had been built since the 1950s, and was much shorter than the narrow, winding road used while building the place, or the old access road used by Hitler and others until the 1950s.
The house itself was not very big and is now a restaurant. Access from the parking area at the top was through a large tunnel lined with marble block to a big, brass elevator. Our whole group of about 25 fit in the car without difficulty. Once in the house, we were shunted off to a small saloon out of the restaurant where the guide could talk, and then she took us to the side porch outside and then back behind the house. We had about 40 minutes to walk around and snap photos and gawk at the views. Then we went back down the elevator to meet the bus for the ride down.
After we got down themountain we got on the original tour bus in Obersalzburg and our guide filled us in on the final disposition of the Nazis who lived in the Obersalzburg compound. Needless to say, they all either died in the war, committed suicide, or were executed for war crimes after the war. Then we were back at the starting point in town. We all really enjoyed the tour.
We headed back toward Bad Reichenhall to find some dinner. Stopped at a grocery store and picked up some water and wine for the apartment and then found a nice restaurant off the main road. Brian and I had similar dishes of pork jaeger style. His came with Knödels and mine with Spätzle. Lynn had a delicious Käsespätzle (cheese Spätzle) dish and Cindy and Lisa had things I can’t remember. Must have been good, though.
After dinner it was back to the apartment, where we sat around looking up things we had questions about from our tour and discussing the next day’s plan. Didn’t really decide on a time to get started, but Salzburg is the target. Went to bed.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012 – Salzburg
Got up and caught up writing this journal while others still slept. Checked out the weather and Salzburg sights online. By 0730, still no sign of the Johnsons, so Lynn, Lisa and I walked down to the corner bakery and picked up some stuff for breakfast and brought it back to the apartment. When we got back, Brian had emerged from his cocoon and was ready for coffee.
We got another late start and left the apartment a little before 1000. Salzburg was nearby, so was only about a 20 minute drive, but then it took us an equal amount of time to make our way into the old town and find a place to park. Every turn seemed to aim us at another way not to get into the city. Finally we broke the code and got it.
Walked through Kapitelplatz to the funicular to get up to the castle. Once up there we picked up audio handsets and went on a tour of the fortress. It was very interesting and we got some great views of the city from up high. After the tour, we walked through the museum in the fortress.
By then we were ready for lunch and found an interesting Indian-Italian place. Odd combination, but it was very nice. I had a chicken curry plate, Lisa had pizza and Lynn had a spaghetti dish. Cindy had soup and salad again and Brian had pizza too.
Feeling refreshed, we picked up a better tour map and walked around to the various sights. After a while, Lynn and Cindy elected to split off and go shopping. Brian, Lisa and I continued surveying the various interesting things to see, including the Siegmundstor highway tunnel through Mönchsberg. Very interesting, and even more so, since it was built in the 1760s. We walked to both of Mozart’s houses in town; first the one where he was born and then one where he lived later. Then we met Lynn and Cindy in an outside cafe for beer and wine before continuing.
Left the city about 1800 and headed back toward Bad Reichenhall, but wanted to take a side trip to Oberndorf where the hymn, “Silent Night” was written. We finally got the GPS familiar with the place and got on our way. It was clouding over like it we were going to get some heavy rain soon, so it was very dusk-like when we got there. The original church on the site had been destroyed by fire long ago, but a small chapel had been built more or less on the same site. We walked from the chapel to the river bank and looked across at Germany.
Then we went in search of dinner, and found a local brewery and beer hall – where Augustiner beer was made. It was a large, open and noisy place where you go to a window to order your food and then carry it back to a table. there were 5 of us, so we did not have to share a table with anyone, although that certainly would not have deterred us in the least. Brian went to get beer and that was also self service. You pick up a steain and rinse it out. Then hand it to a fellow to fill up from a large wooden beer barrel. Vary tasty stuff indeed! As for the food, I had a pork shank (schweinshaxe) cut up with knödeln and gravy – very good. Brian and Cindy had barbecued ribs and Lynn and Lisa had wursts. All said they enjoyed their food.
After dinner we went back to the apartment and did our usual daily research and checked the news for what had been going on in the world, then went to bed.
Click here to continue as we finish our trip: Kufstein, Munich and Returning Home
To be continued…