Wow!
The day started in minimalist mode at the Winkl-Landthal campsite where we’d left the van in a minimalist mode over night, to make a quick get away. We had wound the awning back in the night before and hadn’t even slept in the pop top.
That meant we could skedaddle really early, with hardly any tear down, and beat the rush to Eagles Nest. It was a quick “teeth brush” and “loo stop” then off the site by 8.
We’d booked a 9:20 bus, the night before, to take us from the Obersalzberg Dokumentation (Information Centre) Car Park. This is only one of the most expensive bus rides (within reason) that you can take… €31 each for a 6.5km there and 6.5km back journey. Wowzers!
But seeing as we were so keen to get out early, we’d got to the bus departure point by 8:30. We were told by the ticket office that we could ask the drivers for an earlier ride. So after waiting until the departure time to see if there was space, we managed to get on the 8:55 bus instead.
There were 4 electric busses, all in convoy, doing the 15 minute ferrying from the information centre up to the eagles rest site. The bus stopped about halfway up to let another 4 busses pass… 8 servicing the hill in total.
The bus deposited us at a drop off point 124m lower than the Kehlsteinhaus “tea room” on the top. You then had to walk about 100m along a tunnel to get to the base of a brass plated lift to take you the 124m up to the main hill top.
The tunnel is quite amazing. It is incredibly well constructed – straight and with highly precise stonework. Amazing craftsmanship.
At the hill top you exit the lift into the main “house” and then onto the walkway around the property. We took a left and headed down to a lower lookout.
As soon as you step out of the lift, you’re hit by the enormity of the landscape. You are literally sitting on top of the world. And I’m sure the sense of “commanding all you survey” was not lost on Hitler.
Unfortunately, pictures really don’t do the view justice. But hopefully some of the majesty comes through.
It’s very difficult to keep the whole experience in context. The scenery is stunning but so is the historical significance of the decisions that we being made there.
After the lower viewing point we headed back up past the house and had a coffee – upsetting the waiters in the process, by moving tables after we’d ordered. We left him a healthy tip by way of a sorry.
We then headed up to the top of the site, past the cross and to the very top of the mountain.
Those views are just staggering. You are perched on a rocky outcrop, with almost vertical cliff edges on all sides, and so you feel like you’re looking down at valleys wherever you turn. The views to lake Königsee are stunning.
We were very lucky to have a clear day with blue skies. The past two or three days have been grey, Eagles Nest would not have been the same in the rain.
Here’s a panoramic video…
Here are some more images taken at the top of the mountain…
After a Quick Look around the Haus itself…
We then headed down via the lift again to the bus pickup point. We’d spent about an hour and a half up there, including coffee.
Then it was back down the mountain again to the Information Centre. It was a lot busier when we got back to the bus pickup…
But before moving on from the top of the mountain, it’s worth pointing out that the really vile thing is that Hitler was enjoying the most breathtaking scenery whilst planning genocide.
The Background
So we picked up the following from the various information boards and the dokumentation / imformation centre at the bottom of the hill / main car park.
Hitler had been visiting the Obersalzberg region since the early 1920’s and had been using the village as a base from the 1930’s. By the time the war was in full swing, none of the locals were left (either being forced out or didn’t like what was going on). Hitler and his closest team all had houses in the village.
In 1937 Hitler ordered the construction of the road up the mountain and the building of the house at the top. It took 3800 workers 18 months to construct the 6.5km road.
As far as we could tell there was no residence at the hill top house, it was just used to entertain VIPs – it was really just a tea house.
Hitler spent more than 25% of the time he was in office in Obersalzberg, in his Berghof, and many important decisions were made there and at the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagles Nest).
We did (or at least I did about 2/3 and Sue did) the 80 minute audio guided tour at the “Dokumentation” (imformation) centre.
After that you then get to go round some of the 1km tunnels under the mountain that were built towards the end of the war when Hitler realized the allies were able to strike this far into Germany.
The bunkers are HUGE! We’ve been round the Churchill War Rooms in London and these Obersaltzburg bunkers are on a whole other scale. There’s a “blind” shaft that’s probably 8m x 8m square and is 30m deep, going to lower levels that you can’t get to on the tour.
So, that was Kehlsteinhaus – Eagle’s Nest. Easily one of the highlights of the trip. The scenery is stunning and the history earth shatteringly relevant, even today.
Königsee
Next we headed into Königsee a few km away, and the town of the lake you can see from Kehlsteinhaus / Eagle’s Nest.
We’ll probably do a lake boat trip while we’re here and we wanted to suss out the boat timetable and get sense of what a trip would entail.
It’s busy. There were hundreds of cars in the car park and we could only assume everyone was on a boat trip. Seeing as we only have Sat and Sun still here (the busiest times), we’ll have to do another early start to miss the hoards.
And then back to the campsite. We’d been out for about 7 hours and we were pooped.
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